The Role of Governments in the Business and Society Debate

2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 527-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolay A. Dentchev ◽  
Elvira Haezendonck ◽  
Mitchell van Balen
Keyword(s):  
Business Ethics ◽  
Business Strategy ◽  
Corporate Social Performance ◽  
Government Intervention ◽  
Social Performance ◽  
Business And Society ◽  
Role Of Government ◽  
Society Business ◽  
Broad Variety

The role of governments in business and society (B&S) research remains underexplored. The generally accepted principle of voluntarism, which frames responsible business conduct as an unregulated subject under managerial discretion, accounts for this gap. Paradoxically, there are sufficient acknowledgments in academia and practice on different roles of governments. The present article identifies three broad topics for research, addressing (a) the paradox between the principle of voluntarism and the role of governments in B&S, (b) the boundaries of governments and business in their contribution to B&S issues, and (c) the mechanisms of government intervention that affect corporate social performance. The authors approach the first topic with a literature review of 703 articles marked with the term “government” from five journals in the field ( Business & Society, Business Ethics: A European Review, Business Ethics Quarterly, Business Strategy and the Environment, and Journal of Business Ethics) between 1982 and 2011. This study indicates that the principle of voluntarism remains, despite the broad variety of research related to the role of government in B&S. In addition, the identified content provides deeper insight into the mechanisms of government intervention and on the boundaries of governments in the B&S discourse. This article then provides a summary of the other three research articles included in this special research forum, with a contribution oriented toward the latter two research avenues posited.

scholarly journals Corporate Social Performance, Financialization, and Real Investment in US Manufacturing Firms

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1836 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastiano Cupertino ◽  
Costanza Consolandi ◽  
Alessandro Vercelli
Keyword(s):  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Corporate Social Performance ◽  
Social Performance ◽  
Corporate Sustainability ◽  
Manufacturing Firms ◽  
Business And Society ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
Real Investment

In recent years, the global financial and economic crisis are rewriting the relationship between business and society, focusing, among other things, on the role of the process of financialization, not only in the economy as a whole but also within non-financial companies. Shareholder value maximization, together with the commoditization of business, has led to a general short-term approach at the expense of capital accumulation and core business activity, to the detriment of not only firms’ competitiveness and productivity but also of human capital, strategic innovation, business ethics, and long-term growth. Within this framework, this study investigates the role of corporate sustainability, analyzing the nexus between financialization, accumulation of real capital, and corporate social performance, an issue that has been neglected so far. Using a sample of US manufacturing firms from 2002 to 2017, we found that, while financialization was negatively correlated with corporate real investment, the environmental and social firm performance positively impacted corporate capital accumulation. Our results support the belief that a focus on environmental, social, and governance standards, fostering real investments, may enhance a firm’s long-term growth with a positive effect on its long-term value.

The Steamboat, Safety and the State: Government Reaction to New Technology in a Period of Laissez-Faire

2011 ◽  
pp. 51-74
Author(s):  
John Armstrong ◽  
David M. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
State Government ◽  
Government Intervention ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Steam Power ◽  
Role Of Government ◽  
Government Response ◽  
Laissez Faire ◽  
The Government

This chapter explores the government reaction to steam power and the issues of public safety that surrounded it. In particular, it questions the lack of prominent government intervention until the middle of the nineteenth century. It studies the economic advantages of steam over sail; the new hazards associated with steam power and the causes and rates of accidents; the call for government intervention which grew out of these hazards; an analysis of the lack of government response to this pressure for close to thirty years; and a study and assessment of the action eventually taken. It concludes by bringing these points together and places them into the wider context of maritime safety, the role of government, the problematic aspects of laissez-faire politics, and the difficulties inherent in the transition to new technology.

