Some Considerations Regarding the Social Responsibility of Entrepreneurs in the European Union

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-35
Author(s):  
Mirela Matei ◽  
Marian Catalin Voica

The concept of corporate social responsibility is in constant development. It passes from the sphere of large transnational companies to the smaller sized companies, in the field of SMEs. Although SMEs don’t have the impact of great corporations, they have a duty to carry out social responsibility programs. An SME, as a singular unit, does not have the social impact of transnational corporations, but the large number of SMEs creates a social impact comparable to the one generated by large corporations. Due to competitive pressures, large transnational companies have outsourced some activities. SMEs that have taken over these activities have taken over responsibility for social programs to offset the negative effects arising

This chapter focuses on the analysis of the efforts made by the European Union authorities to encourage companies in the process of promoting sustainable development and involvement in various CSR actions. On the one hand, at the EU level, many regulations provide the general framework for the voluntary development of CSR programs. On the other hand, public institutions are involved in meeting sustainable development objectives set at the European and international levels. The tools are numerous, having a higher degree of adaptability depending on the company size, activities, and origin of the capital. Over time, the concerns of European institutions have intensified and have targeted not only the social responsibility of companies but also of public authorities, which through specific instruments can impose certain conduct on companies. The companies paid particular attention to ensure the communication of the actions taken and the results obtained with different categories of stakeholders.


Author(s):  
C. F. Paunescu (Petre) ◽  
M. Man

The development of each organization is an objective based on three basic pillars: economic development, social development and environmental protection. This macroeconomic objective can be joined by various microeconomic objectives, including the global performance made out of the organization's financial performance and social performance, its sustainability and social responsibility. The article aims to find answers to the following questions: Is there a relationship between the financial performance and the social performance of an organization? And if there is this relationship between the financial performance and the social performance of the organization, how is it, positive or negative? Understanding the social impact on both the financial performance and the sustainability of the organization has been the subject of numerous studies focusing on the nature of the interaction between organizations' ability to achieve a high level of corporate social responsibility on the one hand and the financial performance on the other.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 370-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haifa Chtourou ◽  
Mohamed Triki

Purpose The purpose of this study is to measure the impact of commitment in corporate social responsibility (CSR) in its various forms (CSR philanthropy/ altruism, CSR integration and CSR innovation) on the financial performance as measured by certain ratios. Design/methodology/approach Thus, on the basis of a theoretically constructed questionnaire administered to 82 responsibles (general managers, human resources managers and CSR responsibles) operating in four business areas, the authors have developed the extent of the overall CSR commitment and the extent of commitment by CSR action type. Findings The examination of the impact of the CSR commitment on the financial performance has partially approved the social impact assumption. Indeed, only the positive effect of CSR philanthropy is demonstrated. Otherwise, for integrated and innovative actions, the low involvement in these actions in relation to philanthropic ones could explain the lack of significant association. But this result is also important, as it marks the lack of any negative effects. Even if they do not result in a better financial performance, these commitments do not bring harm to the firm. As for the strategic approach predominance on the altruistic approach, this hypothesis is checked only in the case of firms operating in the chemical sector. Research limitations/implications The main limitation of the study is the limited size of the total sample and the sample by industry, so the authors expect a larger sample might be able to provide more meaningful results. Practical implications Then, the study suggests the importance of implementing real CSR strategies for firms that often find doubt and ambiguity when they decide to undertake social actions. However, these results do not mean that companies must refrain from driving altruistic or philanthropic activities but are encouraged to seek a social performance that suits a certain level of integration and innovation. Social implications The most important of all the above is that the negative impact of social actions is not verified in any way, allowing to state that the social actions do not exert a negative effect on the financial performance. So, participation in social problems do not bring harm to the firm. Originality/value The originality of this work comes from: the measure of CSR commitment, and the use of a classification typology of CSR actions in terms of their interaction with the core of the firm’s business as developed by Halme (2009). In fact, based on a theoretically constructed questionnaire, the authors have developed two measures of responsible commitment (level of commitment and intensity of commitment) of some industrial Tunisian firms.


