Logistics Social Responsibility (LSR) emerged as a concept to integrate sustainability throughout logistics-oriented processes in the supply chain. Hence, logistics services are linked to sustainability requirements. To meet these requirements, logistics service providers can respond to their responsibility by reducing the ecological and social impact in the supply chain. Moreover, it has been recognized that consumers also need to adapt to sustainability requirements: e.g., by supporting sustainable logistics strategies with their monetary “votes” or by changing their own consumption behavior. This “shared responsibility” requires mutual support and cooperation. Therefore, the core of this dissertation is that logistics service providers can further support sustainable development by facilitating more sustainable consumer choices. To enhance LSR activities, the link to the dynamic capabilities theory is investigated. Here, several capabilities have been identified through which managers can pool their knowledge and skills to generate new knowledge, solutions or resource configurations. Using these capabilities in a strategic manner, logistics service providers can purposefully change their business environment by forming new partnerships or changing existing relationships to gain from developing new business practices stressing sustainable purposes.

To conceptualize social responsibility for operations management (OM) research, we consider the corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and the bottom-of-the-pyramid approaches and argue that we need to study operations through a social responsibility lens rather than to classify operations as being socially responsible or not. There are three challenges to developing such a lens: the level of analysis, the multitude of objectives, and the theoretical underpinnings. We propose a 'stakeholder resource-based view' (SRBV) building on resource-based view, stakeholder theory, and utility theory to address these challenges, treating all stakeholders on a par. The different stakeholders seek to maximize their own (expected) utility, with different drivers shaping their preferences, using their respective resources, routines and dynamic capabilities. SRBV affords a descriptive framework for qualitative research, an instrumental framework for empirical research, and a normative framework for analytical research. It enables tackling many of the opportunities for OM research, some of which we outline.

A holistic perspective for navigating and exploring the CSR landscape. Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Sustainable Value Creation, Fifth Edition, redefines corporate social responsibility (CSR) as being central to the value-creating purpose of the firm and provides a framework that firms can use to navigate the complex and dynamic business landscape. Based on a theory of empowered stakeholders, this bestselling text argues that the responsibility of a corporation is to create value, broadly defined. The primary challenge for managers today is to balance the competing interests of the firm’s stakeholders, understanding that what they expect today may not be what they will expect tomorrow. This tension is what makes CSR so demanding, but it is also what makes CSR integral to the firm’s strategy and day-to-day operations.

The social responsibilities of organizations to the greater society have been debated for years, and the expected role of organizations and their social contract appear to be changing. Indicators of a new social contract are reflected by the growth of many sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives domestically and abroad. Even as organizations craft responses to this dynamic environment that emphasize and reward sustainability and social responsibility, it remains poorly understood how and to what extent these initiatives contribute to the well being of the organization. An empirical analysis of two large MNCs within the ICT industry was conducted, using a multi-case study methodology. Data analysis revealed that both MNCs respond to a set of drivers, not one single driver. These empirical findings provide organizations better understanding and enable them to craft their response to the changing social contract, and its contribution to their respective organizational competitiveness.

How do firms grow? How do firms compete? An influential answer to these fundamental questions of business strategy lies in the concept of dynamic capabilities. David Teece provides a clear statement of his ideas, and a framework for managers wishing to assess their organization's strategy.

Sustainable value management reveals a new space for studying business models. The traditional approach is based on the assumption that the goal of any business is to make money. All decisions regarding supply and production should be made to maximize profit. The discrepancy in creating non-economic value is sometimes the result of separating ownership from control over an enterprise. Although shareholders are interested in maximizing profit, management that actually makes decisions can also pursue other goals. In addition to economic aspects, the management intentions of modern managers are also influenced by factors arising from the organizational culture built, co-created within the organization and sometimes with the participation of external actors such as suppliers and customers. The sources of the creation of social values will be the management intentions of top management, often initiated by the adopted values and rules on the basis of which resources are bound within the structure of the business model. The value of sustainability is based on the identification of those creative sources that relate to economic and social value. Economic value is created through social value and vice versa. This allows the complementarity of the value created to be mutually supportive. The business model that integrates both of these values should be more resistant to crises than the one that is oriented only toward producing economic value. Concurrent implementation of economic and social goals increases resilience and affects the success of modern business models. This is due to the specificity of the business ecosystem that is built as part of the business model, which, in essence, is based on the use of social factors to merge the business model into a complex ecosystem capable of producing value.