Young people as company stakeholders? Moving beyond CSR…

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/ authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The case of corporations establishing a relationship with young people -because of the moral responsibility involved -allows us to illustrate the complexities of trying to decide what is morally correct to collectively ensure children's well-being. This paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach -Applying the ''stakeholder theory'' to child industries -under which term this paper includes all business activities that establish a commercial relationship involving children, either as the recipient or user of the final product or beneficiary of a specific service, or as a co-decision-maker for purchases within his/her family or social circles -reveals a series of conceptual challenges...Findings -The limited understanding of stakeholder theory within the CSR managerial perspective leads companies to overlook some important moral issues about children's well-being, and exposes them to particularly hard criticisms of their actions and marketing policies. Research limitations/implications -If children have been overlooked by the stakeholder theory, how may the interests of youth be represented in a stakeholder perspective?Practical implications -To deal with some of the dilemmas entailed by considering children's representatives as legitimate spokespersons, the paper suggests drawing on the ethics of care to attempt delineating a corporate social responsibility towards young people.Originality/value -This paper emphasises a number of issues relevant to young consumers, including the absence of children in stakeholder theory and how that absence speaks to the presumed extent and boundaries of corporate social responsibility.

Digital natives: the engagement experience to online protection

“…As a result, some interest groups such as employees, shareholders, customers, suppliers or regulators are traditionally regarded as stakeholders in academic research (Freeman et al, 2010;Post et al, 2002;Donaldson and Preston, 1995). However, the topic of children as stakeholders in business has not been analyzed sufficiently (De la Ville, 2014;Crane and Kazmi, 2010;Derry, 2012;Horgan, 2005). Following De la Ville (2014, p. 3):…”

Children-Engaging Social and Environmental Initiatives as Determinants of Corporate Reputation

“…future consumers. Nowadays, more often children are named an important group of stakeholders due to their increased purchasing power and influence upon the family buying patterns and decisions (Calvert, 2008;Crane & Kazmi, 2010;Hart et al, 2011;de la Ville, 2014;Estrela et al, 2014). When naming children stakeholders, the viewpoint is adopted that an organisation's activity can directly or indirectly influence children's welfare and / or can grant or withdraw resources that are needed for the activities of an organisation (Maignant & Ferrel, 2004).…”