Philanthropy is on the rise in the Dutch visual arts. Fat cash prizes, big-name exhibitions, large-scale renovations, spectacular public artworks, and big scandals are changing the public display of art and undermining the democratic governance of art institutions. While some have critiqued the patron's rise to power, the majority of the art world remains silent, muted by a combination of ignorance and self-censorship. How can we overcome this deadlock and start cultivating a healthy public debate?
LINK
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an important consideration in tourism and hospitality management, yet extensive empirical studies on how it is implemented in developing country’s context are lacking. Using qualitative methodology, this article addresses this knowledge gap by exploring CSR practices among hotels and accommodation providers in Malawi. Our findings demonstrate that a broad-based CSR agenda is slowly being pursued by certain firms although corporate philanthropy remains the major area of focus for most of the considered firms. The article further demonstrates differences in the choice of CSR agenda firms pursue can be influenced by the nature of firm’s ownership. Whereas locally owned and managed firms showed a strong orientation towards philanthropic-based CSR agenda, foreign owner/mangers favoured a broad-based CSR agenda.
LINK
Efforts to understand the background to perceptions and manifestation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the developing world need to focus on establishing their link with the challenges of socio-economic governance and societal expectations and cultural traditions. This signifies a departure from a western centric understanding of CSR but also an over-focus on CSR as philanthropy. This study considers the Malawian tourism industry and finds that its colonial legacy, post-colonialism development thinking and the national education system explain the prevalence of a ‘CSR as philanthropy’ agenda. When these factors interact with challenges of socio-economic governance and societal expectations, however, the universality thesis that has often been associated with the theory and implementation CSR can be challenged. These findings therefore suggest a shift from the western centric CSR thinking to a CSR perspective that is strongly grounded in local values and norms and which meets the expectations of the global society. This indicates a way forward if CSR is to be adequately institutionalized in the developing world.
LINK
