Corporate Social Responsibility affects Corporate Governance as it stretches the accountability of companies beyond its traditional boundaries. This however may conflict with the corporate objective of maximizing stockholder wealth. The paper provides an overview of various academic theories and corporate attitudes on this issue and discusses the merits and disadvantages of the two main governance modes: the stockholder mode and the stakeholder mode.
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The corporate goal of striving for stockholder value meets considerable resistance due to various misunderstandings and prejudices. The goal of this contribution is to clear up some of those misperceptions.
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In dit artikel worden de posities van verschillende actoren, die actief zijn op het gebied van maatschappelijk verantwoord ondernemen en assurance, geïdentificeerd en geanalyseerd. De nadruk wordt momenteel gelegd op vrijwillige activiteiten op het gebied van maatschappelijk verantwoord ondernemen en het rapporteren over deze activiteiten, ondanks dat een nieuwe richtlijn op Europees niveau bepaalde Nederlandse ondernemingen verplicht te rapporteren over maatschappelijk verantwoord ondernemen. Door het vrijwillige karakter van rapportages over maatschappelijk verantwoord ondernemen en het ontbreken van formele regelgeving is er een verhoogd risico dat bedrijven misbruik maken van mvo-rapportages voor bijvoorbeeld zakelijk of persoonlijk gewin. De verwachting is echter dat het belang en de kwaliteit van mvo-rapportages zal toenemen in de nabije toekomst om transparantie te verhogen binnen verschillende branches en sectoren. Hierdoor kunnen mvo-rapportages en de controle hierop ingezet worden om onethisch gedrag te verminderen en meer openheid van zaken te geven hoe ondernemingen te werk gaan.
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Purpose: Board members and real estate managers (decision makers) play an important role in the decision-making process in nursing home organisations. This study aims to provide an understanding of underlying attributes and benefits sought by decision makers when making nursing home real estate decisions. Design/methodology/approach: Decision makers from seven different nursing home organisations in The Netherlands were interviewed using the laddering technique to determine the individual requirements, the considerations of the decision alternatives, the relevant attributes and benefits and their mutual relationships. Findings: This study details the motivations behind real estate management decisions in nursing home organisations. The findings show that apart from financial considerations, decision makers strive to enhance the quality of life and satisfaction of users with their real estate decisions and seek to include residents and employees in the process. These benefits are connected to the goals of well-being and innovation in health care. Furthermore, functionality, physical and functional flexibility and technology are key considerations when undertaking corporate real estate (CRE) decisions, to ensure that real estate management aligns with the strategic goals of the nursing home organisation. Practical implications: The insights of this study can support decision makers in healthcare facilities to create strategic value with their real estate. Understanding how to obtain certain benefits from nursing home real estate may result in a better realisation of organisational objectives and user needs. Originality/value: This study reveals the decision-making process in a nursing home context. Moreover, the laddering technique is used as a new method to explore and gain a deep understanding of CRE decision-making processes.
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Energy management and carbon accounting schemes are increasingly being adopted as a corporate response to climate change. These schemes often demand the setting of ambitious targets for the reduction of corporate greenhouse gas emissions. There is however only limited empirical insight in the companies’ target setting process and the auditing practice of certifying agencies that evaluate ambition levels of greenhouse gas reduction targets. We studied the target setting process of firms participating in the CO2 Performance Ladder. The CO2 Performance Ladder is a new certifiable scheme for energy management and carbon accounting that is used as a tool for green public procurement in the Netherlands. This study aimed at answering the question ‘to what extent does the current target setting process in the CO2 Performance Ladder lead to ambitious CO2 emission reduction goals?’. The research methods were interviews with relevant stakeholders (auditors, companies and consultants), document reviews of the certification scheme, and an analysis of corporate target levels for the reduction of CO2 emissions. The research findings showed that several certification requirements for target setting for the reduction of CO2 emissions were interpreted differently by the various actors and that the conformity checks by the auditors did not include a full assessment of all certification requirements. The research results also indicated that corporate CO2 emission reduction targets were not very ambitious. The analysis of the target setting process revealed that there was a semi-structured bottom-up auditing practice for evaluating the corporate CO2 emission reduction targets, but the final assessment whether target levels were sufficiently ambitious were rather loose. The main conclusion is that the current target setting process in the CO2 Performance Ladder did not necessarily lead to establishing the most ambitious goals for CO2 emission reduction. This process and the tools to assess the ambition level of the CO2 emission reduction targets need further improvement in order to maintain the CO2 Performance Ladder as a valid tool for green public procurement.
