Defining corporate social responsibility: A view from big companies in Germany and the UK

European Business Review

Volumn 19, Issue 5, 2007, Pages 352-372

  Silberhorn, Daniel ^a   Warren, Richard C ^b  

^a Burston Marsteller   (Germany)

^b MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Corporate social responsibility; Corporate strategy; Economic sustainability; Germany; United Kingdom

Indexed keywords

EID: 34548045031     PISSN: 0955534X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1108/09555340710818950     Document Type: Article

References (48)

1. Aupperle, K.E., Carroll, A.B. and Hatfield, J.D. (1985), “An empirical investigation between corporate social responsibility and profitability”, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 28, pp. 446-63.
2. Bhambri, A. and Sonnenfeld, J. (1988), “Organizational structure and corporate social performance”, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 31, pp. 642-62.
3. Bowman, E.H. and Haire, M. (1975), “A strategic posture toward corporate social responsibility”, California Management Review, Vol. 18, pp. 49-58.
4. Carroll, A.B. (1979), “A three-dimensional conceptual model of corporate social performance”, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 497-505.
5. Carroll, A.B. (1999), “Corporate social responsibility”, Business and Society, Vol. 38 No. 3, pp. 268-95.
6. Cowen, S.S., Ferrei, L.B. and Parker, L.D. (1987), “The impact of corporate characteristics on social responsibility disclosure: a typology and frequency-based analysis”, Accounting, Organisations and Society, Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 111-22.
7. Cowton, C. (1987), “Corporate philanthropy in the United Kingdom”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 6, pp. 553-8.
8. Cutlip, S.M., Center, A.H. and Broom, G.M. (2000), Effective Public Relations, Prentice-Hall, London.
9. Dierkes, M. (1980), “Corporate social reporting and performance in Germany”, in Preston, L.E. (Ed.), Research in Corporate Social Performance and Policy,Vol. 2, JAI Press, Greenwich, CT, pp. 251-89.
10. Drew, P. (1995), “Conversation analysis”, in Smith, J.A., Harré, R. and Langenhove, L.v. (Eds), Rethinking Methods in Psychology, Sage, London.
11. Esrock, S. and Leichty, G. (1998), “Social responsibility and corporate web pages: self-presentation or agenda setting?”, Public Relations Review, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 305-19.
12. Esrock, S. and Leichty, G. (2000), “Organization of corporate web pages: publics and functions”, Public Relations Review, Vol. 26 No. 3, pp. 327-44.
13. European Commission (2002), Corporate Social Responsibility: A Business Contribution to Sustainable Development, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg.
14. Flick, U. (2002), An Introduction to Qualitative Research, Sage, London.
15. Goebbels, M. (2002), “Reframing corporate social responsibility: the contemporary conception of a fuzzy notion”, unpublished article, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam.
16. Grunig, J.E., Dozier, D.M., Ehling, W.P., Grunig, L.A., Repper, F.C. and White, J. (1992), Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, London; Hillsdale, NJ.
17. Heath, R.L. and Ryan, M.R. (1989), “Public relations role in defining corporate social responsibility”, Journal of Mass Media Ethics, Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 21-38.
18. Hemingway, Ch.A. and Maclagan, P.W. (2004), “Managers' personal values as drivers of corporate social responsibility”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 50 No. 1, pp. 33-44.
19. Holmes, S.L. (1976), “Executive perceptions of corporate social responsibility”, Business Horizons, Vol. 19, pp. 34-40.
20. Hopkins, M. (2004), “Corporate social responsibility around the world”, available at: www.stthom.edu/cbes/corporate.html (accessed June 16, 2004).
21. Ibrahim, N.A., Howard, D.P. and Angelidis, J.P. (2003), “Board members in the service industry: an empirical examination of the relationship between corporate social responsibility orientation and directional type”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 47 No. 4, pp. 393-401.
22. Joyner, B.E. and Payne, D. (2002), “Evolution and implementation: a study of values, business ethics and corporate social responsibility”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 41 No. 4, pp. 297-311.
23. King, N. (1999), “The qualitative research interview”, in Cassell, C. and Symon, G. (Eds), Qualitative Methods in Organizational Research: A Practical Guide, Sage, London.
