This book is a concise and authoritative reference work and dictionary in the field of corporate social responsibility, sustainability, business ethics and corporate governance. It provides reliable definitions to more than 600 terms and concepts for researchers and professionals alike. By its definitions the dictionary helps users to understand the meanings of commonly used terms in CSR, and the roles and functions of CSR-related international organizations. Furthermore, it helps to identify keynotes on international guidelines, codes and principles relevant to CSR. The role of CSR in the business world has developed from a fig leaf marketing front into an important and indispensable aspect of corporate behavior over the past years. Sustainable strategies are valued, desired and deployed more and more by relevant players in business, politics, and societies all over the world. Both research and corporate practice therefore see CSR as a guiding principle for business success.

In this book we capture and explore different aspects of value in corporate social responsibility (CSR). This includes the historical development of value in CSR, how value is linked to a positive vision of the future, and how it is communicated by a range of private and public organisations to various audiences. The book contrasts corporate strategic value with co-operative value, and community value in the context of sustainable development. It explains how leaders’ values can drive responsible business practice and enhance social cohesion, solidarity and resilience in fractured and unequal communities. The book asks the reader to consider what value means in CSR for business and society, where it comes from and how it is enacted, alongside its broader purpose and value to the community. Finally, the book presents CSR as a global project by noting how values are cultural and how sustainability has become an urgent international priority.

This book present the value school of corporate governance, outlining a multitude of areas where corporate governance could add real worth, and showing how this can be put into effect. No “one-size-fits-all” model emerges as a solution. Rather, the insights in this book take idiosyncrasies and dynamics over time into consideration. They consider the main issues and their real causes, ownership settings, country settings and new developments in corporate governance research and practice. International focus places emphasises on typical patterns, predicament and solutions instead of national laws. Points are illustrated with in-depth case studies and highlighted learning nuggets. Alerts the reader to typical dilemmas and traps in attaining the goal of value creation, whilst also pointing to promising avenues forward.

What is the role of boards in corporate governance? How should they be structured in order to maximize value creation? This 2007 book looks at the role of boards in a variety of different countries and contexts, from small and medium-sized enterprises to large corporations. It explores the working style of boards and how they can best achieve their task expectations. Board effectiveness and value creation are shown to be the results of interactions between owners, managers, board members and other actors. Board behaviour is thus seen to be a result of strategizing, norms, board leadership, and the decision-making culture within the boardroom. Combining value creation, behavioural and ethical approaches to the study of boards, this work offers a systematic framework which will be of value to graduate students and researchers in the field of corporate social responsibility and business ethics.

This book discusses the tasks and functions of corporate governance in the light of current challenges and the dynamics that arise from a broader approach to company management and the integration of corporate governance with corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability. Addressing the corporate governance shortcomings that are believed to have contributed to the recent financial crisis, it explores the interplay between corporate governance and CSR, and includes examples of company practice to show how such changes affect the practices of shareholders, boards of directors and regulators. In particular, the book examines shareholders’ activities, their different investment strategies, specific reporting expectations and the submission of proposals to the annual meeting. Further, for boards of directors it explores the need to revise their tasks with respect to the criteria for executive appointments, their corporate strategy, performance measures and diversity recommendations, while for directors it provides recommendations to reconsider the structure of executive pay and performance incentives. Lastly, for regulators the book investigates the need to introduce new laws addressing, for instance, the need for integrated reporting, limiting the voice of short term oriented shareholders and providing guidelines for executive compensation.

Compliance has become key to our contemporary markets, societies, and modes of governance across a variety of public and private domains. While this has stimulated a rich body of empirical and practical expertise on compliance, thus far, there has been no comprehensive understanding of what compliance is or how it influences various fields and sectors. The academic knowledge of compliance has remained siloed along different disciplinary domains, regulatory and legal spheres, and mechanisms and interventions. This handbook bridges these divides to provide the first one-stop overview of what compliance is, how we can best study it, and the core mechanisms that shape it. Written by leading experts, chapters offer perspectives from across law, regulatory studies, management science, criminology, economics, sociology, and psychology. This volume is the definitive and comprehensive account of compliance.