Proceedings of the International Association for Business and Society

Political CSR scholars have sought to apply the concept of deliberative democracy to the practice of global corporate engagement with stakeholders. Recently, much of this work has focused on the conditions under which the decisions made within multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSI’s) should be considered democratically legitimate while relatively less attention has been paid to the practical benefits that such engagements can bring for their effectiveness when properly structured. The arguments in this essay support a shift in focus away from the former and towards the latter.

We present a qualitative comparative case study of four European banks, investigating mechanisms that help or hinder the integration of climate change (CC) considerations in the banks’ corporate strategies. We find that strategic CC responses are dependent on the following factors: the initial interpretation of the CC issue, the language deployed to advocate for CC and the governance structures that are being invoked (or not) to spread attention to CC both within the bank and to external constituents. We contribute to research on corporate CC (in)action by developing a multi-stage process model of CC responses in a low salience industry.

We study the governance of voice in digital platforms in light of contestations and struggles over meaning and resources among their stakeholders. In particular, we argue that social media platforms as fields are subject to power imbalances that might constrain the voices of marginalized and under-represented individuals and groups. Consequently, the governance decisions that private firms (i.e. platform owners) undertake are critical in providing users and communities with the capacity to self-present and identify. Through a qualitative longitudinal study of a popular social media platform, we study the means through which a marginalized community leverages the governance tools at its disposal to overcome the contestation within the platform. We present implications for the governance of digital platforms and their evolution.

Communities are discussed frequently in the business and management literature, but their main characteristics are not commonly agreed upon. This multiplicity of meanings results in vagueness, which hinders both scholarly research and practice. Building on a sample of 142 papers published in highly ranked business and management journals, this literature review aims to provide clarity on the concept by identifying its main underlying meanings. After conducting qualitative and cluster analysis Keyon the abovementioned sample, we suggest the following four types of communities: of Proximity, of Practice, of Users and of Firms. Their main characteristics are discussed, along with their relationship with business and management.

Conflict Zone Entrepreneurs (CZEs) include local businesses operating in conflict settings, which represent the dominant form of employment in poverty-conflict scenarios, often hosting the most vulnerable in society who live on the poverty line. Despite their importance in the peacebuilding equation, little is known about their role in the peacebuilding process, with a variety of ad hoc contributions from assorted fields often assuming peacebuilding links with entrepreneurship, with little empiricism to support these claims. Consolidating prior works, the paper appropriately positions entrepreneurship as a community-level peacebuilding mechanism, presenting a framework that identifies the major entrepreneurial typologies that are present in conflict zones. Entrepreneurs are characterized as being either peacebuilders, destructive entrepreneurs, or ingroup and intergroup contributors. By presenting the paradoxical impact of CZEs, the paper identifies inclusivity and responsible practices as the central factors that determine whether an entrepreneur will be peacebuilding, or destructive.

This work firstly aims to develop a sustainability model based on Ibn Haldun’s teaching of sustainability. Religious coloring refers to the spirituality, which is re-discovered in modern ages and transferred to the workplace. Spirituality stimulates virtuousness at personal and organizational level, which in turn generates managerial sustainability meaning the lifespan of a company. While personal virtuousness refers social ethics, organizational level virtuousness could be considered as Corporate Social Responsibility. Secondly, it attempts to evaluate the relevance of Ibn Haldun’s approach to contemporary business organizations. In order to demonstrate the relationship between spirituality, virtuousness, CSR, and sustainability; data collected from Corporate Knights’ Global 100 companies were analyzed using structural equation modelling. According to the results, while workplace spirituality leads to ethical conduct and higher CSR/CS score, the relationship between spirituality or CSR/CS and financial performance is not significant. However, it seems that higher lifespan of business enterprises is related to their CSR/CS score.

This article explores adoption rates of B Corps certification and Benefit Corporation incorporation in order to discuss what benefits exist for organizations to adopt sustainable business forms. The analysis of the data identifies states with low and high adoption rates. The study is based on historical analysis of 4686 incorporated Benefit Corporations from 2007 to 2016 and 837 certified B Corps during the same time period. Patterns of adoption are identified and states with high and low adoption rates are categorized, analyzed, and discussed. The patterns reveal which states are most likely to support lasting or short lived legal, peer, and stakeholder benefits for sustainable business.