Corporate Social Responsibility, Irresponsibility, and Citizenship

2021 ◽  
pp. 830-846
Author(s):  
Duane Windsor
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Corporate Social Performance ◽  
Corporate Citizenship ◽  
Social Performance ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Business And Society ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Corporate Social

This article explains the three related conceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate social irresponsibility (CSiR), and corporate citizenship. The three conceptions involve different approaches for answering the overarching question of the appropriate relationship between “business and society”. The article lays out the basics of the three conceptions; and contrasts economic, ethical, and strategic perspectives on these three conceptions. The article connects the three conceptions to corporate social performance (CSP), corporate governance, and stakeholder theory. The author provides the reader with a guide to the extant literature in a way that will facilitate further exploration into key issues. The author proposes some recommendations and solutions for addressing key problems in the field; and suggests future research directions. The article emphasizes key contributions to the development of the field. Work of important authors such as A. B. Carroll, Milton Friedman, Michael E. Porter, and Donna J. Wood among others receives attention.

scholarly journals The role of government intervention in financial development: micro‐evidence from China

2019 ◽  
Vol 59 (5) ◽  
pp. 2855-2878 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lingbing Feng ◽  
Tong Fu ◽  
Nicholas Apergis ◽  
Hu Tao ◽  
Wu Yan
Keyword(s):  
Financial Development ◽  
Government Intervention ◽  
Role Of Government

scholarly journals Continuity or Change in Business Representation in Britain? An Assessment of the Heseltine Initiatives of the 1990s

2008 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 998-1015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Greaves
Keyword(s):  
Government Intervention ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Logical System ◽  
Business Associations ◽  
Role Of Government ◽  
Business Association

Britain has a fragmented, overlapping, and underresourced system of business representation. Attempts at reform, however, have proved difficult and largely unsuccessful. A coherent and logical system is relevant, in terms of both an effective dialogue between government and business, and the promotion of competitiveness and productivity. Through interviews and archival evidence, I look at how government has attempted to reform business associations. The main focus is the Heseltine initiatives of the 1990s: I outline the various initiatives taken, reveal the extent to which policy represented continuity or change, and consider whether the initiatives were effective. I show that they had a degree of success but that they would have made greater impact if they had been sustained over a longer period of time. A consideration of the historical context, moreover, suggests there may be limits to the role of government intervention in business association reform.

scholarly journals Legitimacy, Visibility, and the Antecedents of Corporate Social Performance: An Investigation of the Instrumental Perspective

2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 1558-1585 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shih-Chi Chiu ◽  
Mark Sharfman
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Theory ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
Cost Of Capital ◽  
Corporate Social Performance ◽  
Social Performance ◽  
Organizational Slack ◽  
Multiple Stakeholders ◽  
Corporate Social

Using institutional theory as the foundation, this study examines the role of organizational visibility from a variety of sources (i.e., slack visibility, industry visibility, and visibility to multiple stakeholders) in influencing corporate social performance (CSP). The conceptual framework offers important insights regarding the instrumental motives of managers in performing CSP initiatives. Based on a sample of 124 S&P 500 firms, the authors found that it is a firm’s visibility to stakeholders, rather than its economic performance, that has the larger impact on managers’ decisions regarding how much CSP their firms exhibit. The results show that more profitable firms may not be motivated to engage actively in CSP unless they are under greater scrutiny by various firm stakeholders. The authors also found that organizational slack (estimated as cost of capital) is positively associated with a Social CSP dimension but negatively associated with a Strategic CSP dimension. This research contributes to the current CSP literature by demonstrating that motivations in addition to normative or ethical ones may be at play in the decisions firms make regarding their CSP.

Institutional Logics in the Study of Organizations: The Social Construction of the Relationship between Corporate Social and Financial Performance

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 409-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Orlitzky
Keyword(s):  
Business Ethics ◽  
Financial Performance ◽  
Corporate Social Performance ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Institutional Logics ◽  
Business And Society ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
The Relationship

ABSTRACT:This study examines whether the empirical evidence on the relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance (CFP) differs depending on the publication outlet in which that evidence appears. This moderator meta-analysis, based on a total sample size of 33,878 observations, suggests that published CSP-CFP findings have been shaped by differences in institutional logics in different subdisciplines of organization studies. In economics, finance, and accounting journals, the average correlations were only about half the magnitude of the findings published in Social Issues in Management, Business Ethics, or Business and Society journals (mean corrected correlation coefficientof .22 vs. .49, respectively). Specifically, economists did not find null or negative CSP-CFP correlations, and average findings published in general management outlets (= .41) were closer to Social Issues in Management, Business Ethics, and Business and Society results than to findings reported in economics, finance, and accounting journals.

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