Author(s):  
N.K. Gupta ◽  
Shilki Bhatia

In India, corporate social responsibility and its disclosure got attention during the eighties and have been gaining importance with time in present economic environment, especially after adoption of liberalization, privatization, and globalization (LPG) (Goswami, 2011). Guidelines, principles, and codes are being developed by various regulatory bodies in India and across the globe to increase transparency and accountability about both a companys daily operations and the impact of these operations on society (Tran, 2014) In this paper, the author has studied the CSR guidelines laid down by Global Reporting Initiative G3.1 (GRI-G-3) and The National Voluntary Guidelines by Ministry of Corporate Affairs (NVG-MCA) and has compared them with a self-composed CSR Disclosure Index (CSRDI). The social responsibility initiatives taken by select Indian Automotive Companies have been analyzed and the companies have been rated as per the disclosures made by them. The main focus of the research is to compare the CSR Rankings of companies as per CSRDI with the companies rankings as per GRI-G-3 and NVG-MCA. It was observed that out of 30 sensex companies, Maruti Suzuki and TATA Motors have been the pioneers in contribution towards CSR initiatives. The top five rated companies were TATA Motors, Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra and Mahindra, Hero Motocorp, Bajaj Auto, and Apollo Tyres.


2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanh Thi Song Pham ◽  
Hien Thi Tran

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the effects of board model and board independence on corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure of multinational corporations (MNCs). Design/methodology/approach The authors developed an empirical model in which CSR disclosure is the dependent variable and board model (two-tier vs one-tier), board independence (a proportion of independent directors on a board) and the interaction variable of board model and board independence together with several variables conventionally used as control variables are independent variables. The authors collated the panel dataset of 244 Fortune World’s Most Admired (FWMA) corporations from 2005 to 2011 of which 117 MNCs use the one-tier board model, and 127 MNCs use the two-tier board model from 20 countries. They used the random-effect regression method to estimate the empirical models with the data they collated and also ran regressions on the alternative models for robustness check. Findings The authors found a significantly positive effect of a board model on CSR disclosure by MNCs. Two-tier MNCs tend to reveal more CSR information than one-tier MNCs. The results also confirm the significant moderating impact of board model on the effect of board independence on CSR disclosure. The effect of board independence on CSR disclosure in the two-tier board MNCs tends to be higher than that in the one-tier board MNCs. The results do not support the effect of board independence on CSR disclosure in general for all types of firms (one-tier and two-tier board). The impact of board independence on CSR disclosure is only significant in two-tier board MNCs and insignificant in one-tier board MNCs. Practical implications The authors advise the MNCs who wish to improve CSR reporting and transparency to consider the usage of two-tier board model and use a higher number of outside directors on board. They note that once a firm uses one-tier model, number of IDs on a board does not matter to the level of CSR disclosure. They advise regulators to enforce an application of two-tier board model to improve CSR reporting and transparency in MNCs. The authors also recommend regulators to continue mandating publicly traded companies to include more external members on their boards, especially for the two-tier board MNCs. Originality/value This paper is the first that investigates the role of board model on CSR disclosure of MNCs.


Author(s):  
Mohamed Abualhaija DBA

Many believe that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is irrelevant and bad for businesses, while others swear of its strategic importance for the overall growth of local and global economies. This paper examines the impact of technology on corporates morals and social responsibility. Companies like GE and Nike direct resources and strategies to strengthen the environment and local and global communities. Through improving education programs and investing in technology, these companies attempt to fulfill their social responsibilities to all communities. Companies use corporate social responsibility to build a reputation and a brand name. Through technology exports, the world’s economy is synchronized. Creating and sharing technology enhances the world’s productivity and economy, mainly because developing countries are incapable of investing much in R&D. As the infusion of technology contributes to the growth of the global economy, the question remains to what degree the technological breakthroughs create ethical and moral concerns when exploring new frontiers, and to what degree scientists consider the social and ethical consequences when testing and investigating. This paper explores some of the ethical, social, and legal circumstances related to different controversial research fields to include creating the atomic bomb, human cloning, and the research of synthetic biology science.  


