This empirical study examines the degree to which strategic principles are reflected in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting practices among Canada’s largest corporations. In a two-phased approach, three time periods of corporate disclosure from 2016 to 2020 were studied. Using an organizational flowchart derived from the literature, CSR disclosures were organized according to six degrees of strategic integration. Analysis reveals a bimodal distribution of firms, with one mode representing firms with a fully integrated reporting framework, and another mode representing firms with the partial integration of strategic management principles. Inconsistent patterns of progress in reporting practices were discovered, with some firms demonstrating improved reporting practices while others stagnated or declined. Overall, a generalized improvement in strategic integration during our multi-year examination was observed. While this work has implications for corporate social responsibility theory, recommendations for CSR practitioners are also discussed.

In this study, we examine two key issues situated at the intersection of corporate governance and corporate political activity literature. The first is whether the presence of ex-politicians or former government officials on a corporate board provides a competitive advantage for the firm. A second, related question is whether the presence of these outside directors on the board of directors is perceived as desirable by their fellow directors. While some have characterized the study of board processes as a black box (Leblanc, 2003; Pugliese et al., 2009) due to the difficulty in acquiring data, we circumvented this challenge by directly surveying 82 Canadian board members, then delved deeper with ten directors using supplemental qualitative interviews. The results were examined via the lens of strategic positioning theory in contrast to the well-worn use of agency and resource dependency theories in the literature. Our findings suggest that heterogeneous benefits may accrue depending upon the industry involved, and the political experience of the director(s) in question. However, a majority of current directors expressed significant reservations concerning the appointment of a political director. These findings, combined with the understudied Canadian context and the use of qualitative research methods, contribute to the extant literature.

This paper examines corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting with a focus on communications from management. It examines letters from the board chair, CEO and/or senior CSR lead to gain a deeper understanding of how firms disclose their past performance and whether firms noted for the CSR reporting disclose their information in meaningfully different ways compared to other firms. Using a comparative analysis between treatment and control groups, we explore whether there is a difference in reporting approaches between a sample of highly regarded CSR reporters vis-à-vis firms recognized for their high profitability. Our findings suggest CSR-recognized firms discuss sustainability issues in greater quantity but without much meaningful difference in quality. We postulate a parabolic relationship between report quality and cost to explain this situation, discussing both the theoretical and the practical implications.

This study examines the contribution of assisted reflection in identifying positive boardroom behaviour in order to promote corporate governance reform from within the firm. A quasi-experimental research design involving nine cohorts of a director education program each partook in six simulated board meetings. With the aid of facilitators and the use of reflective learning exercises, participants' observations coalesced around eight shared behaviours they believe contributed toward improved boardroom performance. The commonality of these behaviours across multiple cohorts suggest that the use of assisted reflective learning can contribute to shared positive behaviours in the boardroom, leading to enhanced boardroom performance, and in so doing, helping to address the governance deficit created by the use of externally-situated mechanisms such as checklists, prescribed guidelines and best practices.

This paper examines the criteria by which university students chose a particular university for their undergraduate management education. With a data set of 456 first-year millennial undergraduate business students, from four institutions located in Canada's Maritime Provinces, exploratory factor analysis helped identify the drivers of decision-making reported by females and males, and in-province and out of-province students. A MANOVA analysis found statistically significant differences in certain selection factors between females and males, and between in-province and out-of-province students. These results suggest that a contingency-based approach to the recruitment and admissions strategies of undergraduate university administration and recruitment officials may be beneficial in enhancing confirmation and enrollment rates.

This article provide an innovative method for operationalizing pan-theoretic work in the field of strategic management. It builds upon a previously published taxonomy to enable quantitative analyses of business strategies prior to implementation. Five metrics for comparatively assessing business strategies, both longitudinally and cross-sectionally, are provided. Academics will benefit from being able to assess the viability of strategies among a range of theoretical perspectives, enhancing opportunities for crosstheoretical strategic analysis. Practitioners can better document their firm’s strategies, identifying strategic gaps with their rivals, and assessing the potential impact on firm performance among various strategies prior to implementation.

PurposeThe purpose of this conceptual paper is to address the lack of consistent means through which business strategies are identified and discussed across theoretical perspectives in the field of business strategy.Design/methodology/approachA stakeholder‐based approach is used to facilitate the standardized referencing of strategies at the business‐level of analysis.FindingsA taxonomy is developed that facilitates the identification and naming of business‐level strategies in a pan‐theoretical manner. A standardized referencing system is offered to codify the means by which strategies are identified.Practical implicationsPractitioners are provided a taxonomy for identifying stakeholder strategies gaps and determining gaps and opportunities.Originality/valueKey benefits to academics are the improved dialogue in the strategic management field from empirical findings and conceptual discourse that employ a universal lexicon for the identification and categorization of business‐level strategies. Managers will benefit from a more transparent strategic design process that reduces ambiguity, aids in identifying and correcting gaps in strategic planning, and fosters enhanced strategic analysis.

This paper explores the relationship between business objectives and social responsiveness toward stakeholders in terms of stakeholder management activity. It employs an empirical grounded study of the Canadian banking sector that involved semi-structured interviews combined with archival documents analysis. Findings suggest managers in mature industries with business growth-oriented objectives and a proactive responsiveness toward stakeholders are likely to engage in stakeholder management activities commonly associated with corporate social responsibility. Implications for managers include the need for multi-dimensional strategic planning. Implications for researchers suggest a need to re-conceptualize management studies to nurture interdisciplinary research on business strategy. We looked at the correlation across twenty industries between profitability and size. In only one industry is there a statistically significant correlation between size and profitability and that industry is the banking industry and the correlation is negative. So the bigger they get, the less money they make.

The focus of this article is on multi-organizational cross-sector social partnerships (CSSP), an increasingly common means of addressing complex social and ecological problems that are too extensive to be solved by any one organization. While there is a growing body of literature on CSSP, there is little focus on collaborative strategic management, especially where implementation and outcomes are concerned. This study addresses these gaps by offering a conceptual model of collaborative strategic management, which is then tested through the use of two qualitative empirical cases of collaborative regional sustainable development strategies (CRSDS). The model augments previous collaboration models by highlighting two levels of implementation (the collaboration and the organizational levels) and by considering the different types of outcomes, and the feedback loops.

This paper explores how the strategic use of social capital can produces competitive advantages for firms through organizational differentiation. This differentiation may facilitate competition among firms other than through traditional economic dimensions of price, quality and product attributes. Social capital evolves from interactions among stakeholders which produce relationships that may support long term financial performance. In mature industries with established market leaders, the use of social capital may produce sufficient competitive advantages for market following firms to usurp market leaders by changing the basis of competition. Empirical evidence from the Canadian financial services sector supports this supposition. As a consequence, managers of both market leading and market following firms should actively consider the acquisition, use and management of social capital within their industry as part of their planning processes. Management academics – particularly those with an interest in social issues management – will benefit from a more explicit inclusion of social capital factors into strategic planning processes.