and holistic perspectives on corporate sustainability*

www.nottingham.ac.uk/business/ICCSR Corporate Citizenship: Towards an extended theoretical conceptualization

Abstract not found

This dissertation focuses on stakeholder relationships and an organization’s commitment to communities, and ultimately, corporate social responsibility. The relationship between corporations and the community stakeholder is being investigated for a number of reasons. First, the concept of corporate social responsibility suggests an organization has responsibilities beyond increasing operating profit and satisfying stockholders to addressing issues of society as a whole. Are organizations responsible to communities and society? If so, how and with whom do organizations attempt to address societal needs and issues? Second, stakeholder theorists suggest an organization’s social responsibility is achieved, in part, by paying attention to all stakeholders of the organization, stakeholders including the community. Using a narrative approach as a guide, this study addresses the question of whether organizations consider the community a stakeholder. In most cases, as the iv reader will see, the answer is yes. Yet, knowing organizations do consider the

The popularity of the stakeholder model has been achieved thanks to its powerful visual scheme and its very simplicity. Stakeholder management has become an important tool to transfer ethics to management practice and strategy. Nevertheless, legitimate criticism continues to insist on clarification and emphasises on the perfectible nature of the model. Here, rather than building on the discussion from a philosophical or theoretical point of view, a different and innovative approach has been chosen: the analysis will return to the origin of stakeholder theory and will keep the graphical framework firmly in perspective. It will confront the stakeholder model’s graphical representation to the discussion on stakeholder definition, stakeholder identification and categorisation, to re-centre the debate to the strategic origin of the stakeholder model. The ambiguity and the vagueness of the stakeholder concept are discussed from managerial and legal approaches. The impacts of two major shortcomings of the popular stakeholder framework are examined: the boundaries and the level of the firm’s environment, and the ambivalent position of pressure groups and regulators. Working pragmatically, with a focus on the managerial and organisational perspective, an attempt is made to clarify the categorisations and classifications by introducing new terminology with a distinction between stakeholders, stakewatchers and stakekeepers. The analysis will finally lead to a proposed upgraded and refined version of the stakeholder model, with incremental ameliorations close to Freeman’s original model and a return of focus to its essence, the managerial implications in a strategic approach.

ABSTRACT. This study of philanthropy among large Black-owned businesses provides insights into a sector of business giving which has not been studied. Results indicate that philanthropy and ethical justifications play a more important role in minority business enterprises than in non-minority firms studied previously. Though charitable giving by U.S. firms in the mid-1990s has been flat (Wall Street Journal, January 23, 1995), corporate philanthropy and community relations have been an integral component of businesses ’ corporate social performance for decades. Indeed, it could well be argued that philanthropic efforts were among the first, and, perhaps most altruistic, indicators of businesses ’ belief that it had a responsibility to society that extended beyond producing and distributing goods and services and making a profit. In the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, corporate philanthropy has continued though it has been uneven in its growth pattern. Though corporate philanthropy has been researched

The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this publication should not be attributed in any manner to the International Finance Corporation, to its affiliated organizations, or to members of its board of Executive Directors or the countries they represent. The International Finance Corporation does not guarantee the data included in this publication and accepts no responsibility for any consequence of their use. The material in this work is protected by copyright. Copying and/or transmitting portions or all of this work may be a violation of applicable law. The International Finance Corporation encourages dissemination of its work and hereby grants permission to the user of this work to copy portions for their personal, noncommercial use, without any right to resell, redistribute, or create derivative works there from. Any other copying or use of this work requires the express written permission of the International Finance Corporation. For permission to photocopy or reprint, please send a request with complete information to:

This paper begins by exploring the ongoing debates about corporate involvement in UK universities and the broader marketization of the higher education sector of which it is but part. Following this, we move on to consider whether higher education institutions might also be conceptualized as corporations in their own right and whether the current preoccupation with ideas of corporate social responsibility might have any progressive potential for those of us interested in addressing the operating principles and practices of the institutions where we work. When we originally agreed to participate in the RGS conference session from which these short papers derive it was our intention to slightly deviate from the steer provided by the session organizers (which was to address corporate 1