Amidst the growing complexity and uncertainty of today’s operating environments, traditional binary thinking—reducing choices to limited “either/or” decisions—often falls short. To address these nuanced challenges and the conflicting opportunities and threats shaped by diverse stakeholder perspectives, a radically more sophisticated approach is needed. This paper introduces The Möbius Paradigm, a transformative approach which transcends outdated paradigms through systems thinking. By embracing Möbius infinity loop pathways, leaders inspired by radical empathy can transcend simplistic dichotomies, adopting a more holistic and sustainable framework for resolving complex dilemmas. The study highlights the critical challenges faced by choice-makers navigating diverse perspectives within complicated environments, emphasising dynamic stakeholder relationship management as essential for successful leadership. It offers practical examples of how Möbius Mindsets, Logic, and Thinking can be applied to multifaceted scenarios, fostering inclusive, adaptive, and conscious solutions. By integrating awareness of underlying values in choice-making, the Möbius Paradigm enables profound change, bridging the major divides of our time. This approach promotes the realisation of sustainable outcomes, enhancing well-being in business and beyond.
This article examines the efforts towards implementing minimum labor standards in global supply chains through the lens of corporate social responsibility. The adoption of supplier codes of conduct has driven efforts to monitor and enforce standards within these chains. Nonetheless, challenges persist in translating commitment into action, giving rise to gaps in implementation. We address two critical phenomena: corporations' varying internalization of responsibility to implement labor standards, and the translation of these written commitments into actions. Through two distinct studies, we explore how companies ‘walk the talk’, and navigate the gaps between corporate recognition of responsibility and the establishment of management systems to implement labor standards. The first study demonstrates that a minority of companies are diligent in committing to implement their codes. Only 17
This study is to establish that consumers’ perceptions can trigger value creation from commitment, and pursuit of CSR by an organization can bring leverage and advantage by adopting the same as a brand, when fused to lifestyle and culture, while an extrapolation has been made from a novel 3-factor model of consumer responses as presented and newly introduced and adapted (draft study, Adewole 2023). Consumer decision-making process reflects the “black box models from cognitions, cognitive pathway, some intrinsically inner hidden pictures, and rational choices”; strategically, a smart and well-communicated brand can impact financial performance, thus emphasizing the significance of the brand from the consumer side. It can be inferred that culture and traditional behavior play significant roles in brand perception, which can generate and create other leads, such as preferences, intentions, and repeats, considering the complexes, unpredictable trends, or patterns associated with consumers’ expressions and behavior in the context of a black box, rational and complex mixes, even justified and vividly affirmed by the result of the ‘hypothesis testing and verification of the composite attributes and evident from the ‘ANOVA and multiple comparison, which gave a p-value exceeding (>0.05).
This investigation is based on a quantitative method and approach from inferential statistics. This study addresses urgent need for social equality and the desire for a sustainable business environment following emerging realities, climatic changes, and environmental issues based on a framework built on corporate social responsibility (CSR). The primary data were acquired from respondents via questionnaire administration and interviews from a random poll performed in Rome. The results of the hypothesis connecting brand image and social responsibility showed a high value of p = 1.000, exceeding the set critical limit of 0.05; thus, companies and organizations that support socially responsible practices are drivers and vanguards for promoting and entrenching social equality, trust, and mutual engagements with the stakeholders and societies from which they draw resources for their activities. Finally, relevant and novel models have been presented that unravel and unveil the templates and working frame for achieving social equality and sustainability while addressing environmental issues associated with business activities, emphasizing value -based creation, social equality, and sustainable marketing on a precept and foundational framework of social responsibility and corporate identity, or ‘CSR’. This led to key recommendations crucial to the business environment, policymakers, stakeholders, and decision-makers in politics.
This article presents a theoretical framework for analysing corporate responsibility through the lens of critical state theory, focusing on the dynamic interplay between state and business. Traditionally, corporate responsibility is seen as voluntary corporate actions for public welfare. However, it is increasingly viewed as integral to business strategy and subject to regulatory oversight. Utilizing Jessop’s strategic-relational approach, this study underscores the state’s role in structuring corporate behaviour, revealing how shifts in political elite networks influence corporate responsibility practices. A historical analysis of early modern China highlights these dynamics within specific national contexts characterized by developmentalism and authoritarianism, demonstrating the profound impact of state-business symbiosis on corporate responsibility. This analysis contributes to a deeper understanding of corporate responsibility in diverse political and economic settings, demonstrating how state power, corporate influence, and social welfare are mutually reinforcing and shaped by broader socio-political dynamics.
