CSR, Sustainable Value Creation and Shareholder Relations

Abstract

The establishment of integrated corporate social responsibility principles, the growing complexity and importance of business/stakeholder relationships, and the elimination of space and time barriers to the circulation of information and capital change the corporate governance approach of listed companies. This situation attenuates the business approach, which has characterised firms with wide ownership dispersion (outsider systems) and those with concentrated ownership or control (insider systems) for a long time. This discussion article aims to be a theoretical contribution, which investigates the relationship between integrated CSR and investors according to a management model able to create sustainable value and optimise meeting the interests of shareholders and other stakeholders. Corporate social responsibility and an orientation towards sustainability facilitate the reduction of business risk and the creation of value in the medium-to long-term, regardless of the ownership structure of companies and the characteristics of risk capital markets.

How to Lead the Board of Directors to a Sustainable Development of Business with the CSR Committees

“…As regard the ownership concentration, we can note the following situation: in the FTSE MIB market almost half of the capital stock belongs to small or to majority shareholders, while in the STAR market the allocation of ownership is more unbalanced on small stockholders, albeit with a relevant role of the biggest ones. The existence of owners belonging more than 50% of capital is a structural peculiarity of the insider systems of corporate governance (as Italy and most of the European countries) characterized by concentrated and commonly stable shareholding [44,92]. Please note that a company can have participation in different slots, that is the reason why adding up the averages for O1, O2 and O3 the total is more than 100%.…”

“…In particular, the literature about the board committees depicts a growing presence of CSR committees [13,41], with the aim to manage activities regarding social, environment, health and safety matters, and stakeholder relationships [42], balancing the potential conflict between shareholders' short term profit expectations and the long term creation of value as fundamental to corporate future life, as sustainability view suggests [43]. In fact, such committees act as mediators among conflicting interests within the board, or when short-termism demands conflict with the long-lasting value [44], reviewing and recommending to the BoDs goals and policies that maintain the company committed to high standards of ethics and integrity, legal compliance, social responsibility and sustainability.…”

Gender balance on boards and corporate sustainability for the 2030 Agenda

“…The aforementioned behaviour's diversity, not only intensifies the discrepancies in the number of women in top positions among the European countries, but it tends to create also bureaucratic costs related to divergent requirements in board structure. Furthermore, the differences in the criteria for the appointment of available positions as board directors is a barrier for a greater gender diversity among the boards' members and it negatively affects the careers of the candidates and their freedom of movement, as well as the decisions of investors (Salvioni and Gennari, 2017). The issue about the imposition of rules favouring a more incisive representation of women on boards is widely debated.…”

“…In other words, sustainability is a long-term corporate vision that refers to a concept of global responsibility including economic, social and environmental aspects (Aras and Crowter, 2008;Carroll, 1999;Dahlsrud, 2008;Van Marrewijk and Were, 2003). This approach safeguards the interests of all stakeholders (Salvioni and Gennari, 2017), according to E-mail: francesca.gennari@unibs.it. Tel: +39 030 2988516.…”

Sustainability Reporting in International Hotel Chains

“…The adoption of corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies (Carroll, 1979;Elkington, 1997), sustainability orientation (Brundtland, 1987) and enhancement of the importance of stakeholder view (Freeman, 1984;Jacoby, 1973;Longstreth & Kesenblum, 1973;Donaldsond & Preston, 1995) and stakeholder engagement (Sloan, 2009) have promoted integration in organisations between the economic and social-environmental dimensions. These actions serve as drivers for the improvement of the collection of additional economic information which results in the provision of new data, aimed at ensuring coherence among governance choices, organisational conduct and sustainable performance (Carroll, 1999;Freeman et al, 2010;Harrison et al, 2015;Schaltegger et al, 2017;Salvioni & Gennari, 2017).…”