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CSR and tourism after the Indian Ocean tsunami

Ethics & Corporate Social Responsibility

The principles of sustainable development have much in common with those of CSR and the terms are sometimes used interchangeably. A company pursuing sustainable tourism is, by definition, socially responsible while CSR incorporates some of the fundamental tenets of sustainability.
Henderson, 2007, p231

Henderson, J. C. (2007). Corporate social responsibility and tourism: Hotel companies in Phuket, Thailand, after the Indian Ocean tsunami. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 26(1), 228-239.

This paper looks at corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the tourism industry in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Forteen international and regional hotel groups were surveyed regarding CSR activities following the tsunami.

Click here to read full article.

Achieving A Sustainable Advantage

Business Gone Green: Managerial Issues, Singapore, Sustainable Enterprises

Why is Singapore Airlines still a great way to fly, despite the fierce competition from regional airlines and low-cost carriers offering rock-bottom prices? How is it able to achieve its sustainable advantage amidst a competitive airline industry?

The authors of the following article explore the nature of the airline’s human resource management practices that allows it achieve consistent service excellence and maintain a competitive edge.

Heracleous, L., & Wirtz, J. (2009). Strategy and organization at Singapore Airlines: Achieving sustainable advantage through dual strategy. [doi:DOI: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2008.11.011]. Journal of Air Transport Management, 15(6), 274-279.

Click here to read full article.

CSR for sustainability and success : corporate social responsibility in Singapore

Ethics & Corporate Social Responsibility, NTU Library Resources, Singapore, Sustainable Enterprises, , , , ,

In Singapore, NTUC is almost synonymous to supermarket. Most heartlanders fulfil their groceries needs at NTUC FairPrice supermarkets littered across the island. And with the introduction of FairPrice Finest in more upmarket locations, even expatriates are doing so as imported products, which used to be only available in specialist supermarket in town, are now readily available there.

Do you know that NTUC Fairprice is a co-operative*? At the core of its mission as a social enterprise is the moderation of the cost of living while at the same time maintaining success as a business (Frohman, 2009).
What are the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) Vision and Mission of NTUC FairPrice? What are some measures it has taken to become the “Best Corporate Citizen”? What are some challenges and opportunities it faces?

Read more about the FairPrice CSR story in CSR For Sustainability and Business. Other companies highlighted in the book include

Title: CSR for Sustainability and Success
Edited by: Wong, Evelyn S.
Publisher : Marshall Cavendish Editions, c2009
Call No.: HD60.5.S55C958

Click here for more titles on the same topic.

* A co-operative, in essence, is a form of organisation in which customers share in the profits in relation to purchases. In other words, members of the co-op enjoy not only the “benefits of good-quality products at fair prices but also a share of the profits (a dividend) based on the amount of each member’s purchases” (A Dictionary of Business and Management, Oxford University Press, 2009).

Frohman, N. (2009). Best Place to Shop, Best Place to Work, Best Corporate Citizen. In Evelyn Wong, CSR for Sustainability and Success.

Sustainability Reporting

Ethics & Corporate Social Responsibility

Delfgaauw, T. (2000). Reporting on Sustainable Development: A Preparer’s View. Auditing, 19(1), 67.

Abstract from author
The article discusses the experiences of the petrochemical company Shell Group with sustainability reporting. One publicly stated objective of “The Shell Report” is that eventually it aims to evolve into the Shell annual report including the full financial report, as well as reports on the environmental and social performance of the Shell Group, hopefully in a fully integrated manner. Shell has had the core values of honesty, integrity, and respect for people at the heart of its approach to business for more than a hundred years. They are the bedrock on which its business principles are based. After the external crises that hit Shell in the mid-1990s, intensive stakeholder contacts and internal deliberations followed. At the end of that a decision was taken to incorporate two new commitments into the business principles: a commitment to contribute to sustainable development and a commitment to respect fundamental human rights. The article author would like to highlight two additional issues: the need for standards on sustainability reporting, and the question of which parties can verify sustainability reports. Regarding the first issue, the necessity is clear and several organizations are working to develop standards..

Read the full article here.

Making sense of CSR in international business

Ethics & Corporate Social Responsibility

Schouten, E. M. J., & Remm, J. (2006). Making sense of corporate social responsibility in international business: experiences from Shell. Business Ethics: A European Review, 15(4), 365-379.

Abstract from author
International business organizations are regularly addressed on their corporate social responsibility (CSR). As illustrated in this paper, it is not yet clear exactly what CSR means to organizations and how to deal with it. In this paper, the authors explore how a sense-making approach helps to understand the business challenges of CSR within an organizational context. The theories of Karl Weick are applied to the experiences of CSR in Royal Dutch Shell. The authors argue that the key to CSR in international business organizations is to engage stakeholders and start a process of joint sense-making. Three main competencies are crucial in this: the competency to engage stakeholders through listening and understanding; the creation of an organizational language so that CSR makes sense to members of the organization; and recognizing the momentum of taking action.

Click to read the article.