A consensus and buying pattern regarding luxury brands has endured a paradigm shift from being envied to being questioned or entirely overlooked. The pandemic has led to a fair share of economic implications. Brands are forced to watch their product range fully, except for reserving a portion of merchandise optimistic for brand jingoism. The study aims to quantify the impacts of financial metrics utilized to gain goodwill amidst an average consumer’s mindset. A composite Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) score represents the extent of a luxury brand’s efforts in contributing to social and environmental concerns. The CSR score is hypothesized against these brands’ financial and brand-value metrics. A Few Research questions are proposed on the same. A Panel-level analysis is undertaken to quantify the dependence and obtain insights. Relevant data is collected, with metrics identified from financial statements. The impacts of financial metrics and the firm’s age on the CSR score are determined. While the Profit Margin, firm size, Tobin’s Q, and Firm Age contribute positively to the CSR score, the firm’s Return on Assets has a surprising negative influence. The impact of net income accrued is negligible, as inferred.
In the context of the increased use of digital technologies at work and the various reported positive and negative outcomes for workers, this paper deals with the effects of internal corporate social responsibility (ICSR) and the digitalisation of work. The findings are based on a structured literature review identifying and synthesizing extant knowledge. A total of 57 papers are analysed regarding their contributions to the literature on digital transformation and ICSR. The results indicate that ICSR is partly implemented in a reactive way to mitigate negative effects of digitalisation at work, and partly in a proactive way to prevent them. The contributions relate (a) to the conceptualisation of digital work and its effects related to ICSR; (b) to the development of the concept of ICSR with a specific focus on digitalisation; and (c) to the derivation of a future research agenda. Finally, implications for research and practice are discussed to investigate further ICSR’s essential role in the interrelation between digitalisation and sustainability at work.
The dominant practice governing sustainability reporting in the private sector is that of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or Environmental Social Governance (ESG) reporting. CSR has its roots in philanthropy and charitable initiatives, while ESG aims to integrate environmental, social, and governance factors into business practices and decision-making. This paper analyses the transition in sustainability worldviews revealed in corporate sustainability reporting from 2016 to 2021. It uses a longitudinal content analysis methodology applied to a sample of ten multinational companies listed on the South African JSE/FTSE top 40 index. The period for the longitudinal study is framed from when the companies started reporting on ESG. The JSE/FTSE was chosen as the companies listed in the top 40 represent 80% of the value on the JSE (JSE 2020). The qualitative content analysis makes use of the five stages of corporate sustainability model to position companies’ sustainability reports within these five stages (Landrum & Ohsowski, 2018a). The key finding of this paper is that multinational companies have been slow to transition their sustainability reporting practices. The current reports reflect a business-as-usual mindset that is driven by compliance with reporting regulations. There is an absence of reporting that reflects a view of embedding business operations within bounded science-based ecological and social environments.
Complacency is almost archaic in the knowledge economy, because firms are overwhelmingly confronted with diverse expectations from better informed stakeholders, who pressure on societal issues amid shareholders’ calls for greater financial security. Similarly, there is a growing call for corporations to redefine their responsibilities to stakeholders, and to integrate socio-economic and environmental concerns into business processes and strategies in order to transparently impact on societies. In a bid to support mutually beneficial relationships, this paper shows how stakeholder theory proactively moderates the strength of CSR in social interactions, environmental protection, and sustainable development. It proposes a four-stage stakeholder dialogue ladder which attempts to synergize CSR, stakeholder and stakeholder theory based on the stages as defined by the firm’s extent of development, and her regularity and intensity of interaction with stakeholders. The paper argues that subject to the problem to solve, the languages of CSR and stakeholder theory are useful and that, the dichotomies of covering wrongdoing and creating falsehoods could be addressed when firms adopt stakeholder dialogue and collaboration that aid friendly CSR programmes. Thus, the relationship turns that of dyadic partnership, because corporations follow issue or purpose-based CSR programmes that create values that trickle to interdependent stakeholders. In sum, corporations need to continually get committed to environmentally-sensitive CSR since there is a strong relationship between CSR activities, stakeholders and actual performance.
Companies’ communications about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) have become increasingly prevalent yet psychological reasons for why those communications might lead to positive reactions of the general public are not fully understood. Building on theories on impression formation and social evaluation, we assess how CSR communications affect perceived morality and competence of a company. We theorize that the organization’s CSR activities would positively impact on perceived organizational morality rather than on perceived organizational competence and that this increase in perceived organizational morality leads to an increase in stakeholders’ support. Two experimental design studies show support for our theorizing. We cross-validated the robustness and generality of the prediction in two countries with different business practices (UK (N = 203), Russia (N = 96)). We demonstrated that while the general perceptions of companies and CSR differ between the UK and Russia, the underlying psychological mechanisms work in a similar fashion. By testing our predictions in western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) and in non- WEIRD countries, we also extend current socio-psychological insights on the social evaluation of others. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.
