ECONIS Select – Shared Value and Sustainable Business Strategy

07/2010

Selected for the Global Economic Symposium 2010

In the recent world wide economic crisis, the moral position of business in society has received renewed attention. Business enterprises around the world have begun to embrace greater responsibility for a sustainable, valueoriented society. These goals need to be reconciled with profit maximizing activities in order to assure the continued survival of enterprises operating in competitive environments. Achieving such reconciliation requires at least following factors:

1. Strengthening the new sense of corporate responsibility for society and identifying fields for shared-value activity in accordance with customers, suppliers, employees and the broader public.
2. Developing specific business models that better allow combining profit maximizing with the provision of shared value for society. These business models may vary according to the relative significance of the commercial compared to the social component, reaching from largely commercial firms with a commitment to shared value, to social entrepreneurs making a living out of serving social interest.
3. Re-organizing corporations internally, to ensure that the impact of corporate operations on society is duly considered, and to establish the commitment toward provision of shared value throughout the firm.

In turn, successful provision of shared value can help making societies more sustainable (e.g., by backing the endorsement for entrepreneurial activity in society, by stabilising fragile states, by contributing to the rebuilding of failed states) and can help securing options of choice for future generations. And again in turn, a sustainable society by fostering the growth of the whole economy may further social entrepreneurship and shared value.

• What kind of shared value is required?
• How can businesses best use their core competences in the interests of society?
• What government policies and civil society initiatives are necessary to overcome political or even mental constraints?
• What barriers are to be removed to reap the social benefit of social entrepreneurship?
  For instance, are there unnecessarily complicated license and permission procedures?
• Should new forms of organization be installed, or existing ones (e.g., cooperatives) reinforced to better serve the requirements of shared value business?
• What support could be offered to firms to be active and efficient in this field (e.g., alliances between commercial firms and social entrepreneurs, joint ventures, PPP)?
• To what degree does the internal re-organization of corporations require long-range planning and finding a new balance between short- and long-term business goals?

Literature selected from our database ECONIS:

• Title: A handbook of corporate governance and social responsibility / edited by Güler Aras and David Crowther
  Published: Farnham; Burlington, Vt.: Gower, c 2010
  Subject heading: Corporate governance / Corporate social responsibility / Theory / World
  Link: Table of contents
• Article: Modelling CSR: how managers understand the responsibilities of business towards society / Esben Rahbek Pedersen
  In: Journal of business ethics. - Dordrecht: Springer, ISSN 0167-4544, ZDB-ID 8680176. - Bd. 91.2010, 2, S. 155-166
  Subject heading: Corporate social responsibility / Managers / Perception / Transnational corporation
• Article: A reinterpretation of the principles of CSR: a pragmatic approach / Bjørn-Tore Blindheim and Oluf Langhelle
  In: Corporate social responsibility and environmental management. - Chichester: Wiley, ISSN 1535-3958, ZDB-ID 20779641. - Bd. 17.2010, 2, S. 107-117
  Subject heading: Corporate social responsibility / Sustainable development
• Article: Introduction: the intellectual crisis of CSR / Peter Utting and José Carlos Marques
  In: Corporate social responsibility and regulatory governance. - Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 0-230-57644-3. - 2010, S. 1-25
  Subject heading: Corporate social responsibility
• Article: Corporate social responsibility in the creation of shareholder value / Stephan Heblich
  In: A handbook of corporate governance and social responsibility. - Farnham: Gower, ISBN 978-0-566-08817-9. - 2010, S. 489-508
  Subject heading: Corporate social responsibility / Corporate performance / Innovation management / Competition / Shareholder value
• Article: Systemic sustainability SM: moving sustainability from ideas to action / Mona A. Amodeo and C. Keith Cox
  In: Practicing organization development. - San Francisco, Calif.: Pfeiffer, ISBN 978-0-470-40544-4. - 2010, S. 411-424
  Subject heading: Organizational change / Corporate social responsibility / Business ethics / Sustainability
• Article: Change management and CSR: an essay in the ontology and business ethics of change, process management / Jelena Debeljak and Kristijan Krkac
  In: The Ashgate research companion to corporate social responsibility. - Aldershot u.a.: Ashgate, ISBN 978-0-7546-4777-5. - 2008, S. 231-248
  Subject heading: Change management / Business process / Corporate social responsibility / Business ethics / Ontology
• Title : Building sustainable organizations: the human factor / Jeffrey Pfeffer
  Published: Stanford, Calif.: Univ., Graduate School of Business, 2010
  Subject heading: Human Resource Management / Corporate social responsibility / Sustainable development / Organizational behaviour / Publication patterns
  Link: http://gsbapps.stanford.edu/researchpapers/detail1.asp?Document_ID=3198
• Article: Operationalising sustainability: how small and medium sized enterprises translate social and environmental issues into practice / Cristiana Parisi and Maria Pia Maraghini
  In: Business performance measurement and management. - Berlin u.a.: Springer, ISBN 978-3-642-04799-2. - 2010, S. 131-147
  Subject heading: Performance management / Sustainability / Performance measurement / Small and medium-sized enterprises / Tuscany / Italy
• Article: Fostering sustainability in family firms / Alan L. Carsrud and Malin Brännback
  In: Sustainable economy. - Singapore u.a.: World Scientific, ISBN 981-427763-0. - 2010, S. 53-70
  Subject heading: Family business / Sustainability / Tacit knowledge / Change management
• Article: Value(s)-based management: corporate social responsibility meets value-based management / James S. Wallace
  In: The Drucker difference. - New York u.a.: McGraw-Hill, ISBN 978-0-07-163800-5. - 2010, S. 47-59
  Subject heading: Shareholder value / Ethics / Corporate social responsibility / Stakeholder / Peter F. Drucker
• Article: Esh added value: a case study in indigenous corporate social responsibility / Riham Rizk and Suzanne Gregory
  In: A handbook of corporate governance and social responsibility. - Farnham: Gower, ISBN 978-0-566-08817-9. - 2010, S. 653-664
  Subject heading: Construction Industry / Corporate social responsibility / Business ethics / Company history / England
• Article: From chain liability to chain responsibility / Rob van Tulder; Jeroen van Wijk; Ans Kolk
  In: Journal of business ethics. - Dordrecht: Springer, ISSN 0167-4544, ZDB-ID 8680176. - Bd. 85.2009, Supp.2, S. 399-412
  Subject heading: Corporate social responsibility / Corporate culture / Occupational safety / World
• Article: Creating shared value: Nestlé S.A. in developing nations / Lisa Newton and John Bee
  In: Peace through commerce. - Notre Dame, Ind.: Univ. of Notre Dame Press, ISBN 0-268-04414-7. - 2008, S. 329-335
  Subject heading: Food industry / Corporate social responsibility / Business ethics / Developing countries / Nestlé SA
• Article: Corporate social responsibility at Volkswagen group / Reinhold Kopp and Klaus Richter
  In: Corporate ethics and corporate governance. - Berlin u.a.: Springer, ISBN 978-3-540-70817-9. - 2007, S. 201-210
  Subject heading: Corporate social responsibility / Corporate culture / Automobile industry / Germany / Volkswagen-Aktiengesellschaft