24. L'Etang, J. (1994), “Public relations and corporate social responsibility: some issues arising”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 13 No. 2, pp. 111-23.
25. Lerner, L.D. and Fryxell, G.E. (1988), “An empirical study of the predictors of corporate social performance: a multi-dimensional analysis”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 7, pp. 951-9.
26. Levy, F. and Shatto, G. (1980), “Social responsibility in large electric utility firms: the case of philanthropy”, in Preston, L.E. (Ed.), Research in Corporate Social Performance and Policy,Vol. 2, JAI Press, Greenwich, CT, pp. 237-49.
27. Longnecker, J.G. (1985), “Management priorities and management ethics”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 4, pp. 65-70.
28. McGuire, J., Sundgren, A. and Schneeweis, T. (1988), “Corporate social responsibility and firm financial performance”, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 31, pp. 854-72.
29. Maignan, I. and Ralston, D. (2002), “Corporate social responsibility in Europe and the US: insights from businesses' self presentations”, Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 33 No. 3, pp. 497-514.
30. Miles, R. (1987), Marketing and the Corporate Social Environment, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
31. Moir, L. (2001), “What do we mean by corporate social responsibility?”, Corporate Governance, Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 16-22.
32. Moore, C. and Richardson, J. (1988), “The politics and practices of corporate responsibility in Great Britain”, in Preston, L.E. (Ed.), Research in Corporate Social Performance and Policy,Vol. 10, JAI Press, Greenwich, CT, pp. 267-90.
33. Neuendorf, K.A. (2002), The Content Analysis Guidebook, Sage, London.
34. O'Dwyer, B. (2003), “Conceptions of corporate social responsibility: the nature of managerial capture”, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 16 No. 4, pp. 523-57.
35. Patton, M.Q. (2002), Qualitative Research and Evaluation Models, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
36. Pinkston, T.S. (1991), “‘Corporate citizenship’: a comparative analysis of foreign affiliates located in the US and their domestic counterparts”, unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Georgia, Atlanta, GA.
37. Pinkston, T.S. and Carroll, A.B. (1996), “A retrospective examination of CSR orientations. Have they changed?”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 15 No. 2, pp. 199-206.
38. Robertson, D.C. and Schlegelmilch, B.B. (1993), “Corporate institutionalization of ethics in the United States and Great Britain”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 301-12.
39. Snider, J., Hill, R.P. and Martin, D. (2003), “Corporate social responsibility in the 21st century: a view from the world's most successful firms”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 48 No. 2, pp. 175-87.
40. Vogel, D. (2005), The Market for Virtue: The Potential and Limits of CSR, Brookings Institution Press, Washington, DC.
41. Wilson, I. (2000), “The new rules. Ethics, social responsibility and strategy”, Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 28 No. 3, pp. 12-16.
42. Wood, D.J. (1991), “Corporate social performance revisited”, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 16, pp. 691-718.
43. Zadek, S. (2004), The Civil Corporation: The New Economy of Corporate Citizenship, Earthscan Publications, London.
44. Abott, W.F. and Monsen, R.J. (1979), “On the measurement of corporate social responsibility: self-reported disclosures as a method of measuring corporate social involvement”, Academy of Business Journal, Vol. 22, pp. 501-15.
45. Friedman, M. (1962), “The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits”, The New York Times, September 21, p. 126.
46. Goebbels, M. (2001), “The contemporary dynamics of corporate social responsibility: untangling an emerging notion”, unpublished article, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam.
47. Jones, M.T. (1996), “Missing the forest for the trees: a critique of the social responsibility concept and discourse”, Business and Society, Vol. 35 No. 1, pp. 7-41.
48. Verÿiÿ, D. and Grunig, J.E. (2003), “The origins of public relations theory in economics and strategic management”, in Moss, D., Verÿiÿ, D. and Warnaby, G. (Eds), Perspectives on Public Relations Research, Routledge, London, pp. 9-58.