This paper focuses on the social benefits of university-industry collaborations (UICs) based on the cases of winners of the Industry-Academia Collaboration Prize presented by the UK Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) (2010–2023). The research question, which concerns the social and environmental benefits of UICs, has received little attention in the literature, as it focuses mainly on their economic effects. Taking the framework approach to thematic analysis, a list of thematic indicators, which serve as benchmark criteria for evaluating the social impact of UICs in medical, pharmaceutical and chemical industries, is developed. The use of a case study to identify indicators via this approach is appropriate for generating in-depth insights into the characteristics of UICs that have considerable societal impacts. Knowledge creation and contribution to training and improved skills levels constitute the main social benefits of UICs in the three industries cited above. Our findings have practical and theoretical implications, as they emphasize the importance of UICs in fulfilling a specific function in society, namely, facilitating research and developing skills that make the world a better place.
In an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world, the importance of organizational resilience has grown, yet the scholarly literature on this topic remains fragmented. To address this gap, our study conducted a bibliometric analysis of 469 articles from the Scopus database using VOSViewer software to systematically review and map trends, gaps, and significant contributions in the field. Our analysis revealed key themes such as resilience, crisis management, innovation, COVID-19, dynamic capabilities, sustainability, and change management, which are crucial to understanding organizational resilience. The findings highlight that the United Kingdom and the University of Oulu are significant contributors to this research area, with notable authors including Duchek E., Martinelli E., Santoro G., Williams T.A., and Youssef C.M. playing a pivotal role in advancing this field. By providing a comprehensive overview of institutional affiliations, countries, authors, journals, publications, and keyword co-occurrences, our study not only maps the landscape of organizational resilience research but also identifies critical areas for future inquiry. This contribution enhances both theoretical and practical understandings of organizational resilience, aiding practitioners in developing robust strategies to navigate the challenges of the VUCA world.
Based on a total of 1,590 listed non-financial firms on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange (formerly the Over The Counter securities market) covering the period of 2007 2020, this study examines whether firm's performance on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is affected by corporate board gender diversity. Based on the Upper Echelons Theory, the Agency Theory and the Resource Dependence Theory, increasing the number of female director to achieve higher level of gender diversity brings forth traits such as compassion, kindness, helpfulness, empathy, interpersonal sensitivity, a willingness to nurture, and a greater concern for others' well-being. These traits help firms form policies that prioritize stakeholders' welfare. Moreover, board gender diversity corresponds to a more diverse and broad background, understanding and experience of business operations, enabling firms to better understand where the key interest groups they face are and what they value. This allows firms to make more effective and better-performing decision in CSR. Through correlation analysis and multiple regression estimation, the principal outcome shows that greater degree of board gender diversity is associated with better CSR performance, confirming the hypothesis that a more gender diversified board enhances the efficiency of monitoring and advising function of board and then forming corporate strategies and implementations toward a better stakeholders’ management.
The aim of the study was to investigate whether the content of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) messages predicts communication outcomes in South African nonprofit organisations (NPOs). The study found a positive association between CSR message content and CSR communication outcomes. Additionally, CSR message content in nonprofit organisations is positively linked to their CSR communication outcomes. Furthermore, support for community-related activities positively impacts CSR communication outcomes, thereby explaining the correlation between CSR message content and communication effectiveness. The study lays the groundwork for non-profit organisations seeking optimisation of their CSR messaging to achieve a wider socio-economic impact on the public at large. These results underscore the importance for nonprofit organisations to strategically develop CSR messages that highlight their support for community-related activities. By emphasising such content in their communication efforts, organisations can enhance their CSR communication outcomes, potentially fostering stronger relationships with stakeholders and garnering increased support for their initiatives.
As the discourse around business ethics and sustainable development intensifies, many organizations are adopting initiatives in corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a strategic tool to satisfy regulatory requirements and also stakeholder expectations. While exploring the relationship between sustainable environmental practices and green innovation, this study identifies four critical stakeholder-centered CSR activities as precursors to sustainable environmental practices using data from 404 manufacturing firms in Ghana. The data was analyzed using the partial least squares method to structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results established a positively significant relationship between employee-centered CSR initiatives and sustainable environmental practices while the relationship between community-centered CSR, consumer-centered CSR and environment-centered with sustainable environmental practices CSR were each not significant. However, sustainable environmental practices were found to advance green innovation. The study further recommended a multi-dimensional stakeholder-centered approach to the practice of CSR as a strategic tool for sustainable environmental development by the leadership of manufacturing firms, policy makers and regulatory bodies.