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoseph Mamo ◽  
Kwame Agyemang ◽  
Damon Andrew

While the burgeoning research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) indicates the importance of tracking the interest of external stakeholders to obtain societal goals, insight into what types of CSR activities contribute to social outcomes remain scarce. As such, the purpose of this study was to identify the relevant dimensions of CSR that can enhance the social outcomes of one specific group of external stakeholders (i.e., sport fans). Data were collected from US sports fans (n = 312) over the course of two weeks. The present research indicates that fans gain more excitement and happiness as well as increased their social cohesion if sport organization CSR initiatives are concentrating on sport governance, environmental management and sustain-ability, and philanthropy issues. Assessing the impact of CSR from micro-level approach would be one way to strengthen the relationship between existing fans and sport organizations to make positive social impact


Author(s):  
Gheorghe Zaman ◽  
Mirela Clementina Panait ◽  
Marian Catalin Voica ◽  
Corina Ene

Sustainable development is desired not only for public institutions but also for private companies that have realized the importance of sustainable management of limited resources available to mankind. The activity of large transnational corporations is not guided only by the principle of profit maximization, but also by corporate social responsibility (CSR). This chapter focuses on CSR programs run by agri-food companies taking into account the particularities of their activity and the importance of the consumers` behavior to improve the activity of companies in the CSR area. On the one hand, making profits is a desideratum of any company, but on the other hand, companies in the agri-food sector must also ensure the observance of the food safety principles and consumer protection. This is also demonstrated by the major implications of the scandals generated by food contamination with various bacteria or chemicals. Consumer force shapes the activity of these companies, and intense competition leads the managers of these companies to run various CSR programs that eventually lead to increased visibility of the firm and to improving economic indicators. The objective of the chapter is to establish the specificities of the agri-food sector companies. These companies have a high responsibility taking into account the impact of food consumption on the health of the population in the short, medium, and long term and the consequences of this situation on the investments that had to be made in the health sector. The final consumer is a force that sanctions the inappropriate behavior of food producers, but he/she must have a good food education in order to be able to remodel the activity of agri-food companies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 160940692110501
Author(s):  
Emilia Aiello ◽  
Teresa Sorde-Marti

Public narrative is a leadership practice of translating values into action. It links the three elements of self, us, and now: why I am called, why we are called, and why we are called to act now. Taught and learned for more than 15 years now through various learning environments (in-person or online courses, in-person or online workshops, etc.), the Narratives4Change research project (H2020, Nr. 841355) aimed at studying how public narrative is being used by individuals as a leadership practice within different domains of practice and across diverse cultural and geographical contexts, as well as what are the impacts achieved. An endeavor never carried before, capturing evidence of impact of public narrative going beyond the usage and transference posed several methodological challenges. To overcome them, we engaged in an on-going process of dialogue with researchers experienced in social impact analysis, and practitioners and leaders well experienced in using public narrative. Drawing on the work done in the framework of the Narratives4Change project, this article explains its methodological design, presenting and discussing two of the strategies adopted to capture the impact dimension, and how they were implemented. On the one hand, the communicative orientation of the mixed-methods research design of the project allowed researchers to empirically grasp the manifold agentic orientations that can be triggered by public narrative. On the other hand, how the Social Impact Open Repository criteria for social impact analysis was incorporated at the time of exploring and deepening into the social reality that was being observed sets us off on an “impact-oriented analytical mindset” that facilitated identifying evidence of impacts. Specific examples of how each of these strategies played out during the methodological design and implementation of the research are discussed, drawing lessons that can also inform the design of future research projects.


Author(s):  
Inna Samoilenko ◽  
Anastasija Kamneva

Introduction. In the age of economic development globalization of the country, for a variety of objective factors, relevant issues regarding social management restructuring and modernization at energy infrastructure enterprises through integration into the energy infrastructure enterprises corporate policy of social standards that would meet the requirements of the modern civilizational world and would have a positive social impact. Methods. During the implementation of the research tasks were used the as follows: cognition method, combination of general scientific and special research methods, the analysis and synthesis, the historical and logical method, the induction and deduction, which made it possible to separate and clarify the social and economic essence of definitions sush as "corporate social responsibility" and find out and define the principles and instruments of social responsibility at an enterprise. Results. The article is concerned with development of approaches interpreting the social and economic essence of "corporate social responsibility" for energy infrastructure enterprises, which is manifested in the social, economic and cultural life of citizens and is based on the principles of honesty, sociability, transparency and responsibility. Discussion. Another task that must be solved and which requires its separate scientific research is the formation of a policy for reducing energy poverty. In this context, taking into account world experience it is necessary to investigate existing approaches to interpreting vulnerable categories of consumers and identify groups of socially vulnerable consumers. Keywords: corporate social responsibility, energy infrastructure enterprises, social standards, service quality, consumers.


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