This thesis contributes to our understanding of Corporate Sustainability (CS) in Multinational Corporations (MNCs) by offering a non-western perspective. A review of the extant literature reveals CS-related studies are mainly based on theories and implications in and for western contexts. It leads us to question the definitions of CS that have been taken for granted in current management and organisation studies. This thesis argues CS should be considered as a non-fixed, contextual and culturally-sensitive notion. When the ideas of CS travel from western scholarship to Chinese organisation practices, the meanings are forever constructed, altered, and mobilised. This is beyond linguistic translation, and functions as a continuous stream of temporary hermeneutic processes of translating. This research explores how CS has been translated in a Japanese MNC in China (the organisation is called ‘OMG’ in the research). The ethnographic enquiry provides a visual and narrative representation of corporate culture as promoted in OMG; ‘Communal Vessel’ evolves as a translational construct symbolising the culturally-derived meanings of CS. The intrinsically oxymoronic meanings of ‘Communal Vessel’ can be drawn from classical Chinese philosophies, which could have implications for understanding contemporary organising practices in China, and globally. In summary, this thesis problematises the construction of CS, and contributes an indigenous, non-western way of understanding CS via an ethnographic representation focusing on processes of translating. The implications are summarised through an analysis of the classical phrase ‘The Great Vessel Rarely Completes’.

This qualitative study aims to contribute to the research field on corporate sustainability (CS) in small and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs), in hopes of helping policymakers better understand the circumstances for Swedish SMEs and how they work with CS. Empirical data about motivations behind working with CS, implementation of CS activities, and effects of CS work were collected through in-depth interviews with 18 company representatives. The major reason for motivation was found to be personal interest and commitment to these kind of practices, followed by strengthening the competitiveness, marketing, initiative from management and board, and profitability aspects. The implementation process is often informal in nature with concrete measures and activities rather than formal policies and strategies, although a few of the companies make use of tools such as environmental management systems. How the companies communicate their CS work differs and the response from stakeholders varies too. Lastly, profitability was found to be an important effect for some, while others more heavily emphasize the personal satisfaction from doing the right thing and being sustainable. The social effects were mostly improved working conditions and more engagement from stakeholders, while the environmental impact was understood to mostly concern a decrease in consumption of finite resources, and a more efficient use of material and energy. Suggestions for improving CS work in Swedish SMEs are increased support and encouragement from the government, and more education and information about what companies can do and how they can do it with appropriate tools. Concluding, CS in Swedish SMEs must be studied further to gain a more comprehensive picture of how to support those SMEs already working with CS and those in the path of transitioning towards a more sustainable development.

The increasing global challenges, such as natural disasters, poverty and many others, pose new threats to societies and businesses. Therefore, companies increase their engagement in Corporate Sustainability (CS), which connects social, environmental and economic responsibilities. Through this approach, CS aims at overcoming environmental and social constraints in a business context to increase competitiveness in today’s fast-changing world. This fast pace, with which the business environment changes, is related to external influences, such as the above-mentioned climate change, and to fundamental structural developments. One of those is the increasing number of emerging-market companies (EMNCs) that internationalize rapidly through cross-border M&A deals, also into developed markets. Since both trends, the increase in CS engagement and the growing international M&A activity of EMNCs, gain in practical and academic importance, we conducted our study under the following research question. How is CS integrated on a strategic level after a cross-border acquisition by an EMNC? The theoretical angle from which we approached the topic aligns with the resource-based view, including the natural-resource-based view, and a stakeholder perspective. When reviewing the literature regarding CS, it became clear that substantial outcomes are still lacking despite an increasing commitment to CS. This difficulty can be linked to the variety of interpretations regarding the conception of CS and the resulting confusion among implicated parties. The review of M&A literature, with a special focus on EMNCs, revealed that these companies deploy a unique approach, which is characterized by the soft post-M&A integration of the target to allow organizational learning within both businesses. Therefore, our empirical research aimed at exploring how the strategic CS of both companies, the target and the parent, influence each other and thus, develop towards a common CS strategy. The longitudinal single case study we selected, allowed us to investigate this research proposal. Through the collection and analysis of documentary data enriched by semi-structured interviews, our study revealed the following. The exchange of knowledge and CS-related communication represented the basis for the integration of strategic CS as it nurtures organizational learning. Consequently, the CS strategies of both companies increased in maturity, which means that their sophistication evolved. In addition, we also found that the target developed towards a more permissive sustainability to align with its parent company’s CS strategy. Our main study contributions relate to an enhancement of the theoretical knowledge in the related fields. Besides this, we also identified critical practical issues, such as the importance of establishing a common conception of CS to ensure a successful CS integration on a strategic level.

