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This paper aims to assess the risks and challenges of corporate social responsibility (CSR) management in the Indian-mandated CSR ecosystem from a service purchaser–supplier dualistic perspective and the role management control systems (MCS) and social capital play in managing such risks and challenges.

This study undertook a qualitative approach that involved in-depth interviews of 22 CSR directors, managers or chief executive officers from 13 central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) that had purchased CSR services and nine managers of non-government organisations (NGOs) serving as CSR suppliers. Data analysis was founded on the principal–agent and social capital theoretical perspectives.

A highly bureaucratic, time-pressured mandated environment poses several goal congruence and adverse selection threats to outsourced CSR project arrangements. A mix of formal and informal control mechanisms is critical for enhancing trust or bonding between service purchasers and service providers and enriching bridging capital or access to resources derived from interpersonal connections between NGOs and communities.

NGOs and CPSEs may benefit from understanding each other’s goals and culture and using appropriate formal and informal MCS for managing CSR expectations and outcomes.

Drawing on a unique mandatory CSR regime, this study offers principal–agent and social capital perspectives on CSR programme delivery, highlighting the importance of various formal and informal MCS in lowering agency costs in outsourced CSR relationships.

Although there is growing acknowledgment of the business case for diversity, efforts to recognize diversity as a strategic issue and to implement diversity initiatives have often been thwarted. We note that diversity is a “hot” issue not only because of the increasing attention being paid by both academics and practitioners, but also because of its potential to evoke strong emotions. We argue that “diversity” makes salient different identities (organizational, group, and individual) leading to different interpretations that can evoke specific emotional and behavioral reactions. This may help to explain whether top management teams identify and invest in diversity as a strategic issue, and whether diversity initiatives are supported or resisted by different groups and individuals throughout the organization. Thus it is important for global leaders to understand the role of identities in how diversity as a strategic issue may be interpreted and responded to by key decision-makers as well as those concerned with the implementation of diversity initiatives.

The purpose of this paper is: to determine how offshore outsourcing firms in the USA are involved in providing assistance to education and training the downsized/unemployed; and to conduct inter‐industry comparisons among offshore outsourcing firms to determine if there are differences in their degree of involvement in assisting education and training the downsized/unemployed.

This research is based on a survey of 51 firms in the USA that are listed as major offshore outsourcers and exporters of American jobs in “CNN's Lou Dobbs Exporting America website”.

The findings show that out of eight areas of corporate social activities included in the survey, offshore outsourcing firms indicated that they were least involved in providing or supporting training programs to the downsized/unemployed. However, we also found that offshore outsourcing firms were highly involved in providing assistance to charities and supporting private and public education.

The response rate in this survey was similar to other response rates for research conducted on similar topics. However, the sample size for the study is relatively small and results from larger sample sizes are required to make empirical generalizations with confidence.

The findings of this study are useful for USA policy makers who are dealing with the negative effects of offshoring. It also provides direction to offshoring firms on how to alleviate negative attitudes toward offshore outsourcing.

The paper is the first to investigate the contributions of offshore outsourcing firms to education and training the downsized/unemployed as part of their corporate social responsibility. Thus, it makes a significant contribution to the literature.

The literature on public procurement (PP) has increased significantly in recent years, and, to date, several reviews have been conducted to study this relevant subject. Nevertheless, a bibliometric analysis of the PP knowledge domain is still missing. To fill this knowledge gap, a bibliometric review is carried out to investigate the current state of PP research.

A total of 640 journal articles are selected from the Scopus database for the final analysis. The performance indicators of the literature are identified and explained through bibliometric analysis. Furthermore, the conceptual and intellectual structures are studied through a keyword co-occurrence network and bibliographic coupling.

The results of the review indicate that PP research has increased significantly in recent years. The top ten most productive journals, countries, authors and academic institutions are identified. The findings from the keyword co-occurrence network reveal six main research themes including innovation, corruption and green public procurement (GPP). By applying bibliographic coupling, the focus of PP research revolves around seven thematic areas: GPP, corruption, the role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in PP, electronic PP, innovation, labour standards and service acquisition. The research potential of each thematic area is evaluated using a model based on maturity and recent attention (RA).

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to successfully organise, synthesise and quantitatively analyse the development of the PP domain amongst a large number of publications on a large time scale.

Wonders whether companies actually have employees best interests at heart across physical, mental and spiritual spheres. Posits that most organizations ignore their workforce – not even, in many cases, describing workers as assets! Describes many studies to back up this claim in theis work based on the 2002 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference, in Cardiff, Wales.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

Owing to the changing roles of business enterprises in social life, the term “corporate social responsibilty” has received growing interest both in the related literature and in practical applications. Although the framework of the term is still debatable, it is acknowledged that the issues involved in the concept have significant functions for society as a whole and for the business enterprises involved.

The purpose of this paper is to get a deeper understanding how not-for-profit organizations (NPOs) discursively legitimize their corporate engagement through cross-sector partnerships (CSPs) in general, and particularly how they construct legitimacy for partnering with firms involved in the commodification of water. The paper seeks to shed light on the values embedded in these discursive accounts and the kind of societal effects and power relations they generate, and the authors are particularly interested in understanding the role of modernity in shaping their responsibilities (or lack of them) via various technologies and practices

Drawing on critical discourse analysis (Fairclough 1995), the authors analyze the discursive accounts of three water-related CSPs involving the three biggest bottled water producers in the world (Nestlé, Coca-Cola and Danone) and three major non-profits (The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the World Wildlife Foundation and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).

The NPO’s legitimate their corporate engagement in the water CSPs through the use of two global discourses: global governance discourse and the global climate crisis discourse. Relief from responsibility is achieved through three processes: replacement of moral with technical responsibility, denial of proximity and the usage of intermediaries to whom responsibility is outsourced.

This paper explores the processes of legitimizing accounts for CSPs, particularly focusing on NPO discourse and their use of CSR elements and the consequences of such discursive constructs, and this has received little to no attention in previous research.