Simulacra and Sustainability Disclosure: Analysis of the Interpretative Models of Creating Shared Value

Abstract

Business scandals, environmental disasters, and the growing attention to malnutrition and starvation around the world, are emphasizing the criticism toward capitalism and the way business is approached. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability theories are becoming understated, as Porter and Kramer's emerging concept of Creating Shared Value (CSV) has argued. Indeed, CSV is attracting increasing attention from the corporate and professional world as well as getting controversial judgments and reviews by CSR and sustainability scholars. Indeed, CSV appears more a buzzword than a theoretical concept. After outlining the underlying debate, our study critically examines how worldwide organizations have approached and interpreted CSV in their sustainability disclosure practices. In that sense, similarly to Plato and Baudrillard's concept of ‘simulacrum’, companies adopting CSV create an interpretation of their practical reality through definitions and images. Qualitative and rather innovative techniques are applied to analyze and categorize the narrative and graphical signals provided by a sample of leading organizations within their sustainability disclosure. Our findings show that, overall, CSV is not viewed as something unrelated to CSR, not just philanthropy, but is a strategically oriented shift from sustainability which stresses the inclusion of stakeholders' needs. Given the current lack of research addressing how CSV has been interpreted and disclosed, our study provides a significant contribution to the current academic debate. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

The effects of creating shared value (CSV) on the consumer self–brand connection: Perspective of sustainable development

“…The holistic framework for the CSV model relates conceptually to business models associated with conscious capitalism, social entrepreneurship, social innovation and bottom‐of‐the‐pyramid marketing (Crane et al, ). Denning () and Crane et al () pointed out that the CSV strategy is just one of many viable approaches to innovation that can be used to reconstruct a sustainable corporate worldview (Corazza et al, , p. 416).…”

“…Kramer and Pfitzer () provide several examples of arguments supporting CSV, including one that stresses the importance of building a ‘shared value ecosystem’, meaning that, to advance shared value efforts, businesses must foster and participate in multisector coalitions (Corazza et al, , p. 416). Some studies have, however, indicated that more research is needed to flesh out the ‘big idea’ of CSV (Dembek et al, ).…”

“…in response to the dramatically changing environment (McIntosh, Thomas, Leipziger, & Coleman, ). A company's sustainability and social responsibility lie at the core of the new paradigm of the corporate management environment as well as one of major issues in the academic area (Bolton & Landells, ; Corazza, Scagnelli, & Mio, ; Dobele, Westberg, Steel, & Flowers, ). Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has evolved such that not only large companies but also small‐ and medium‐sized companies must consider adopting CSR as a strategy.…”

Corporate sustainability and responsibility: creating value for business, society and the environment

“…Porter and Kramer (2006); Porter and Kramer (2011); Union (2011);Crane et al (2014); Camilleri (2014); Beschorner (2014); de los Reyes et al 2016;Corazza et al (2017);Camilleri (2017). Freeman (1984); Hillman and Keim (2001); Sen et al (2006); Morsing and Schultz (2006) Bhattacharya et al (2009) ;Henisz et al (2014); O'Riordan and Fairbrass 2014;Camilleri (2015); Yasser et al (2017).…”

“…They suggested that this proposition simplifies the role of corporations in society and ignores the challenges arising from business compliance. Their argument was that there are alternative ways to re-invent capitalism (Corazza et al 2017). This strategic approach cannot cure all of society's ills as not all businesses are good for society, nor would the pursuit of shared value eliminate all injustice .…”