The concept of corporate social responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR), or the idea that companies should combine economic, social and environmental concerns, seems an unavoidable component of discourses on business and society. Why is this the case? Is it because we are in a post neoliberal era, and in an economic crisis, that we are acknowledging the drawbacks of unrestrained business activity? Or is the opposite true, and the popularity of CSR is the product of the triumph of neoliberal ideology? Both views can be supported by equally convincing theoretical and empirical arguments. In this paper rather than arguing for either view, I propose to set the problem of CSR according to a different perspective, which may help to move beyond narrow alternative of CSR as ‘reaction to neoliberalism’ or ‘as product of neoliberalism.’ My thesis is that CSR and its concerns are much older than neoliberalism and post-neoliberalism. These are concerns that have to do with how to organize our social life, and what institutional arrangements can better promote justice and well-being. These concerns have to do with economy and politics at the same time. While many people may think that corporate social responsibility is empty rhetoric, I argue here that there is some substance to CSR, and that this substance has to do with the inextricable connection between economic, political and moral concerns. In the first part, I argue that disagreements about the nature of CSR can be addressed using the distinction between ‘concept’ and ‘conception.’ I identify the main understandings of CSR, and argue that all obscure, to varying degrees, the nuances of the relationship between economy and politics. In the second part, I argue that the relationship between politics and the market, which lies at the core of CSR, can be better understood if we reverse the neoclassical analogy between market and politics. In the third part, I address the opposition between voluntary and hard regulation and link this opposition to the tension between political means and ends. I conclude with some questions about the limitations of the label ‘Corporate Social Responsibility.

Equations of motion approach to the spin-1/2 Ising model on the Bethe lattice

We exactly solve the ferromagnetic spin-1/2 Ising model on the Bethe lattice in the presence of an external magnetic field by means of the equations of motion method within the Green's function formalism. In particular, such an approach is applied to an isomorphic model of localized Fermi particles interacting via an intersite Coulomb interaction. A complete set of eigenoperators is found together with the corresponding eigenvalues. The Green's functions and the correlation functions are written in terms of a finite set of parameters to be self-consistently determined. A procedure is developed, that allows us to exactly fix the unknown parameters in the case of a Bethe lattice with any coordination number z. Non-local correlation functions up to four points are also provided together with a study of the relevant thermodynamic quantities.Comment: RevTex, 29 pages, 13 figure

Effects of New Financial Products on The Performance Of Selected Commercial Banks In Nigeria

The study examines effects of introduction of new financial services on the performance indicators of deposits, Profit and sales volume of selected commercial banks in Nigeria. A number of seven (7) commercial banks were selected through purposive sampling technique while questionnaire was administered on some 400 respondents, both staff and customers, selected through random sampling method. Both descriptive and inferential statistical tools of frequencies, ratios, percentages and regression analyses, were used in analyzing the data. Findings revealed that introduction of new financial services accounted for 65.9% growth of customer deposits, 54.5% growth in gross earnings, and while to profit, it was just 35.4%.This was not an adequate reflection of the tremendous growth in the profit declared by banks. Thus, Introduction of new finances designed as customer support services are very vital to improve performance of commercial banks. Keywords: Financial products, Customer deposits, Profits, Gross earnings

An FPT Algorithm for Spanning Trees with Few Branch Vertices Parameterized by Modular-Width

The minimum branch vertices spanning tree problem consists in finding a spanning tree T of an input graph G having the minimum number of branch vertices, that is, vertices of degree at least three in T. This NP-hard problem has been widely studied in the literature and has many important applications in network design and optimization. Algorithmic and combinatorial aspects of the problem have been extensively studied and its fixed parameter tractability has been recently considered. In this paper we focus on modular-width and show that the problem of finding a spanning tree with the minimum number of branch vertices is FPT with respect to this parameter

Conformal GaP layers on Si wire arrays for solar energy applications

We report conformal, epitaxial growth of GaP layers on arrays of Si microwires. Silicon wires grown using chlorosilane chemical vapor deposition were coated with GaP grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. The crystalline quality of conformal, epitaxial GaP/Si wire arrays was assessed by transmission electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction. Hall measurements and photoluminescence show p- and n-type doping with high electron mobility and bright optical emission. GaP pn homojunction diodes on planar reference samples show photovoltaic response with an open circuit voltage of 660 mV