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The European Union is implementing policies to achieve its priorities of the European Green Deal; A Europe fit for the digital age; An economy that works for people; and A stronger Europe in the world. To achieve these goals, there is a need for a paradigm shift in the way public and private sector organisations, as well as civic society organisations (CSOs) ‘do their business’. In particular, current employees, from chief executive to operative, volunteers, and new entrants to these organisations need to be educated and equipped with the knowledge and mindset of being Corporate Social Entrepreneurs (CSE).EMBRACE (European Corporate Social Entrepreneurship (CSE)) is a three-year initiative funded within the framework of ERASMUS+, Knowledge Alliances programme. The project aims to promote CSE in HEI educational programmes and improve students’ competences, employability and attitudes contributing to the creation of new business opportunities dealing with social change inside companies as well as promoting collaboration among companies.This paper and presentation articulate the theory and methodology for establishing and Implementing the European CSE curriculum. Developing Corporate Social Entrepreneurship, entails identifying and developing a profile of Corporate Social Entrepreneurs, a competences framework and an European curriculum for CSE with the related competencies, skills and knowledge and a transversal learning pathway for HEIs.This curriculum is a vital catalyst resulting from a process of engaging a vast range of stakeholders and as a reflection of a society’s aspirations and vision for its future, involving a diversity of institutions and actors, and clearly focusing on the what, why and how of education. It is therefore crucial to ensure a wider policy dialogue around curriculum design and development, with the active inclusive involvement of an expanded range of actors beyond the traditional ones.The relatively new and undefined scope of CSE in HEI’s, industry and literature meant that there were few if any examples to help define what the contours of such curricula would look like. The fact that this curriculum is to serve the European HEI and enterprise arenas, meant that the European Frameworks and UNESCO materials were used as relevant sources of policy and knowledge to develop the EMBRACE CSE curriculum. There are numerous models and guidelines for curriculum development, each with its own merits. For the CSE methodology framework, two models and a set of guidelines were chosen because they are complementary and support the EMBRACE objectives: The Curriculum 4.0 guidelines and The Hanze UAS model for curriculum development. The combination of the two models led to the development and design of the EMBRACE model. As follows, the presentation/paper addresses the choices as to the design approach which are particularly relevant to all CSE curricula, as well as the definition of CSE competences and four CSE tracks (Novice, Intermediate, Professional and Expert).
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Many global challenges cannot be addressed by one single actor alone. Achieving sustainability requires governance by state and non-state market actors to jointly realise public values and corporate goals. As a form of public-private governance, voluntary standards involving governments, non-governmental organisations and companies have gained much traction in recent years and have been in the limelight of public authorities and policymakers. From a firm perspective, sustainability standards can be a way to demonstrate that they engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) in a credible way. To capitalise on their CSR activities, firms need to ensure their stakeholders are able to recognise and assess their CSR quality. However, because the relative observability of CSR is low and since CSR is a contested concept, information asymmetries in firm-stakeholder relationships arise. Adopting CSR standards and using these as signalling devices is a strategy for firms to reduce these information asymmetries, by revealing their true CSR quality. Against this background, this article investigates the voluntary ISO 26000 standard for social responsibility as a form of public-private governance and contends that, despite its objectives, this standard suffers from severe signalling problems. Applying signalling theory to the ISO 26000 standard, this article takes a critical stance towards this standard and argues that firms adhering to this standard may actually emit signals that compromise rather than enhance stakeholders' ability to identify and interpret firms' underlying CSR quality. Consequently, the article discusses the findings in the context of public-private governance, suggests a specification of signalling theory and identifies avenues for future research.
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This paper explores the relationship between Circular Economy (CE) and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) frameworks—a connection that remains ambiguous in both academic literature and practical application. This lack of clarity hinders corporate accountability and progress toward sustainability goals. To address this, we examine how CE and ESG intersect by integrating relevant theories and practical approaches. We identify key strategic overlaps across diverse CE and ESG indicators and frameworks, demonstrating how each can inform and strengthen the other. We begin by outlining foundational theories and current practices in both CE and ESG, then explore how their integration can enhance organisational alignment and accountability, particularly in the environmental dimension of ESG. To support this synergy, we propose an updated 10-R framework for qualitative reporting, incorporating new dimensions such as Regeneration (e.g., Rewilding and Restoration) to reflect biodiversity considerations. Additionally, we introduce the Circularity Scoring Model (CSM) to assess organisational CE performance concerning ESG objectives quantitatively. Our findings suggest that embedding CE principles into accounting and investment practices can highlight opportunities for improvement, such as transitioning to renewable energy, sourcing alternative materials, extending product lifespans, enhancing repairability, minimising waste, and increasing use of recycled or regenerative resources.
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This study evaluates the effectiveness of the European Union's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) in quantitatively measuring the transition of companies to a circular economy. First, using the most recent literature review on circularity metrics, a complete overview of the currently available circularity metrics is developed. Subsequently, it is determined which circularity metrics can be generated with the available quantitative datapoints of CSRD. The metrics that can be generated were analyzed on their ability to cover all circular strategies, to represent different Product-as-a-Service systems and to acknowledge the key role of Critical Raw Materials in a circular economy. The study finds that, with data disclosed under CSRD, metrics can be generated to cover all circular strategies. However, gaps remain in representing pay-per-use and pay-perperformance systems and the use of Critical Raw Materials. Recommendations are to include ‘Product utilization’ and ‘Mass of Critical Raw Materials used’ in the data disclosed under CSRD and to have an independent institution report data to enable benchmarking of performances. Finally, this study concludes with an overview of the metrics which enable to measure circular transitions using data disclosed by CSRD
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This article explores cooperation between a commercial supermarket chain and an environmental non-governmental organization linking it to consumer perception of the “The Super Animals” collectable cards promotion initiative. The case study focuses on one particular joint project involving Animal Cards that was initiated by the supermarket Albert Heijn and the World Wide Fund for Nature in The Netherlands. Based on this case, environmental non-governmental organizations’ strategic choices in the context of contesting discourses of sustainability and consumption, as well as implications for environmental education, are addressed. This article combines three strands of the literature – on sustainable consumption, on strategic cooperation between commercial companies and environmental non-governmental organizations and on environmental education. It is argued that the Animal Cards initiative presents an ambiguous case by both attempting to enhance environmental awareness and promoting consumption, opening up questions about the value of such cooperative ventures to the objectives of environmental education. It is concluded that cross-sector partnerships have the potential to lead to improvements in corporate social responsibility and environmental awareness among consumers but simultaneously pose the danger of undermining the critical stance toward consumption. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540514556170 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
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