Search results

The purpose of this paper is to explore the awareness and practice responsible lobbying in the EU. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which responsible lobbying criteria are fulfilled and to investigate whether responsible lobbying yields concrete benefits in the political arena.

The study takes a quantitative approach combining descriptive and multivariate partial least squares (PLS) analysis based on data gained from an online survey among lobbyists in the EU. A new measurement instrument for responsible lobbying is used that grasps the multidimensional phenomenon with a formative-formative higher-order construct.

The study reveals that criteria of responsible lobbying are fulfilled to a large extent according to the lobbyists. The PLS analysis confirms the applicability of the multidimensional model of responsible lobbying, although there is only a weak link between Dimension (1), referring to the company’s stated corporate social responsibility (CSR) commitment and coherence with lobbying and the second-order construct responsible lobbying. Based on the information given by respondents, the analysis provides evidence for a positive impact of responsible lobbying on both lobbying success and corporate reputation, but also for the dependence of these two variables on additional factors.

Responsible lobbying as an aligned approach to CSR and lobbying is a long neglected research topic, which has been gaining interest recently. This study contributes to empirical knowledge on the awareness and practice of responsible lobbying in the EU by taking a quantitative approach based on a solid theoretical foundation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the institutional context on the awareness and practice of responsible lobbying and to compare relevant factors in the USA and the EU. This paper aims at integrating corporate social responsibility (CSR) and lobbying research.

A conceptual framework is presented and exemplified by the USA and the EU context. The research is informed by institutional theory that points to external factors creating profoundly different contexts in which firms operate.

The degree of responsible lobbying is likely to vary across nations and regions, particularly due to factors that impact responsible lobbying by shaping the relation between the state and firms, i.e. type of government and lobbying system as well as degree of government intervention, and factors that have indirect effects by shaping the degree to which stakeholders such as employees, consumers and non-governmental organizations push responsible lobbying.

The link between lobbying and CSR has been long neglected by scholars and practitioners, but is now gaining more attention. Research on this topic is valuable because it helps to ensure the credibility of CSR and alleviate public criticism of lobbying.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is often characterized as a voluntary approach, but CSR policy is on the rise: Governments have started to promote CSR by raising awareness, launching partnerships and platforms, providing financial incentives and requiring environmental and social reporting (Albareda, Lozano, & Tamyko, 2007; Gond, Kang, & Moon, 2011; Steurer, 2010; Steurer, Martinuzzi, & Margula, 2012). This chapter describes how the German government facilitates CSR, that is it analyses the main instruments at the national level and takes a look at the motivation of the German government.

Based on the framework of CSR policy developed by Steurer, Margula, and Berger (2008) and Steurer (2010), the chapter examines CSR initiatives in five areas: informational or endorsing instruments, partnering instruments, hybrid instruments, financial or economic instruments and soft legal instruments. The analysis rests on a documentary review of various sources referencing German CSR initiatives.

German CSR policy comprises all sorts of instruments, whereas hybrid instruments play an important role: the Strategy for Sustainable Development, the National CSR Forum and National Action Plan on CSR as well as the National Action Plan for Business and Human Rights.

This chapter contributes to the rising literature on public policies on CSR by discussing the manifold measures that the German government has developed to support CSR.

Social networking sites (SNS) are enjoying growing popularity and have triggered new ethical issues including risks of deception, social grooming, cyber-bullying and surveillance. This development along with the growing power of SNS providers calls for an investigation of the CSR engagement of SNS companies. The chapter examines to what extent three prominent providers – Google, Facebook and Twitter – fulfill their responsibilities.

The chapter draws heavily on a politicized concept of CSR, namely ‘corporate citizenship’ (Crane, Matten, & Moon, 2008a; Matten & Crane, 2005) and ‘political CSR’ (Scherer & Palazzo, 2007, 2011) and discusses the role SNS providers play in administering citizenship rights. The chapter takes a qualitative case study approach.

Facebook, Twitter and Google have not only made clear commitments to act responsibly, they actually enhance the citizenship status of their users in many ways, e.g. by offering a platform for democracy activists. Deficiencies and contradictions also become visible, e.g. SNS providers inhibit citizenship by failing to provide sufficient privacy protection.

The chapter is limited by its case study approach, but provides valuable insights to an industry with considerable influence. It contributes to CSR research by applying and testing the politicized concept of CSR in the context of SNS providers.

Although SNS have received appraisal as effective tools of CSR communication, there has been little attention to CSR policy and practice of the companies providing social networks. This is unfortunate since the activities of SNS providers directly impact on millions of users worldwide.

This chapter is to introduce to the reader the background, purpose, core themes and structure of the volume. Brief summaries of all the following chapters in the book are provided.

Literature review and desk research.

This chapter suggests that CSR communication as a cross-section of communication studies and CSR research should be highlighted as an important subject of inquiry to bridge the communicative gap between businesses and their stakeholders as well as the public at large. An initial theoretical framework on CSR communication is presented.

A general research direction is provided for CSR communication. It encourages more future scholarly studies in this emerging and fascinating field.

The overall purpose is to help grow knowledge and develop understanding of the ways in which businesses communicate CSR.

It is the first time in the field of CSR communication that a relatively comprehensive and systematic framework is presented. The chapters that follow in the book cover many contents of the framework.

This paper aims to examine whether increasing the salience of the internal auditor’s professional identity, defined by the expectations of their professional group, increases internal auditors’ judgments of the severity of internal control concerns when their organizational identity is high.

This paper tests the hypothesis using a laboratory experiment with internal auditors as participants.

The results support the hypothesis that professional identity salience moderates the relation between organizational identity and the assessed severity of identified internal control weaknesses. Increasing the salience of professional identity results in a more severe assessment of identified internal control weaknesses when organizational identity is high than when it is low.

Prior research in the lab and in the field provides mixed results about the impact of organizational identity on internal auditors’ judgments of the severity of identified internal control concerns. This paper contributes to the discussion on this issue. In addition, the results have implications for the debate about the benefits and costs of in-house versus out-sourced internal audit functions.