-- apologies for cross posting --
Dear colleagues,
Deadline reminder - 15 November 2011 - for full paper submission to the
Business & Society Special Issue on “THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENTS IN THE
BUSINESS AND SOCIETY DEBATE” (to be submitted to
nikolay.dentchev@gmail.com).
This special issue welcomes papers with theoretical and/or empirical
contribution to the better understanding how governments, institutions or
public organizations specifically can contribute to the advancement of the
business and society debate. We welcome scholarly inquiries based on a
broad variety of disciplines, e.g. political theory, law, sociology,
organization theory, management science, environmental studies, ethics,
corporate social performance (CSP), and stakeholder management, etc. For
more detail, please find bellow the initial call for papers, and do not
hesitate to contact us.
We are looking forward to receiving your taught provoking ideas!
Kind regards,
Nikolay A. Dentchev
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, HUBrussel
+32.(0)477.91.71.21
nikolay.dentchev@gmail.com
Elvira Haezendonck
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
+32.(0)2.629.21.31
elvira.haezendonck@vub.ac.be
Cf. the full call for papers
Many examples can illustrate the involvement of governments in social and
environmental issues that companies are dealing with. We can easily recall
that President Obama went to observe in person the disastrous impact from
the BP incident in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. We also saw that in
response to the recent financial crisis, government officials elaborated
on the Basel III capital requirements and on new monitoring rules for
financial institutions. And when it comes to global warming, numerous
international conferences and treaties have been devoted to address this
issue. In fact, all these examples of governmental involvement in the
business and society debate are related to issues with a significant
impact on society or humanity as a whole, where government officials act
in their role of market regulators.
In addition to their regulating role, public organizations should be
exemplary to society and proactively embrace the principles of corporate
social responsibility (CSR). In this context, we could observe that the
public port authorities (e.g. Port of Antwerp, Port of Rotterdam) readily
engage in sustainability programs, addressing issues such as renewable
energy, air quality management, water management, waste management, and
stakeholder dialogue. Operating in a very competitive setting, ports
consider sustainability as a source of competitive advantage. On the
other hand, public organizations operating in less competitive
environments (e.g. government administration) may not be exemplary in
addressing issues related to gender, diversity, and telework adoption and
promotion. In fact, the above examples show us that at different levels,
the roles and commitments of government organizations may strongly vary
with respect to CSR.
With this special issue, we would like to encourage a broader spectrum of
insights into the role of governments in the business and society debate.
Here governments are not only seen as regulators or facilitators, but also
as actors and organizations that should embrace the principles of social
responsibility in their codes of conduct, as role models and as one of the
key stakeholders that can contribute to solve both social and
environmental challenges. Moreover, public organizations have the
opportunity to embed the principles of CSR in the diversity of Public-
Private-Collaborations they have with private organizations.
In the first place, business and society scholars would correctly question
if government officials are supposed to act as regulators in corporate
social responsibility and performance. A strict interpretation of the
literature would immediately point at the principle of voluntarism,
according to which CSR refers to discretionary business activities that
reach beyond the legal prescription of law. Such a principle would
automatically exclude the active involvement of governments from many
topics of the business and society debate. However, this exclusion is not
what empirics show us. In Europe, for example, a great part of the
business and society debate is stimulated by public governance. Moreover,
a full exclusion of governments from CSR discourse might be even
undesirable from a moral standpoint. We refer here to the empirical
evidence of window dressing and green washing, when businesses engage in
corporate social responsibility, and we question whether governments
cannot regulate for this type of misconduct. And what is the role of
government in situations where managers refuse to take responsibility,
even if their companies obviously caused or show a high risk of causing a
social or environmental disaster. Overall, the discussion on the extent to
which governments should (or should not) be involved as market regulators
in the business and society debate would strengthen the theoretical
fundamentals of our research field.
In addition, a holistic approach is arguably preferable to address social
and environmental issues, due to the high level of complexity associated
with them. In such an approach, each market player and market influencer
acts according to the higher principles of morality and in the best
interest for society and the natural environment. Consumers, producers,
service providers, scientists, in fact all human beings can contribute to
the solution of the social and environmental problems of our societies.