In many corporations, sustainability has become an important activity to focuson, with the aim of preparing corporations for the future. Foresight, a newerfield, is increasingly becoming an important activity of corporations, with thepurpose of surviving long-term. These motives make companies’ involvement with corporate sustainability and with corporate foresight fundamental. However, because foresight is a recent field, it implies processes that are less mastered by professionals than sustainability. Since the motives of corporate sustainability and corporate foresight are similar, the purpose of this thesis is therefore to understand if corporate sustainability can contribute to corporate foresight implementation. Specifically, the purpose of this thesis is to identify which corporate sustainability (CS) activities can be integrated to which corporate foresight (CF) activities, to facilitate and foster foresight. Consequently, the contributions of the research consist in extending the knowledge about sustainability as a foresight activity and in proposing suggestions to incorporate sustainability to foresight activities. This study reviews several CS frameworks and several CF frameworks, provides a deeper understanding of the underlying processes needed for the implementation of CS and CF, and identifies the similarities. The study specifically builds on the Maturity Model of Corporate Foresight from the book Corporate Foresight – Towards a Maturity Model for the Future Orientation of a Firm from Rohrbeck (2010). Based on the theoretical findings, qualitative interviews of sustainability professionals are carried out. Those interviews are meant to test the theoretical findings. The research provides knowledge on the management of corporate foresightby providing insights on foresight practices that benefit from incorporating sustainability practices. The conclusion of the paper consists in a model thatpresents explicit ways in which corporate sustainability contributes tocorporate foresight. In fact, it is shown that corporate sustainability fosters strong internal and external networks and creates a corporate culture favourable to change. Internal and external networks facilitate cross-functional collaboration and communication; and employees favourable to change are more open to new ideas; both being key for foresight implementation. Thus, Corporate Sustainability supports Corporate Foresight because it sets up a favourable corporate culture, and because it paves the way for appropriate work processes (internal and external collaboration for instance).

Este trabalho investigou o comportamento dos retornos e risco das ações quando da divulgação das carteiras teóricas do Índice de Sustentabilidade Empresarial (ISE). Este índice foi implementado em 2005 pela Bolsa de Valores São Paulo e é considerado referência de boas práticas de sustentabilidade e responsabilidade corporativa no Brasil. No entanto, a inclusão de uma empresa em indicadores de sustentabilidade não garante, necessariamente, um melhor desempenho de suas ações. Neste contexto foram utilizadas as metodologias de estudo de eventos, análise de repetições, backtesting, regressão logit e análise envoltória de dados para analisar a reação dos retornos das ações do ISE e verificar se fatores ligados ao desempenho econômico, impacto ambiental e níveis de governança corporativa são fatores que influenciam esses retornos. Foram analisadas as ações pertencentes à carteira teórica do ISE no período de 2005 a 2010. Os resultados sugerem que os retornos das ações que integram o ISE foram influenciados pela divulgação das carteiras teóricas do ISE, uma vez que foi constatado: i) retornos anormais ao mercado; ii) não aleatoriedade dos retornos anormais ao mercado; iii) concentração dos retornos anormais ao mercado após a divulgação das carteiras teóricas e; iv) retornos anormais ao Value at RisK (VaR). Os resultados constataram que, em média, houve valorização positiva das ações na divulgação das carteiras teóricas, porém, apenas os fatores ligados à dimensão econômica puderam explicar o fenômeno estudado. A pesquisa concluiu que a reação dos retornos das ações do ISE, parece não estar associada, no período analisado, à integração das dimensões ambientais, sociais e econômicas, mas sim ao desempenho dessas dimensões. Assim, no que se refere à reação dos retornos das ações, o índice de sustentabilidade empresarial brasileiro parece não captar para todas as empresas que o integram a dinâmica das dimensões sociais, ambientais e econômicas, privilegiando esta última, o que não corresponde às premissas de sustentabilidade corporativa. / This study investigated the behaviour of stocks return and risk when the release of theoretical portfolios of Corporate Sustainability Index (ISE). This index, launched in 2005 by the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange, is considered a benchmark of good practice in sustainability and corporate responsibility in Brazil. However, the inclusion of a company into sustainability indexes does not necessarily guarantee better performance of their stocks. In this context this research make use of event study methodology, analysis of repetitions, backtesting, logit regression and data envelopment analysis to capture the reaction of stock returns of the ISE and verify whether factors related to economic performance, environmental impact and levels of corporate governance are explanatory factors of these returns. It was analyzed the theoretical portfolio of ISE from 2005 to 2010. The results suggest that the returns on stocks that comprise the ISE were influenced by the release of its theoretical portfolio, since it was verified: i) abnormal returns to the market, ii) non-randomness of the abnormal returns to the market, iii) concentration of abnormal returns to the market after the release of the theoretical portfolio; and iv) abnormal returns of the Value at Risk (VaR).The results showed that, on average, there was positive valuation of the shares by the release of theoretical portfolios, however, only factors related to the economic dimension could explain the phenomenon under study. The research concluded that the reaction of stock returns of the ISE does not seem to be associated, in the period analyzed, with the integration of environmental, social and economic dimensions, but the performance of these dimensions. Thus the Brazilian corporate sustainability index showed that, regarding to the reaction of stock returns, it doesn\'t capture to all the companies comprising the index the dynamics of social, environmental and economic dimensions, favouring the latter, which does not match the assumptions of corporate sustainability.

