Business & Society current issue

Editorial Announcement

Windsor, D. — 2008-05-06

From the Editor

Windsor, D. — 2008-05-06

Integrating and Unifying Competing and Complementary Frameworks: The Search for a Common Core in the Business and Society Field

Schwartz, M. S., Carroll, A. B. — 2008-05-06

In the field of business and society, several complementary frameworks appear to be in competition for preeminence. Although debatable, the primary contenders appear to include (a) corporate social responsibility, (b) business ethics, (c) stakeholder management, (d) sustainability, and (e) corporate citizenship. Despite the prevalence of the five frameworks, difficulties remain in understanding what each construct really means, or should mean, and how each might relate to the others. To address the confusion, the authors propose three core concepts—value, balance, and accountability—that might be used to better integrate the five frameworks and potentially provide the basis for further discussion and theoretical development of the business and society field.

Corporate "Philanthropy Strategy" and "Strategic Philanthropy": Some Insights From Voluntary Disclosures in Annual Reports

Campbell, D., Slack, R. — 2008-05-06

To develop this study of strategic philanthropy in the United Kingdom, voluntary charitable donations policy disclosures were captured from the annual reports of two samples of U.K. companies: one of the entire Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 at year-end 2002 and another of 14 selected companies over a 15-year period. Post and Waddock's descriptions of "philanthropy strategy" and "strategic philanthropy" were employed to establish the extent to which these concepts were conveyed to readers of annual reports based on the belief that high disclosure serves both agency accountability to shareholders and the information needs of soliciting charities. Conclusions drawn include that although there is a relatively high level of policy disclosure, the detail of narrative in, and consistency (over time) of, these disclosures is very patchy, and only a minority of companies show evidence of adopting a fully strategic approach to philanthropy.

Pension Funds and Corporate Social Performance: An Empirical Analysis

Cox, P., Brammer, S., Millington, A. — 2008-05-06

This study examines the relationship between pension fund ownership of companies and corporate social performance using a unique database of more than 500 publicly listed U.K. companies. The empirical analysis emphasizes the heterogeneous character of pension fund holdings and the multidimensional nature of corporate social performance. The results highlight that the characteristics of pension fund management are significant drivers of preferences for social performance and that employee-related aspects of social performance are preferred by pension funds.

The Political Capital of Foreign Subsidiaries: An Exploratory Model

Blumentritt, T., Rehbein, K. — 2008-05-06

This article explores the concept of political capital in the setting of multinational corporation foreign subsidiaries. Drawing on resource dependence theory, the literature on corporate political activities, and the bargaining power framework, hypotheses are developed examining the antecedents to subsidiary political capital. The article tests hypotheses based on primary data from 91 foreign subsidiaries using path analysis. The empirical results suggest that both ownership of bargaining power resources and the management of those resources through government affairs activities are important in explaining the variation of political capital across foreign subsidiaries.