Call for contributions
Corporate Social Responsibility and Governance: Practice and Theory
Deadline for Abstracts:1th July, 2013
Editors: Claus Strue Frederiksen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Samuel O Idowu, London Metropolitan University, UK
Asli Yüksel Mermod, Marmara University, Turkey
Morten Ebbe Juul Nielsen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Description
Many businesses and organizations are involved in the practice of Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR), and all of them in Governance – they are constantly involved in decision-making, managing etc. Whereas both CSR and Governance have attracted a good deal of academic attention, the relation(s) between them are unclear. However, CSR could be viewed as a form of governance, and governance could be seen through the lens of CSR – practices of governance could be analysed and criticised from the point of view of “social responsibility”.
One area where the relationship between CSR and governance becomes even clearer concerns the issue of standards. Businesses and organizations actively engaged in CSR often refer to one or the other standard, e.g., UNGC (UN’s Global Compact), AccountAbility’s AS1000 (etc.) standard, the ISO26000 standard or the framework of the “Triple Bottom Line”. Ideally, relying on a standard provides good guidance for the CSR-policies of companies, that is, their governance, and moreover makes it possible to benchmark the level of engagement and competence of the businesses.
A series of corporate scandals which have affected corporations in virtually every continent of the world have in fact reinforced the importance of good corporate governance in companies regardless of where these companies are based in the world. The UK took the lead with the Cadbury Report of 1992 and a series of others which followed that in providing some guidelines on good governance. The OECD Seven Principles on Good Governance of 1999 and a revised version in 2004 have been used globally by governments and stock exchanges in setting the scene for good governance. All these are the preconditions for scholarly activities to thrive on corporate governance.
We welcome original contributions that relate to “CSR as Governance”, or that can shed light on any of these concepts, both theoretically and practically.
Some of the issues we would like to see addressed are:
-The relation between governance and CSR
-Is “good governance” independent of moral concerns?
-How do the principles and practices of CSR-standards cohere or conflict with insights from business ethics and moral theory?
-To what extent do the standards and/or governance models provide normative guidance?
-Do the standards and governance guidelines provide an adequate means of benchmarking and audit/reporting?
-Are the standards a help or an obstacle to stakeholder engagement and transparency?
-And other pertinent issues which enhance global understanding of “theories” and “practices” of CSR and good governance.
Hopefully, chapters in the bookwill provide insightful and thought provoking answers to these and many other important questions relating to CSR standards.
Key audience: We believe that the issues focused onby the book are of interest to both practitioners (e.g., consultants, key personnel responsible for CSR in organizations), academics (in business schools and other institutions that engage in CSR-studies) and of course the relevant students. Moreover, we hope to mix “on the ground” observations and empirical focus (“Practices”) and theoretical criticism and deliberation (“theories”) seem to us the ideal way of approaching the issue of CSR and good governance.
Contributions
Contributors would fall in two main categories: practitioners (e.g., consultants or NGO-representatives) with solid knowledge and experience as concerns specific CSR and/or governance; and academics with solid credentials within the fields of governance, business ethics and CSR.
Each of the Chapters would be between 5,000 – 7,000 words. Relevant cases under each of the sub-themes are also welcome.
Schedule
Main deadlines:
- 1th July 2013:
- 20th Sep 2013:
- 1stFeb 2014:
- 21st April. 2014:
- 30 June 2014
All papers shall bepeer-reviewed by contributors. The submission deadline for initial expressions of interest in the form of abstracts of approximately 300 words is Thursday 1st July 2013. Abstracts should be sent as e-mail attachments to any of the four Editors Claus Strue muel O Idowu , Asli Yuksel Mermod, rten Ebbe Juul Nielsen,
The book willbe publishedby a major European publishingcompany.