Most effective solutions are expected when each market player makes the
best effort in search of collaborative solutions to these issues. But such
an orchestrated, holistic approach to social and environmental issues is
not self explanatory. Due to the complexity of some issues in our
societies, many people are not able to see the causal link between their
conduct and the issue itself. And even when the causality is quite clear,
phenomena such as the free riding problem and the “Not in My Back Yard”
(NIMBY) syndrome make the holistic approach challenging. The challenges
become even bigger, once a holistic action is required internationally,
for which a painful example is the very slow progressing in the global
warming discussion. In this context, the inquiry on the role of
governments in the holistic approach to social and environmental issues
will contribute to the effectiveness of these issues’ solution.
Here, public governance should be considered also as an instrument for the
organization of social activity. To that end, all sorts of public
organizations and institutions are established such as parliament,
government, justice, police, defense, municipality, education, health
care, and transport, to mention only a few. Regardless of their function
and some differences in these functions over different countries, public
organizations have an exemplary role in our societies. And depending on
their specific role, public organizations and institutions are well
positioned to develop one or more of the moral norms that our societies
like to cherish. As such, they should be the first to adopt the principles
of social responsibility in their code of conduct. Unfortunately, the
numerous examples of corruption or abuse of official power suggest that
public organizations might not be any different from business
organizations when it comes to involvement in window dressing or green
washing. Moreover, governmental action (e.g. protectionism) might be even
counterproductive to the solution of social and environmental issues.
Therefore, it would be interesting to have a better understanding on the
similarities or differences concerning the challenges to adopt the
principles of social responsibility in public organizations as opposed to
private firms.
This special issue is devoted to research on the role of governments in a
holistic approach to the solution of social and environmental problems. We
encourage research that elaborates on, but is not limited to, the
following questions:
· Does the principle of voluntarism per definition exclude public
policy regulation to any aspect of corporate social performance?
· If not, to what extent is CSR regulation desirable?
· What are the positive or negative effects of public regulation
of corporate social responsibility and performance?
· In addition to regulation, what other roles can
governments/institutions play in the business and society debate?
· How can different governmental organizations – at the local,
national or international level – contribute to the business and society
debate?
· How can government action contribute to the holistic solution of
social and environmental problems?
· What instruments may public organizations use to involve
different stakeholders in holistic approach to solving social and
environmental issues?
· How can countries with different levels of development or with
different sovereign interests co-operate to face the challenges of our
planet?
· How do public organizations contribute to setting the moral
norms of society?
· What is the exemplary role of public organizations in social
responsibility?
· How similar (different) are the challenges to adopt the
principles of social responsibility in public organizations as opposed to
private firms?
· Does the core function of public organizations limit the issues
of social responsibility it may want to address, and the way it can
address it?
· What are the opportunities and the challenges of introducing the
principles of social responsibility in public-private collaborations?
This special issue welcomes papers with theoretical and/or empirical
contribution to the better understanding how governments, institutions or
public organizations specifically can contribute to the advancement of the
business and society debate. We welcome scholarly inquiries based on a
broad variety of disciplines, e.g. political theory, law, sociology,
organization theory, management science, environmental studies, ethics,
corporate social performance (CSP), and stakeholder management, etc.
Papers submitted for publication in this special issue are subject to the
double-blind review process of Business & Society.
Submission Instructions
Authors are requested to submit a full paper to the corresponding guest
editor, Nikolay Dentchev (
nikolay.dentchev@gmail.com) before 15 November
2011. Submitted papers should follow the Business & Society guidelines for
authors (cf.
http://bas.sagepub.com).
Submission should include an abstract of 100-150 words, followed by 3 to 5
keywords. The manuscript should not contain any indication of authorship
and should be submitted separately from the title page with full author
information for contact. Business & Society uses the citation and
reference system of the American Psychological Association (APA) and any
paper published in Business & Society can be taken as an example.
Timeline and deadlines
Target dates (subject to change):
· 15 November 2011 : full paper submission to the special issue.
· 1 April 2012 : authors are invited to revise and resubmit
· 1 June 2012 : submission of revised papers
· 15 October 2012 : Delivery of contributions together with the
introductory paper by the guest editors.
· 2013 : publication of the special issue
For further details, please contact the corresponding guest editor:
Nikolay A. Dentchev
nikolay.dentchev@gmail.com
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