Reputation Management at Royal Dutch Shell

Ethics & Corporate Social Responsibility

Schultz, M., Hatch, M., Larsen, M., Fombrun, C., & Rindova, V. (2002). CHAPTER 6: The Road to Transparency: Reputation Management at Royal Dutch/Shell. Expressive Organization, 77-96.

Abstract from author
The article presents an extensive empirical analysis of the transformation of the company Royal Dutch/Shell into a more transparent and expressive organization by the use of a comprehensive reputation management process. The authors introduce a learning model for reputation management and describe the managerial and organizational processes needed to support reputation as strategy. The models of reputation management that Shell derived from its experience show that the management of organizational reputation is inextricably linked to the management of organizational identity. In order to influence how a firm wants to be perceived it has to change who it believes itself to be. Thus, the sustainability of a firm’s reputation as an asset is also better ensured.

Read the full article here.

Transparent and caring corporations?

Ethics & Corporate Social Responsibility, Green Marketing,

Livesey, Sharon M, & Kearins, Kate. (2002). Transparent and caring corporations? A study of sustainability reports by The Body Shop and Royal Dutch/Shell. Organization & Environment, 15(3), 233-258

Abstract from author
This article analyzes sustainability values reports published by The Body Shop International and by the Royal Dutch/Shell Group. The authors show how corporate discourses expressed in these precedent-setting texts both reflect and influence sociopolitical struggle over the meanings and practices of sustainable development. Specifically, the authors examine metaphors of transparency and care used to describe corporate rationales for increasing stakeholder communication, including reporting. Drawing on distinct discursive domains of business accountancy and personal ethics and sentiment, these metaphors promise to reconstruct the interface between the firm and society. Exploring the quite different assumptions on which each of these metaphors relies and their implications for corporate practices of sustainable development, the authors consider whether sustainability values reporting and the dialogue that it claims to facilitate can promote more democratic and socially and environmentally responsive corporate decision making, even as they impose new forms of managerial control.

To read entire article, click here.

The authors also presented a conference paper about The Body Shop and Royal Dutch Shell entitiled (Be)Coming Clean: Sustainable Developement Accounting as Social Construction of Greening in 2001.

Abstract from authorThis paper addresses corporate public reporting efforts of two very different companies, The Body Shop International and Royal Dutch/Shell Group, both cited as pioneers in producing “values” or “social” reports. These are early examples of an emerging report genre so-called “triple bottom line” or “sustainable development” accounting that aspires to integrate social, environmental and financial performance indicators. Our post-structuralist analysis closely examines the texts of reports by each company to show how they restore the progress myth and its narrow economic paradigm in order to deconstruct the polarity between profits and principles. Thus, they construct new premises for sustainable (i.e., legitimate and competitive) business practice. The reporting examples we choose serve different corporate motives and goals for the two companies involved; nonetheless the reports themselves share common characteristics and strategies particularly, the interpolation of sentimental discourses of “caring” and “passion” with more rationalist discourses of business economics and accountancy. Thus, they attempt to articulate connections between distinct and previously incompatible discourses, between modernist sensibilities and those that challenge them. Broadly speaking, we argue that these new forms of corporate reporting constitute a micropractice of sustainable development, a currently emerging discursive domain. In this respect, the evolving genre plays a significant role in the constitution of knowledge about the environmental problematic and institutionalization of corporate behaviors that will count as environmentally and socially responsible and responsive. Accordingly, it bears investigation for its ontological and disciplinary force, including its capacity to potentiate more democratic decision-making and communication, as well as new forms of managerial control.

Read the full article here.

Articles on Sustainable Development and CSR in Scopus

Ethics & Corporate Social Responsibility, NTU Library Resources

What is Sustainable Development? According to Steurer et al. (2005), sustainable development (SD) is “Development that meets the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs and aspirations“. In their paper, titled “Corporations, stakeholders and sustainable development I: A theoretical exploration of business-society relations”, the authors looked at how sustainable development can be acheived through stakeholder relations management (SRM). How SD and SRM relate to each other and other popular concepts such as Corporate Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility were also explored. Since its publication in 2005, this paper has been cited 31 times in Scopus.

For a list of articles on Sustainable Development and CSR in Scopus, please click here.

Sustainable Corporations

Sustainable Enterprises, , ,

What do Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Intel and IBM have in common, besides being companies that deal with computers as their core businesses? They are in the Top 5 list of Newsweek Green Ranking for 2009-2010. The four companies from the technology sector came in 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th respectively. The only non-technology company to make it into the Top 5 is Johnson and Johnson.

Newsweek ranked the companies based on the Green Score each company obtained. The score is based on 3 components – Environmental Impact Score, Green Policies Score, Reputation Scores. For the full list of the Top 500 Green US Companies in Newsweek’s inaugural Green Ranking, please click here. To find out more about the methodology used for the scoring and ranking, click here.

Besides Newsweek’s list, Forbes also has it’s own list – of the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations, available here. Different from Newsweek’s ranking, the corporations in Forbes’ list comprises international companies and are scored based on Strategic Governance, Human Capital, Environment and Stakeholder Capital.

Another list you might want to conside is the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, compiled in collaboration with SAM. Details are availabe here.