Despite growing engagement by business practitioners in regenerative sustainability, there is little research into what factors contribute to its successful implementation. This paper offers first steps to close that gap. It examines theoretical foundations of and proposes empirical research for studying such innovative business practices. Our literature review draws on research in natural sciences, organization and management studies, corporate sustainability, and business strategy to theoretically (1) define regenerative sustainability, (2) explore how adopting principles of regeneration can help firms achieve “true business sustainability” (Dyllick & Muff, 2016: 163), and (3) assess potential benefits, obstacles, and enablers of such radically different business models. We then propose an in-depth interpretive case study methodology to empirically investigate the phenomenon of interest, namely how proactive firms effectively enact regenerative sustainability principles. The paper closes with potential implications of the proposed study for management theory and practice and offers ideas for future research.

The oil and gas industry is viewed as controversial because of its adverse impacts on the environment. This study draws on legitimacy theory to analyze how CSR factors (including GRI compliance, EITI membership, and internal and external factors of gender diversity on the board and management team, and spending on social projects in the host sub-Saharan countries,) correlate with an increase or decrease in stock prices from 2006 – 2019.

Bob Taylor of US based Taylor Guitars tells a story, on YouTube, of the felling of 10 endangered ebony trees in Cameroon to find one with jet-black ebony – the remaining nine were left to rot. The story continues: Bob Taylor decided to purchase all the ebony, even that regarded as b-grade ‘streaked-ebony’ and incorporate the wood in guitar fretboards. Taylor Guitars used social media to communicate the environmental rationale behind the incorporation of streaked-ebony in the fretboards, and in so doing, consumers were able to view the guitars from the perspective of environmental sustainability, and the aesthetic appeal and sound of the streaked-ebony was appreciated and well received. The initiative created a competitive advantage for the guitar manufacturer and contributed significantly to the sustainability of this endangered wood species.

Mezcal is a spirit distilled from the heart of the agave plant. It has been produced via traditional methods in Mexico for centuries, but recently has found popularity in the United States and other countries. The rise in demand for this artisanal product could greatly benefit the eight states in which it is legally distilled with an influx of capital from tourism and export. However, with this popularity comes outside influence and the potential for unfair business practices and cultural appropriation. This case provides a general overview of mezcal and the Mexican state of Oaxaca in which it is produced. Discussion questions are presented as well as a brief teaching note.

Workers of stigmatized jobs classified as dirty work normalize the physical, social, and/or moral taint of their occupation to cope with the negative aspects of their daily work. Such normalization strategies include recalibrating, reframing, and refocusing (Ashforth & Blake, 1999). Social identity theory proposes that individuals seek to identify with a positively perceived in-group, and dirty work literature suggests stigmatized workers use these normalization strategies to separate their personal and work identities. Additionally, corporate social responsibility meets the instrumental, relational, and moral-based motivational needs of employees, suggesting it may serve as a pathway for managing negative aspects of an occupation. Thus, as a part of the Discussion of New Perspectives on CSR and CSP in the 2020 IABS virtual conference, this proposal theorizes corporate social responsibility initiatives as a possible organizational level intervention to help dirty workers normalize their work and manage its associated stigma through applications of social identity theory.

Corporate political activity (CPA) is one of the most prolific academic literatures which examines the political behaviors of corporations. CPA researchers often define it as a non-market strategy which corporations can engage in to influence political outcomes that complement their market objectives. In this paper I argue that, despite continuous theoretical development, CPA has not kept pace with changes in the political role and behaviors of corporations, particularly multinational corporations (MNCs), which has resulted in an inaccurate view of the corporate political environment. Therefore, CPA theory ought to be updated to be more descriptively and theoretically accurate.

The state monopoly on violence is a core concept of modern public law, wherein only sovereign nation-states may lay claim to the legitimised usage of physical force. In recent years, however, this is commonly outsourced through Private Military Companies. Using Satz’s model and Weber’s definition of modern democracies, we argue that the market of Private Military Companies is a noxious one with severe ramifications in regards to democracy, freedom, and the autonomy of nation-states globally.