GHG-intensive firms in the energy and industrial sectors are the source of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions recognized as the major cause of climate change. Not surprisingly, these firms are under pressure, notably from stakeholders and regulatory agencies, to reduce GHG emissions. Does this pressure have an impact on the environmental-friendly efforts and strategies of […]
Read More… from Stakeholder Pressure Leads to Significant Environmental Strategy Adoption
In their research, Afshin Mehrpouya of HEC Paris and Imran Chowdhury of Pace University explore the mechanisms, and importantly the assumptions behind the mechanisms, involved in transforming social responsibility (CSR) into financial performance (CFP). A closer look at those assumptions reveals why socially responsible behaviour is not always reflected in better financial results. They first […]
Read More… from Doing Good’ Does Not Always Improve the Bottom Line
‘Greenwashing’ is a new term that describes the actions of companies whose corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities prove to be more window-dressing than action. Two Michigan Ross professors, Jun Li and Di (Andrew) Wu used a set of databases as proxies to answer a complex and important question: Does corporate social responsibility really benefit society? […]
In a seminal 2011 Harvard Business Review article, Michael Porter and Mark Kramer urged companies to abandon the ‘old narrow view of capitalism’ in which the sole purpose of companies is to make profits. Instead of focusing exclusive on share value, they argued, corporations have a duty to also address the challenges of society — […]
Read More… from How to Create Shared Value for the Firm and Society
In 2015, Coca-Cola Enterprises Great Britain and Cranfield University collaborated to launch a project on ‘Sustainable Manufacturing for the Future.’ The first phase of the project was a roundtable discussion that led to six themes: People, Big Data, Technology, Collaboration, Value and Resilience. This phase is covered in Idea 652. Once the themes were identified, […]
Read More… from Sustainable Manufacturing Part 2: Five Pathways
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) represented a first step in recognizing that business had a societal role to play that extended beyond simply making a profit. Today, the thinking has evolved from the ‘doing good’ mindset of CSR to a ‘doing what is necessary’ mindset embodied in the concept of ‘sustainability.’ Sustainability — the ambition to […]
Read More… from Sustainable Manufacturing Part 1: People, Technology and Collaboration
Corporate sustainability has become mainstream. Few companies would argue today – as they argued in the past – that the only responsibility companies have to society is to make a profit. Today, corporations proudly describe their social responsibility initiatives. Nardia Haigh of the School of Business at University of Massachusetts, Boston and Andrew Hoffman of […]
Read More… from Sustainability-driven Hybrid Companies Challenge Business Dogma
That low-income purchasers face challenges in the marketplace is no surprise, given that they have less money to spend than other groups. However, low-income buyers face an additional, unexpected challenge: based on their financial circumstances, low-income buyers are judged much more harshly by others for making identical purchases. This is most evident with purchases that […]
Read More… from Why Buying Green Is Not Considered Ethical if You Are Poor
What is the role of social movements in inspiring or sparking corporate social responsibility? To answer this question, Panayiotis Georgallis of the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise builds on the academic research related to social movements and to corporate social responsibility, which are two distinct fields of research. Social movements are […]
Read More… from How Social Movements Spark Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives
The business literature almost unanimously presents a simple, positive picture of the beneficent effects of corporate social responsibility on customer attitudes toward the corporation. Through a series of four quantitative studies involving more than 4,000 customers and participants, a team of researchers revealed the much more ambiguous reality of how customers view companies that engage […]
Read More… from When Customers Can See More Cost than Benefit in CSR
