Jorge A. Arevalo

Corporate social responsibility practices in India: approach, drivers, and barriers

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to examine how corporations in India interpret corporate social responsibility (CSR). Focusing on four commonly known approaches: the ethical, the statist, the liberal, and the stakeholder approach, the paper seeks to investigate the reported drivers and barriers to implementing CSR practices.Design/methodology/approach – The paper surveyed top‐level managers of a sample of companies currently engaging in a CSR initiative, representing a variety of industry sectors.Findings – The study finds that the CSR approach that is most favored by Indian firms is the stakeholder approach and that the caring or the moral motive, followed by the strategic or profit motive, are important drivers for Indian firms to pursue CSR. Further, the results indicate that the most significant obstacles to CSR implementation are those related to lack of resources, followed by those related to the complexity and difficulty of implementing CSR.Research limitations/implications – The study focuses o...

Assessing corporate responsibility as a contribution to global governance: the case of the UN Global Compact

Purpose – The changing nature of the interaction between multilateral institutions and the private sector, such as the one extended by the United Nations (UN) through the Global Compact, has raised profound questions about authority and legitimacy in international relations. This paper seeks to provide the criteria for fairly assessing corporate citizenship initiatives as these form an integral part of the changing nature of corporate governance.Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses the Global Compacts 2007 annual review as a point of reference and critical evaluation. The paper refers to the gap found among participants and their inability to answer to the relevant questions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as originally set forth by the UN.Findings – There has been a substantial increase in both scale and impact by this type of private sector initiative: a 50‐fold growth in just seven years – unlike any other international collaborative partnership. Based on the assessment, the ongoing ...

The Global Compact: an analysis of the motivations of adoption in the Spanish context

In the 10 years after the launch of the United Nations Global Compact (GC), there have been very few empirical assessments of the initiative in the academic literature. In this study, drawing from institutional theory and the resource‐based view of the firm, we examine motivations of business participants to adopt the GC principles in the Spanish context. Using survey data from Spain – the country reporting the highest volume of business participants in the GC – we find that external institutional forces as well as internal organisational resources shape motivations for adopting GC principles. In particular, we find that early and late adopters are motivated similarly by the perceived opportunity of achieving image gains, while late adopters are motivated more by economic gains than early adopters. We further find that regardless of the extent of internal intangible resources possessed, firms are similarly motivated by economic gains. The results also show that companies with more intangible resources are motivated more by image gains than those with fewer resources. Our findings indicate that contrary to its earlier days, economic gains have emerged as an important motivator for the adopters of the GC principles with image gains still being an important motivator.

The impact of the crisis on corporate responsibility: the case of UN global compact participants in the USA

Purpose – This paper seeks to understand what impact the current economic and financial crisis has had on the business and non‐business sectors corporate responsibility (CR) efforts, as well as to describe the critical obstacles being reported to such efforts. It proposes to do this by examining one key CSR initiative, namely, the United Nations Global Compact (GC).Design/methodology/approach – A two‐part empirical investigation was conducted on a sample of GC participants (US signatories). The first method comprises a comprehensive survey completed mainly by company CEOs. The second approach involves content analysis of CEO statements (extracted from CSR reports – fiscal years 2007‐2009), which describe new strategies for managing under challenging economic and financial times.Findings – It was found that the CSR efforts of participants of the GC that have integrated their CSR into their policies, programs, performance, and goals, and those with lesser conformity with the active principles of the GC wil...

Introduction to the special issue: integrating sustainability in business models

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce this special issue, conceptualized and realized by a group of scholars engaged in the Global Organizational Learning and Development Network (GOLDEN) for Sustainability programme. It aims to adopt the overarching research question of the GOLDEN research programme “How do firms learn to integrate and manage sustainability in their business models, including their organizational purpose, strategy, processes, systems and culture?” as the guiding principle for case selection.Design/methodology/approach – The paper first presents the key ideas underpinning the previous research question and illustrates the research approach and agenda of GOLDEN for Sustainability. Second, it introduces the eight case studies presented in this special issue.Findings – The cases offer good illustrations of the ongoing transition by both medium‐sized and multinational corporations dealing with learning and change challenges posed by the identification and management of sustainab...

Collaboration and Partnership in the Context of Indian CSR: The Global Compact Local Network and the I4D Project

The recent emergence of sustainability partnerships and the activities and commitments of some prominent global actors has not received enough empirical attention in the academic literature. In this chapter, we examine the collaborative dynamic of a relatively new initiative – the Investors for Development Project (I4D). Specifically, we investigate how its partners i.e. Northern Governments, United Nations Economic and Social Commission Asia Pacific, the UN Global Compact, and the wider community in the CSR field, have fueled the promotion and awareness of sustainable and responsible business in Asian economies. We find that financial and leadership commitments play an important role in shaping the sustainability efforts among Global Compact participants in Asian nations. In particular, we observe how the aims of this project have, to some extent, addressed some of the reported challenges of implementing CSR among the Indian business sector. We further find that the I4D model, conceptualized in this study as an inclusive partnership of global actors, does offer a platform for collaboration and networking opportunities among various stakeholders genuinely concerned for sustainable development in the South. We offer a discussion on the potential of this initiative, and make calls for more strategic insights that can move the scientific research in this field.