Corporate Responsibility (PDF)

The decision
to engage in corporate social action (CSA), and the debates regarding its
costs, benefits and implications to corporate performance represent a demanding
issue for scholars and managers. Research is inconclusive regarding the causal
relations between CSA, corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate
financial performance (CFP), despite numerous empirical and theoretical studies
devoted to the issue.

This book
presents an in-depth study of corporate social action and the factors
influencing a decision to engage in it. Going beyond the causal relationship
between CSA and firm performance, the book stresses the link between CSA and a
firm's core managerial policies and practices, reflecting the complexity and
varied facets of CSA and the numerous internal and external factors that
influence its outcomes.

The book draws
on the experiences of various industrial sectors to reveal the importance of a
range of issues such as top management pay dispersion and ownership structure,
which may influence the firm's decision to engage in CSA.
It also explores some of the external influences on firms, such as
institutional norms, the geopolitical environment and the industrial sector. The first part of the
book provides an overview of the thematic issues of CSA and
performance. The second part presents aseries of empirical studies that
examine factors and determinants of CSA. The third part presents case studies to illustrate the processes and outcomes of CSA policy and
strategy in environmentally hazardous industries.