7,266 research outputs found

    Corporate environmental assessment by a bank lender : a social constructionist perspective

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    Over the last decade evidence has emerged which suggests that lenders are considering environmental impact of corporate borrowers as part of their lending decisions. Environmental consideration by lenders may considerably influence the level of financial support available for economic growth and environmemntal management. The primary aim of this research project is to examine the development and use of corporate environmental assessment techniques by members of a commercial lending bank. The research will build upon previous findings that highlight the influences of culture upon bank members perception of environmental credit risks. Specific emphasis will be placed on evaluating the role of mechanisms for the communiaction of bank policy. These will be analysed to find out how and why corporate environmental performance considerations shape the lending process. Research will be undertaken in the form of a case study facilitated by Lloyds TSB Group plc. Analysis will centre on an evaluation of the rationalities for environmental assessment displayed by bank members and their justification for the application of specific environemnatal assessment techniques. The findings are expected to be of direct practical benefit to bank lending officers and others interested in lending processes and/or corporate environmental assessment techniques

    Firm, market economy and social responsibility

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    In January 2005, The Economist published a survey on corporate social responsibility (CSR), joining a long-running debate on the meaning and need for CSR in a market economy. The British weekly's thesis, widely accepted among economists, was first stated years ago by Milton Friedman (1962): a firm that maximizes its profits while acting within the law and the ethical rules that are intrinsic to a market economy is fulfilling all of its social and moral responsibilities and need not abide by any other type of constraint or demand. However, this thesis is disputed by many other authors. This article seeks to answer the question of whether there is a role for CSR in the economic paradigm. Obviously, it does not pretend to give a final answer but simply to set forth the reasons that will enable each person to arrive at his or her own answer. The first part discusses the economic arguments about maximizing value for the owner and society and viewing the firm as a nexus of contracts. The second part discusses the different arguments about the possible role of CSR in the economic paradigm. The article ends with the conclusions.Contracts; Corporate social responsibility; Efficiency; Ethics; Value maximization;

    Business Ontology for Evaluating Corporate Social Responsibility

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    This paper presents a software solution that is developed to automatically classify companies by taking into account their level of social responsibility. The application is based on ontologies and on intelligent agents. In order to obtain the data needed to evaluate companies, we developed a web crawling module that analyzes the company’s website and the documents that are available online such as social responsibility report, mission statement, employment structure, etc. Based on a predefined CSR ontology, the web crawling module extracts the terms that are linked to corporate social responsibility. By taking into account the extracted qualitative data, an intelligent agent, previously trained on a set of companies, computes the qualitative values, which are then included in the classification model based on neural networks. The proposed ontology takes into consideration the guidelines proposed by the “ISO 26000 Standard for Social Responsibility”. Having this model, and being aware of the positive relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility and financial performance, an overall perspective on each company’s activity can be configured, this being useful not only to the company’s creditors, auditors, stockholders, but also to its consumers.corporate social responsibility, ISO 26000 Standard for Social Responsibility, ontology, web crawling, intelligent agent, corporate performance, POS tagging, opinion mining, sentiment analysis

    On Economics, Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility

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    This paper suggests that understanding questions such as those related to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) re- quires economic theorizing to include in its explanatory models the very fact that (economic) agents have their own distinctive conception of how reality ought to be (which implies making judgments of value). Under standard economic theorizing, the relationship between social or ethical values and economics is one of mere juxtaposition. Ethical and economic issues are being put together side by side in such a way that the anomalies pointed out by economics, which refer to the presence of goal paradoxes and the problem of altruism, etc., denote the presence of ethical issues within the processes of valuation and choice by agents. To surpass this relationship a change of perspective by means of the agents’ action plans approach is proposed. The action plan approach allows to pass from a conception of economics understood as a technology-of-choice to economics understood as a theory of production-of-action. In particular, it is shown that the ethical dynamics of agents are capable of generating “ethical novelties”, which consequently alter the agents’ space of goals. Insofar as this is heavily influenced by CSR, the consequence is that CSR is neither strange to Economics nor a concept juxtaposed with the analysis of autonomous economic processes

    THE ROLE OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR: AN UNRESOLVED PARADOX

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    Business activity and consumption activities are recognised as impacting, often negatively, on the environment. The challenge of ‘satisfying the needs of the present generation without compromising the chance for future generations to satisfy theirs’ requires, however, contributions by all societal actors. A growing number of firms “overcomply” with environmental regulation for several reasons. Firms satisfy consumer demand and try to shape that demand. In doing so, they may create a taste for environment protection and sustainability. Corporate social responsibility has received considerable attention. The concept of ‘consumer social responsibility’ has received comparatively little attention probably because of the dominance of the notion of consumer sovereignty. If consumers’ perception of corporate social responsibility practices drives their purchase behaviour, firms are motivated to invest in socially responsible practices. However, there exists a wide gap between positive attitudes toward social responsibility and actual purchase behaviours. This paper tries to shed some light on what affects individuals’ perceptions about their responsibilities as citizens/consumers and their consumption behaviour.Environment, Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility, Consumer Sovereignty, Consumer Social Responsibility, Preferences, Social norms

    Corporate Social Responsibility : Dimensi dan Perspektif dalam Penelitian-penelitian Empiris

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    This paper is a literature study that collects evidence of empirical research on CSR program. Studies on the dimensions of the CSR this opens a new understanding of the breadth of the horizon CSR which include dimensions of environmental, social, stakeholder, economic, and vouluntir. But interesting that empirical studies specifically with accounting background science proves that all these dimensions ultimately lead to a motive or conduct economic dimensio

    Does corporate social responsibility pay?

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    This literature review summarises the main strands of the debate around whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) has any impact on corporate financial performance (CFP). This subject area has been the source of academic and business debate for more than 40 years, especially since the level of CSR engagement of an organisation (whether profit-making or not) has been linked to benefits to its reputation and relationships with employees, suppliers, customers, government and its wider community

    Corporate social responsibility: A perspective from Weberian economic sociology

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    Answering the call for a new theoretical approach to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), this paper makes a suggestion from a Weberian perspective. It briefly appraises the existing research on CSR and develops key points of a new approach based on their criticism. Suggesting that CSR is a discourse about the role of the economy in society, it discusses whether a suitable new approach for the analysis of CSR can be found outside of economics and business ethics. It is argued that Max Weber's economic sociology and particularly his concept of ideal interests offer an appropriate framework. This framework is developed from Weber's theoretical writings and demonstrated to be used by him to analyze processes of change in the role of the economy in society. The paper then outlines how an analysis of CSR could be carried out building on an ideal interests-framework. It is suggested that such research would significantly advance the understanding of central, yet under-researched elements of CSR. Finally, I argue that the proposed research has the potential of contributing insights to action theoretical questions of modern economic sociology

    The perceived trade-off between corporate social and economic responsibility:: A cross-national study

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    We study cross-nationally whether managers view corporate social and economic responsibility as compatible, or incompatible. The conceptual framework builds on different theories that support alternative views of corporate responsibility compatibility. A set of hypotheses relates differences in cultural values, corporate governance systems, and managerial education to corporate responsibility compatibility. A corporate responsibility scale is developed and its cross-national invariance is tested. Data analysis, controlling for gender and work experience, shows that in countries with large power distance, with less strict corporate governance, and more integrated business education, social responsibility is perceived as relatively incompatible with economic responsibility, whereas in countries with smaller power distance, with stricter corporate governance, and more functional business education, social and economic responsibility are perceived as more compatible
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