Essa dissertação teve como objetivos gerais (i) compreender as motivações que levam uma empresa a buscar a responsabilidade social e ambiental corporativa (RSAC), além de (ii) realizar um prognóstico elucidando os principais benefícios, desafios e fatores críticos de sucesso para uma empresa que deseja implementar a filosofia Lixo Zero em suas rotinas. Para atingir o primeiro objetivo foi proposto um questionário contendo as motivações comumente encontradas na bibliografia, o qual foi encaminhando para empresas de diversos portes e segmentos no Brasil. Os resultados apontam como principais motivações para RSAC no Brasil: atender às legislações e regulamentos nacionais (citado por 87% das empresas respondentes), buscar o reconhecimento de Empresa Sustentável e valorização da marca (62%), contribuir para a proteção ao meio ambiente e controle da poluição (58%), buscar a redução na geração de resíduos (53%) e diferenciar-se das demais empresas do segmento (47%). Foi identificado que essas motivações são representativas do cenário analisado, independentemente das características individuais de cada empresa como: porte, apoio da liderança, região, segmento industrial, atuação no mercado (local, nacional ou internacional) e cliente final da empresa, conforme indicado pelo teste Qui-Quadrado e Kolmogorov-Smirnov, contrariando os resultados verificados na bibliografia existente. Com o objetivo de atender ao segundo objetivo, primeiramente foi realizado uma revisão sistemática da literatura para compilar conceitos, princípios, ações, benefícios, desafios e fatores críticos de sucesso advindos da implementação do ZW em diferentes cenários. Tendo como base a compilação apresentada, foi conduzido um estudo de caso em uma metalúrgica de pequeno porte, localizada na região do Vale dos Sinos, no Brasil, com o intuito de identificar quais itens se relacionavam com a realidade da empresa em questão. Foram identificados 12 benefícios passíveis de serem obtidos através da implantação da filosofia ZW na empresa em questão, 9 desafios a serem suplantados durante a implantação e 21 fatores críticos de sucesso, imprescindíveis para o pleno atingimento das metas propostas pelo ZW. O presente estudo apresenta discussões sobre aspectos que necessitam ser desenvolvidos no cenário Brasileiro, de forma a incentivar e proporcionar a estrutura adequada para operacionalização da filosofia ZW corroborando para consolidação desta filosofia como referência em modelo de gestão de resíduos no cenário empresarial. / This study's main objectives were (i) to understand the main drivers leading Corporate Social Environmental Responsibility (CSER) and (ii) to do an analysis in order to elucidate the key benefits, challenges and critical success factors for a company applying Zero Waste into their process. To achieve the first objective, this research has proposed a questionnaire containing the drivers for CSER presented in the literature, which has sent to several companies from different segments and sizes in Brazil. The results indicate these main drivers for CSER in Brazil: meet national laws and regulations (cited by 87% of responding companies), seek recognition of Sustainable Enterprise and brand enhancement (62%), contributing to the protection of the environment and pollution control (58%), seek to reduce the generation of waste (53%) and differentiate itself from other companies in the sector (47%). It was identified that the drivers found for CSER are representative of the sample, regardless of the size, the leadership, the region, the industrial segment, the market activities (local, national or international), and the end customer of the company, as indicated by Qui-quadrado and Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests, contrary to the findings on literature. In order to achieve the second objective, it has performed a systematic review of the literature for compile concepts, principles, actions, benefits, challenges and critical success factors from the implementation of the ZW in different scenarios. Based on this compilation, it was conducted a case study in a small metallurgical, located in the Vale dos Sinos region, in Brazil, in order to identify which items were related to the company’s scenario. For this company, twelve benefits were identified, which can be achieved through ZW implementation, nine challenges were found to be overcome, and twenty-one critical success factors were identified, which are essential to achieve the goals proposed by the ZW. This study advocates some aspects that should be developed in the Brazilian scenario in order to support ZW implementation, corroborating to consolidate this philosophy as reference in waste management model in business scenario.

