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Editorial Announcement

Duane Windsor

Corporate Responsibility: Initiatives and Mechanisms

Jennifer J. Griffin and Aseem Prakash

This special issue of Business & Society explores how institutions and actors influence organizational choices regarding corporate responsibility (CR) initiatives and mechanisms. Assuming CR reflects strategic choices made by firms, the authors seek to move discussions from why aspects to aligning the why with the what/how aspects of CR. The articles in this special issue examine CR initiatives at multiple levels (the firm, industry, national, and global) as well as CR mechanisms ranging from "go-it-alone" unilateral activities to collaborative partnerships. The study goals are two-fold. First, the authors focus on firms' attempt to create and manage a portfolio of corporate responsibilities-social, political, environmental, and economic. These responsibilities involve relationships with a range of stakeholders (investors, employees, consumers, suppliers, and distributors as well as its multiple communities), often simultaneously, and recognizing that the corporation can devote limited resources to manage stakeholder expectations in this regard. Second, the authors seek to understand how institutional and competitive contexts matter in shaping specific CR choices to provide tangible evidence of managing responsibly. The authors suggest that consciously aligning CR initiatives (what) with appropriate mechanisms (how) will allow the corporations to efficiently and effectively pursue their CR objectives and arguably create sustained impact.

Goodness Comes From Within: Intra-organizational Dynamics of Corporate Social Responsibility

Christian R. Thauer

This article makes the case for the importance of paying attention to the internal dynamics of business in order to understand why and under which conditions firms engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR). The argument is that CSR assists decision-makers in firms to resolve managerial dilemmas. By a managerial dilemma this article understands a situation whereby the execution of management's decisions requires asset specific allocation of resources.  Asset specific allocation of resources transforms the intra-organizational mode of social coordination from a hierarchy to one in which managers become dependent on, and vulnerable to, the behavior of subordinates. It is in these situations that corporate decision-makers introduce CSR standards in their attempt to avoid the foreseeable loss of control and organizational efficiency.

Micro-Level Interactions in Business–Nonprofit Partnerships

Marlene Vock, Willemijn van Dolen, and Ans Kolk

While most research on business–nonprofit partnerships has focused on macro and meso perspectives, this article pays attention to the micro level. Drawing on various theoretical perspectives from both marketing and management, this study conceptually relates the outcomes of active employee participation in such partnerships to consumer self-interest. This article also explores empirically whether and when self-interest affects consumers' responses toward firms in relation to business–nonprofit partnerships. The study reveals that self-interest can directly influence consumers' behavioral responses toward firms (i.e., switching and buying intentions, and word of mouth), whereas the impact on evaluative responses in terms of attitude and trust is only weak. The fit between the firm and the nonprofit partner (company–cause fit) turns out to moderate this effect, with consumer self-interest only playing a role if fit is high. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Sustainable Development and Industry Self-Regulation: Developments in the Global Mining Sector

Hevina S. Dashwood

This article explores the influences informing the voluntary initiatives undertaken by major mining companies to meet their environmental and social responsibilities. The framing by mining companies of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies in terms of sustainable development, as reflected in their stand-alone CSR reports, is a noteworthy feature of the mining industry. This article analyzes the process by which convergence occurred around the norm of sustainable development and examines the circumstances that led to the adoption of unilateral and collaborative corporate voluntary initiatives to promote sustainable development in the mining sector. The author argues that the interaction of institutional dynamics with managerial preferences are key variables which can best be explained by institutional approaches in organization theory and international relations theory that draw attention to the global context and the dissemination of global norms.

Privatizing or Socializing Corporate Responsibility: Business Participation in Voluntary Programs

Luc Fransen and Brian Burgoon

This article explores why companies choose some Corporate Responsibility initiatives over others. The focus is on competing voluntary programs to oversee and protect labor standards. These programs may differ with regard to two aspects: the governance of the program and the financial and managerial responsibility for compliance. These aspects are crucial to distinguish "socializing" or "privatizing" types of voluntary labor regulation. The article explores the conditions under which companies in apparel production choose different types of governance and responsibility, based on qualitative and quantitative evidence of the European industry. The study shows that corporate preference for multi-stakeholder governed programs is positively affected by societal pressure orchestrated by NGOs, through both public campaigns and informal efforts, together with pressures from consumers and media. Second, the position of the firm in the value chain affects preference for taking financial and managerial responsibility for compliance.