Partnerships for CSR:Dream Wish or Necessity?

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is taken up by an increasing number of businesses. They realize that they are held accountable for more than just their economic performance. CSR requires that organizations develop new competencies in order to integrate the new responsibilities into their (management) processes. Moreover, they need to position themselves in the changing interaction processes with public actors and NGOs through which the new responsibilities are articulated. CSR is not only relevant to the business community. It is related to the fundamental debate on the institutional set up of society and the roles and responsibilities of public and private parties in it. By most scholars it is, therefore, assumed that CSR can only be fully developed in partnership; partnerships in which the exploration of new roles is a central element. Empirical research suggests, however, that companies in their search for a new identity often act self-referential and do not necessarily involve a broad range of stakeholders. What does this suggest? Are we wrong in assuming a central role for partnerships in CSR? Or are companies missing central competences for CSR? This paper will address the question to what extent stakeholder involvement is a necessity for CSR conceptually, drawing on institutional and stakeholder theory, as well as empirically.The paper stems from a research project implemented by a consortium led by the University of Twente in the Netherlands. Through the project, instruments and strategies are identified that companies can use to strengthen their CSR. The focus of the project is on the development of collective competencies for CSR. Next to a conceptual phase the project involves in-depth casestudies in Dutch SMEs

Professional and institutional morality:Building ethics programmes on the dual loyality of academic professionals

Most professionals have the arduous task of managing their own dual loyalty: in one contextual relationship, they are members of a profession while simultaneously they are employed as members of a locally established organisation. This sense of a dual loyalty has to be taken into account when professional bureaucracies develop ethics programmes. This article focuses on universities. Accounting for the dual loyalty of academic professionals, it is the objective of the study to contribute to the most appropriate ethics programmes in such an academic context. Based on a review of the literature, we identify which ethical issues commonly emerge in educational and research activities. Then we offer a conceptual analysis of the conditions required for each different strategy of ethics management. We argue that none of the four theoretically derived strategies is applicable solely on its own. For universities it is most promising to design ethics programmes based on the guiding values of the academic community, including integrity measures for universities and corrective measures for students. The argument developed in this article is assumed to be widely applicable in assessing the appropriateness of ethics management strategies in other professional settings. (Contains 1 figure and 3 tables.

Stretching the Frontiers: Exploring the Relationships Between Entrepreneurship and Ethics

The relationship between entrepreneurship and ethics can be characterised as an intense love-hate relationship. On the one hand, entrepreneurs, who are regarded as creative innovators, are praised for their contribution to the development of society by creating new products, employment opportunities and thus opening new possibilities for all of us. On the other hand, entrepreneurs are often criticised for a one-sided pursuit of business success and being willing to compromise moral values if needed. This complex and multifaceted relationship between entrepreneurship and ethics was taken as the central topic for the 2004 annual conference of the European Business Ethics Network (EBEN). It is a tradition that some of the best papers from this annual event are published in a special issue of the Journal of Business Ethics. As usual for the Journal of Business Ethics, all those featuring in this issue have gone through a double blind-review procedure

Daratumumab-mediated lysis of primary multiple myeloma cells is enhanced in combination with the human anti-KIR antibody IPH2102 and lenalidomide

Despite recent treatment improvements, multiple myeloma remains an incurable disease. Since antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity is an important effector mechanism of daratumumab, we explored the possibility of improving daratumumab-mediated cell-mediated cytotoxicity by blocking natural killer cell inhibitory receptors with the human monoclonal anti-KIR antibody IPH2102, next to activation of natural killer cells with the immune modulatory drug lenalidomide. In 4-hour antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity assays, IPH2102 did not induce lysis of multiple myeloma cell lines, but it did significantly augment daratumumab-induced myeloma cell lysis. Also in an ex vivo setting, IPH2102 synergistically improved daratumumab-dependent lysis of primary myeloma cells in bone marrow mononuclear cells (n=21), especially in patients carrying the FcγRIIIa-158F allele or the FcγRIIa-131R allele, who bind IgG1 with lower affinity than patients carrying the FcγRIIIa-158V allele or the FcγRIIa-131H allele. Finally, a further synergistically improved myeloma cell lysis with the daratumumab-IPH2102 combination was observed by adding lenalidomide, which suggests that more effective treatment strategies can be designed for multiple myeloma by combining daratumumab with agents that independently modulate natural killer cell function