European Perspectives on Business Ethics: A Polyphonic Challenge

Adjusting to enlargement, 2006

National Policy Association. USA, 2002

Journal of business ethics, 2009

This article serves as an introduction to the collection of papers in this monographic issue on "What the European tradition can teach about Corporate Social Responsibility" and presents the project's rationale and main hypotheses. We maintain that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an ethical concept, that the demands for socially responsible actions have existed since before the Industrial Revolution and that companies have responded to them, especially in Europe, and that the content of CSR has evolved over time, depending on historical, cultural, political and socioeconomic drivers and particular conditions in different countries and also at different points in time. Therefore, there is not-and probably cannot be-a unique, precise definition of CSR: one global standard for CSR is unlikely.

2016

This paper discusses about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in European Organizations and how the Learning Process takes place in these European organizations. The questions set are: Is CSR already practiced by EU organizations in terms of the principles of CSR?. Is CSR relevant to organizations in this context? In order to satisfy the questions above the paper presents a comparative analysis of three case studies of European Organisations that follow and implement CSR main principles and criteria of success.

Critical Studies on Corporate Responsibility, Governance and Sustainability, 2018

All chapters were anonymously peer reviewed and we would like to thank all the reviewers for their time, effort and professionalism that have ensured the quality and consistency of the contributions. The reviewers of the volume chapters are:

2012

Sustainable development is a great challenge for societies: in times facing a global recession, financial crisis, climate change, and energy crisis it is increasingly important to follow a long-term strategy for further development to reach sustainability. Corporate social responsibility is a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis. A strategic approach to CSR is increasingly important to the competitiveness of enterprises. It can bring benefits in terms of risk management, cost savings, access to capital, customer relationships, human resource management, and innovation capacity. In this contribution the activities of the European Union on sustainability and corporate social responsibility were analyzed. The results revealed that by renewing efforts to promote CSR, the Commission aims to create conditions favourable to sustainable growth, responsible busi...

2011

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) gains special relevance during last years, due to the modification of the international framework that business must deal with. It is considered as a particular business attitude, but from the European Union CSR is presented as an opportunity for businesses competitiveness at the same time they contribute to sustainable development, so they try to create a European reference framework. In this article we will analyze the situation of CSR in several European countries, not only from the point of view of business behaviour, but including the possible strategies and regulatory or guidance public frameworks of the countries considered, and we will wonder about the convenience or not of the existence of these common frameworks. We will review the different initiatives being developed at international level, paying special attention to actions by Northern European countries, which are obtaining very positive results, although still limited.

Business is all about serving the needs of one's customers and clients while doing it in such a way that everyone can be proud. One core value is obviously the economic one, that is, business is expected to be profitable and to make money for the owners, shareholders, and investors. However, business is further expected to achieve this economic value in conformity with the value of legality, but also, since the law may be non-existent, deficient, or not enforced, with the value of morality. That is, business must act in a profitable, legal, and moral manner. Today, moreover, business must deal with another value – the expectation that business, as it grows and especially once it attains a certain size, wealth, and prominence, be " socially responsible. " As such, above and beyond the responsibility to act legally and morally in the pursuit of profit is the notion of social responsibility, which typically today in a business context is called " corporate social responsibility " (CSR). The law defines legal accountability; ethics determines moral accountability, but ascertaining the definition, nature, extent of, and rationale for, the value social responsibility emerges as an even more challenging task. This article takes a philosophical as well as practical approach to explaining and illustrating the concept of social responsibility in a modern-day global business environment. Suggestions and recommendations for managers and their organizations are provided.

2004

Paper presented at the 20th EGOS Colloquium. Ljubljana, Slovenia. July 1–3 2004. This paper presents the results from a textual analysis of "Letters from the CEOs" in leading Swedish corporations. The sample consists of letters from annual reports for the years of 1981, 1991 and 2001. The purpose of the paper is to discuss how the textual representations of issues related to corporate social responsibility (CSR) have changed over the period. The results show, not surprisingly, a substantial increase on a number of topics that can be linked to the general CSR-discourse in the 2001 sample. But the rise of a CSR-discourse is related to a drop of another discourse related to social responsibility, in which the CEOs used to comment upon the social, economic and political development of their native country. It is therefore doubtful to claim that business leaders of today feel a larger social responsibility than in the past. In the end section of this paper we discuss the consequences of the shift of responsibilities from a narrower national arena towards a globally dispersed community of stakeholders. It is concluded that the CSR discourse, firmly rooted in a self- regulation philosophy, have not yet emerged as an influential movement in Sweden that affects the overall business conduct in a more substantial manner. The CSR-philosophy seems so far to be a more liberating than restraining factor for those Swedish companies who have moved their operations across the national borders.