Corporate social responsibility: a myth? The example of the 'Round Table Codes of Conduct' in Germany

This paper is concerned with why and how multinational companies (MNCs) voluntarily engage in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), especially in social standards. The first part describes the prevailing perspectives on the CSR debate. Then, with the New Institutionalism in Sociology, an alternative view on CSR is discussed. The third part develops the argument that the ‘traditional’ rational institutional myth developed by Meyer and Rowan should be replaced or supplemented by a CSR myth. After that, the case study of “Round Table Codes of Conduct” provides an example of how MNCs deal with this emerging CSR myth

Does corporate social responsibility need social capital? The example of the 'Sector Model Social Responsibility' of the 'Foreign Trade Association of the German Retail Trade (AVE)', a public private partnership project

This paper raises the question of whether controlling companies with the help of a monitoring system is a successful way to establish social standards within the supply chain and to help to spread social standards into developing societies. Since the debate thus far has concentrated strongly on the question of what monitoring systems look like and how they are implemented, this paper aims to broaden the discussion by pointing out the possible interrelations between the role of social capital and the diffusion of social standards. What role can social capital play in the diffusion of social standards? After a short introduction to the debate about Corporate Social Responsibility and social standards, there is a discussion of monitoring systems and their limits. Then my own concept of social capital is developed in specific regard to the concerns outlined above. After that, the focus will shift to the possible interactions between social standards and social capital. Finally, my considerations will be illustrated with a case study of the Public Private Partnership-project “Sector Model Social Responsibility” of the “Foreign Trade Association of the German Retail Trade (AVE)”

Between Efficiency and Resilience: The Classification of Companies According to their Sustainability Performance

In this article, we provide a broad picture of the adaptation of economic classification technologies that were originally used to provide financial information and to classify companies according to their financial performance. The same approach is now available for the benefit of sustainability investors. The adaptation of such financial classification technologies to account for questions of sustainability has been engendered by the growing importance of financial markets and by the recognition of sustainability, as a guiding concept for contemporary societies. Since credit ratings, as well as financial accounting and reporting, are established measures for financial performance, they have inspired the development of similar classification systems for sustainability performance, and can be used to accommodate sustainability investors. We outline the adaptation of financial classification systems to the issue of sustainability and we compare the development and institutionalization, especially as it relates to the current market structure of classification systems in the financial markets, based on both financial and sustainability data. In the second part of this paper we compare the interpretation of social sustainability by three different sustainability accounting and reporting initiatives, in order to illustrate the heterogeneity of the available data applicable to subsequent classification. We point out that the operationalization of the three initiatives differs in respect to the nature and the extent of information requested. While accounting frameworks require relatively few quantitative outcomes, reporting frameworks demand more extensive quantitative and qualitative data. Finally, we discuss the opportunities and difficulties associated with the adaptation of classification systems from the field of finance to the field of sustainability

ABA-Induced Vegetative Diaspore Formation in Physcomitrella patens

The phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) is a pivotal regulator of gene expression in response to various environmental stresses such as desiccation, salt and cold causing major changes in plant development and physiology. Here we show that in the moss Physcomitrella patens exogenous application of ABA triggers the formation of vegetative diaspores (brachycytes or brood cells) that enable plant survival in unfavorable environmental conditions. Such diaspores are round-shaped cells characterized by the loss of the central vacuole, due to an increased starch and lipid storage preparing these cells for growth upon suitable environmental conditions. To gain insights into the gene regulation underlying these developmental and physiological changes, we analyzed early transcriptome changes after 30, 60, and 180 min of ABA application and identified 1,030 differentially expressed genes. Among these, several groups can be linked to specific morphological and physiological changes during diaspore formation, such as genes involved in cell wall modifications. Furthermore, almost all members of ABA-dependent signaling and regulation were transcriptionally induced. Network analysis of transcription-associated genes revealed a large overlap of our study with ABA-dependent regulation in response to dehydration, cold stress, and UV-B light, indicating a fundamental function of ABA in diverse stress responses in moss. We also studied the evolutionary conservation of ABA-dependent regulation between moss and the seed plant Arabidopsis thaliana pointing to an early evolution of ABA-mediated stress adaptation during the conquest of the terrestrial habitat by plants

Corporate Social Responsibility – Innovation oder Tradition? Zum Wandel der gesellschaftlichen Verantwortung von Unternehmen in Deutschland (Corporate Social Responsibility – Innovation or Tradition? The Transforma-tion of Societal Responsibility of Corporations)

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) ist in Deutschland in den letzten Jahren groß in Mode gekommen. Dabei ist gesellschaftliche Verantwortung von Unternehmen in Deutschland keineswegs ein neuartiges Phänomen. Im Beitrag wird der Wandel von einer in gesetzlich verbindlichen Regelungen institutionalisierten und damit impliziten gesellschaftlichen Verantwortung von Unternehmen zu Zeiten der Deutschland AG hin zu einer als explizit freiwillig verstandenen CSR nachgezeichnet. (In the last few years corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a new buzzword in Germany. Corporations have established own CSR departments, issued regularly CSR reports, have become members of CSR associations or initiatives and collectively sent out the message that they comprehen-sively master their societal responsibilities. Thereby, social responsibility of corporations is not an entirely new phenomenon in Germany. In the paper the change from an implicit social responsibility of corporations as institutionalized in laws and regulations in the times of Germany Inc. to an explicitly voluntary CSR will be reconstructed.)Corporate Social Responsibility, Institutional Change, Sustainability Reporting, Germany

Exhaustive Proteome Mining for Functional MHC‑I Ligands

We present the development and application of a new machine-learning approach to exhaustively and reliably identify major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I) ligands among all 20⁸ octapeptides and in genome-derived proteomes of Mus musculus, influenza A H3N8, and vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV). Focusing on murine H-2K^b, we identified potent octapeptides exhibiting direct MHC-I binding and stabilization on the surface of TAP-deficient RMA-S cells. Computationally identified VSV-derived peptides induced CD8⁺ T-cell proliferation after VSV-infection of mice. The study demonstrates that high-level machine-learning models provide a unique access to rationally designed peptides and a promising approach toward “reverse vaccinology”