Research Briefs

This Stanford Social Innovation Review opinion piece argues that the ideal civil society would blend the best of an American entrepreneurial style with an approach that leaves governing to government, business to business, and advocates for all sectors to “cooperate for the greater benefit of all.”

A model for designing measurement of effectiveness of CSR activities across multiple stakeholder groups.

Corporate alliances with nonprofit organizations can produce valuable information and knowledge, aid in problem solving, contribute to new product/market development, and improve stakeholder relations, when entered into with appropriate planning and guidelines.

Porter and Kramer suggest that corporations can use their charitable efforts to improve their competitive context - the quality of the business environment in the locations where they operate.

Researchers writing in the Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research analyzed previous research in the areas of corporate citizenship management and human resource development. Based on this analysis they propose a process that can be used to develop employees as a strong part of the company commitment to corporate citizenship.

As the growth rate of the American workforce continues to slow, U.S. business has an opportunity to benefit from the trend of workers delaying retirement because of personal choice and financial need. These findings are from an article in Generations: The Journal of the American Society on Aging that shows the historic trends.

During a major economic downturn firms that can maintain or improve favorable reputations across many stakeholder groups are better able to maintain or increase value and are more attractive to investors, according to research findings presented in an article in the Journal of Product and Brand Management.

Some exchanges in the global market are now requiring publicly traded companies to issue environmental and social reports in addition to financial reports. Outside the United States more companies are moving toward integrated reporting that combines financial and nonfinancial information in one document.

The CSR debate continues with prominent management academics exploring the issues. The California Management Review featured an article by Aneel Karnani and another co-authored by Sandra Waddock and Pietra Rivoli in its Winter 2011 issue.

In an International Journal of Management and Marketing Research article researchers offer a five-country cross-cultural analysis of attitudes and action concerning the environment that shows Americans lag behind consumers in developing markets who are more receptive to early adoption of green products and services.

Managers should identify the motives behind an employee’s organizational citizenship practices. Those with altruistic motives can promote greater organizational performance than others with self-serving motives. Although when this is understood and managed properly, a person driven by self-serving motives can provide greater benefit the organization.

A study of human resources managers found that the capacity for HR departments to support understanding and implementation of corporate citizenship initiatives is not being utilized by companies. Researchers found that important and valuable expertise of HR managers in organizational change and employee relations goes untapped frequently.