This study explored corporate social responsibility practices in selected public libraries in south-west and north-central Nigeria. The study adopts multiple case-study design, and qualitative research approach. Interview was used to collect data from a total of fifteen (15) participants. The study found that the public libraries do not have written CSR policy. Results showed that the public libraries engaged in social support, social change, socio-cultural activities, and COVID-19 social support. Findings showed that public libraries provide charity through book donations/gifts and provision of information to library users. It was revealed that public libraries advocate for, and participate in, periodic environmental sanitation. Results showed that the libraries remove what the librarians consider as morally decrepit information materials from the shelves, which means they aid censorship. The study showed that public libraries adhered to the ethics and guidelines of Librarians' Registration Council of Nigeria (LRCN) to a minimum extent since the Council has partially failed in their supervisory role. The study concludes that public libraries have their in-house ethics and policies that guide the library staff, users, attendants, and visitors. The study recognized that public libraries provide economic viable information to users, which enable them get improve their career, secure employment, and learn vocation. This study contribute that public libraries are essential in ensuring and meeting sustainable development goals via responsible CSR practices.
Quality standards (QS) (e.g., ISO 9001) play an important role in assuring the quality of goods and services for organizational stakeholders on a global scale. Recent work has highlighted the role of QS in communicating corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices to a firm’s stakeholders making both the QS adoption decision and the timing of adoption of immense strategic importance to top managers. However, the types of QS and their intended and unintended beneficiaries vary widely, making it difficult for managers to choose QS that are in accord with their CSR goals. Further, current economic (cost/benefit) and institutionally-based theoretical approaches do not provide managers with adequate guidance in making strategic adoption decisions. Rapid developments in QS practices have also made it difficult for researchers to incorporate them into CSR theory. Drawing upon a literature review of QSs and stakeholder theory, this study presents a QS framework and taxonomy that integrates QS adoption timing and beneficiaries. The framework also presents four configurations of QS adopters and their associated beneficiary stakeholder groups, enabling both researchers and practitioners to more completely understand the complex nature of stakeholder pressures on organizations.
This study is to examine the translation of a reputable brand into equity and how consumers’ perceptions can trigger value creation from commitment and pursuit of CSR by an organization and adopting the same as a brand, lifestyle, and culture, while pointing attention to the stakeholder’s theory as well as pointing to brand interactions from consumer perceptions based on a mixed methods research approach from quantitative and qualitative analyses as presented with a sampling survey of 205 observations and respondents from Roma and neighbourhood. A CSR-based business model tied to the cultural and lifestyles of the people in brand context, while deciphering and delineating consumer behavior, even pointing significantly to the “black box models and rational choices,” would foster effectiveness and efficiency in the operational modules as well as impact on financial performance as unveiled from the qualitative data analysis and inferential statistics, thus emphasizing the significance of brand from the consumer side. It can be inferred that culture and traditional behavior play significant roles in brand perception considering the complexes, unpredictable trends, or patterns associated with consumers’ expressions and behavior in the context of a black box, rational and complex mixes, even justified by the result of the hypothesis testing of the composite attributes and evident from the ‘inference statistics and results, which gave a p–value exceeding 0.05. Conclusively, a CSR – based business model and structure can enhance change transitions from short – term to long – term goals, drive to sustainability, localized stabilization, and sustainable domains. Even brand interactions can be significantly enhanced by CSR, as ascertained by the relatively high R – squared value of 0.8826 and the justification of statistical significance from the factors as indicated by the ‘SEM results and analyses. Organizations can essentially adopt and apply the concept of bran translating to equity from CSR and consumer perceptions when embedded in their business model as a strategic tool in enhancing their performances and finances.
While an emerging literature considers Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as obligatory, voluntarism has dominated the scholarship and policymaking related to CSR. Almost parallel to this literature, the field of law has conceived and advanced the concept of Business and Human Rights (BHR) for addressing the human rights impacts of corporations. A new wave in the literature is exploring the relationship between these two disparate fields to bridge the corporate accountability gap. Contributing to this emerging debate, this paper develops a new CSR-BHR integrated framework that presents a unified approach towards corporate accountability. The new Framework offers a taxonomy of CSR-BHR strategies that firms can select from to prioritise their CSR-BHR activities for optimising their social contributions. It provides a new foundation for developing consistent policymaking on corporates’ social obligations across the world.
We investigate the circumstances under which socially responsible investing (SRI) enhances firm long-term financial performance, and therefore provides incentives for firms to self-regulate their environmental performance. Aggregating portfolios across SRI mutual funds, we estimate the effect of SRI investment with environmental screening criteria on firm cost of equity capital. We find that accounting for interactions between firm and non-shareholder stakeholders, and potential agency costs associated with certain environmental activities of the firm, SRI can facilitate the alignment of firms’ environmental and financial goals. We also find that an industry group’s environmental performance and diversity influence the extent to which a firm in that group can benefit from SRI investment.
