Corporate Philanthropy: Strategic Responses to the Firm\u27s Stakeholders

Corporate decisions about philanthropic contributions have become more strategic in recent years. Contributions are targeted not only to benefit recipient nonprofit organizations, but also to fulfill major business objectives. This article develops a typology of strategic corporate philanthropy that distinguishes between strategic process and three strategic outcomes. It reports the extent of strategic philanthropy categories in an exploratory study of large firms headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area. Relationships between philanthropy and industry sector, organizational placement of the philanthropy function, firm age, and firm size are identified

Business Ethics in the NAFTA Countries: A Cross Cultural Comparison

Abstract This article examines the nature and extent of similarities and differences in cultural values among managers in the three nations that signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). One component of a culture is ethics, with this aspect of a culture existing as a potentially strong influence on the success of business organizations. In order to explore the impact of culture on ethical decision making in the NAFTA countries, we review the literature and develop propositions concerning the dimensions of culture that would be expected to influence the ethical standards applied to business decisions and organizational practices. The analysis applies Hofstede's [Culture's consequences. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1980.] four cultural dimensions in the three NAFTA countries, which include individualism vs. collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, and masculinity. We also examine three additional cultural factors -attitude toward work, problem solving, and view of human nature. Propositions are presented involving the prevalence of codes of ethics, issues relating to bribery of public officials, and treatment of low-level employees. Finally, we discuss research design issues relevant for empirical investigation of the propositions.

Corporate responses to shareholder activism : an institutional perspective

Research on how corporations respond to the filing of shareholder resolutions that seek social change has provided low levels of explanation and inconsistent results. This paper builds on previous research that has looked primarily at corporate governance and stakeholder atrributes by examining how institutional factors may have an impact on corporate responses. Our model develops hypotheses related to the influence of issue saliency, industry responsiveness, corporate social performance and corporate governance characterists on corporate responses to the demands of shareholder activists. The hypotheses are tested using social policy share resolutions from the period 2002 through 2005. The results signal some support for the importance for the incorporation of institutional factors. Industry reponses tend to pressure other corporate members to respond positively to the demands of shareholder activists.6 page(s