Nile W. Hatch

Toward a General Theory of CSRs The Roles of Beneficence, Profitability, Insurance, and Industry Heterogeneity

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a tortured concept. A number of alternative definitions of the construct exist at the theoretical level, and much debate surrounds the meaning (and its related implications for practice) of the term. Empirically, CSR research reaches few remarkable conclusions. In this article, the authors reconceptualize CSR into a number of discrete corporate social responsibilities (CSRs), each of which can have a positive or negative social impact, and each of which has an endogenous managerially driven component and an exogenous stakeholder-driven component. Using an industry-level sample drawn from the KLD database, the authors test the impact of hypothesized drivers of CSR on various CSRs.

As Time Goes By: From the Industrial Revolutions to the Information Revolution

The article reviews the book “As Time Goes By: From the Industrial Revolutions to the Information Revolution,” by Chris Freeman and Francisco Louca.

Design Rules, Volume 1: The Power of Modularity

The evolution of the computer industry since its beginnings is staggering, and the rate of change is only increasing. However, Carliss Baldwin and Kim Clark in their book “Design Rules, Volume 1: The Power of Modularity,” set out to plumb the depths of the forces that have generated so much upheaval in the structure of the computer industry over its fifty-year history. The result is an impressive study, in which the authors convincingly explain the portion of changes targeted for this volume. The book impresses because of its breadth and depth, its generality and precision, and its theory and application. The authors accomplish this by developing a new theory built from fundamental principles relating to the process of design, value, and organization.

Outsourcing relationships between American and Chinese companies

Outsourcing relationships between American and Chinese companies were studied using interviews and surveys. The data showed that American companies focus on labor costs and quality when making a decision to outsource production to a Chinese firm. Chinese firms secure American business by offering the lowest price possible. American firms were found to be generally pleased with cost performance of their outsourcing relationships, but less pleased with lead times of outsourced products. In addition, communication between the American and Chinese firms and employee training at Chinese firms are viewed as needing improvement.