Corporate Social Responsibility

Abstract

In the context of some criticism about social responsibility education in business schools, the paper reports findings from a survey of CSR education (teaching and research) in Europe. It analyses the extent of CSR education, the different ways in which it is defined and the levels at which it is taught. The paper provides an account of the efforts that are being made to ''mainstream'' CSR teaching and of the teaching methods deployed. It considers drivers of CSR courses, particularly the historical role of motivated individuals and the anticipation of future success being dependent on more institutional drivers. Finally it considers main developments in CSR research both by business school faculty and PhD students, tomorrow's researchers and the resources devoted to CSR research. The conclusion includes questions that arise and further research directions.

International Social Comparisons of Corporate Responsibility

“…But it is considered also that in Europe, companies increasingly assume responsibility for fulfilling stakeholder expectations rather than relying on welfare state institutions, giving a rise to explicit CSR [5]. This may explain the difference in the results obtained from USA and the European countries that were analyzed.…”

“…If we use the explicit/implicit distinction by Porter & Kramer [10], in which implicit CSR is defined as a reaction to the corporations' institutional environment, while explicit CSR is the result of a voluntary decision of the corporation, the USA are characterized by a more explicit approach to CSR, while Europe is better defined with an implicit approach [5]. But it is considered also that in Europe, companies increasingly assume responsibility for fulfilling stakeholder expectations rather than relying on welfare state institutions, giving a rise to explicit CSR [5].…”

“…This may explain the difference in the results obtained from USA and the European countries that were analyzed. Nevertheless, as Matten and Moon [5] conclude, it is still open to future research whether explicit or implicit CSR approaches deal better with different social issues.…”

“…Also, these countries exhibit differences regarding the role of the government and of companies in deploying CSR: in the United States and in Norway, there is a higher reliance on companies to have a social responsibility, in other European countries such as Italy and France, it is expected that the government with its policies accomplishes this social role and encourages firms to act in a more socially responsible way. There are differences, nevertheless, between Italy and France: while in Italy, a multi-stakeholder approach is favored to increasingly incentive Italian companies to include these social concerns in their strategies, in France it is mostly accepted that the government has the responsibility over the social welfare [5][6][7].…”

The Challenge to Foster Foreign Students’ Experiences for Sustainable Higher Educational Institutions

“…These include good governance practices [2], the improvement of the teaching/research link [3], and the inclusion and coverage of the topics of ethics, social responsibility, and sustainable development, mainly in courses devoted to economics and business management, especially Master's courses [4,5].…”