The problems of unsustainable development and the increased-awareness of corporate power in the global era have contributed to an agenda of corporate citizenship. This thesis explores the meanings and practices that fall under the banner of the triple bottom line of corporate citizenship through forty-two in-depth interviews with representatives from the corporate sector and NGO sector (including trade unions) in Australia. This purposive sample includes a specific range of corporate industries and NGO types, all of which have involvement with various areas of sustainability. Interviewees described their feelings and experiences in relation to the concept of the triple bottom line, the potential and limitations of this type of sustainability and the purpose and impacts of partnerships between NGOs and the corporate sector. On the basis of this research, this thesis argues that corporate citizenship is at best, a set of initiatives for making minor adjustments to the way companies perform their day-to-day operations and at worst, a program for improving corporate image rather than performance and for shifting the agenda of sustainable development toward corporate interests. While radical steps are required to achieve a sustainable society and environment, the terms of corporate citizenship offer very limited opportunities for change. The self-regulatory and market based model of citizenship does not challenge the impact of consumerism or the legitimacy of particular industry types and their products, except where threats are perceived to the longevity of the companies involved. Furthermore, while the exploitation of the environment and society has occurred as a result of corporate self-interest, corporate citizenship is justified on the same basis. The self-interest rationale and the tyranny of the economic bottom line in particular, substantially limit the fields of responsibility that can be included in the citizenship paradigm. While there are undoubtedly some well-intentioned corporate representatives who are working toward attaining a more sustainable corporate culture, the discourse is primarily used to shift the sustainable development agenda toward corporate paradigms and interests.

Abstract The purpose of our thesis was to comprehend how organizations approach the Corporate Social Contract that exists between them and society. The empirical data was gathered to reflect a comprehension of the Corporate Social Contract as a whole and as the product of its components, i.e.: Corporate Social Responsibility and Reciprocity. Other concepts interconnected with our main topic were also used in order to better comprehend the concept of Corporate Social Contract as well as our interpretations of the collected empirical data. These interconnected concepts were Corporate Sustainability, Corporate Citizenship, Shared Value, and Willingness to Pay.   The research work was approached from the qualitative standpoint. Considering that the perspective of our thesis was an organizational one, we approached 5 organizations within which to conduct interviews on the stated topic. Our aim was merely to understand the organizational perspective and approach to the concept of Corporate Social Contract, not to compare these perspectives and approaches.   Each of the chosen organizations met certain basic criteria mentioned in our work that permitted us to include them in our sample. The thesis’ conclusion reflected various organizational approaches towards Corporate Social Contract from the angle of Corporate Social Responsibility as well as varying perspectives on, and expectations of, society’s reciprocity. The study has shown that our view of the equal importance of the concepts of CSR and Reciprocity, within the framework of CSC fulfillment, is an under investigated area in both academics and in the practical business world. This has also been supported by our interviewees’ view on expectations, placed on society, as an implicit area in their organizations’ policies. Through our study we have uncovered practical reasons as to why CSC cannot be fulfilled all the time, how expectations between both organizations and society differ from project to project, and the importance of societal reciprocity in the aim of CSC fulfillment. And thus, through our study, we endeavor to comprehend how organizations fulfill the CSC and how they view society’s attempts to fulfill its end of the contract.   As a result of our work, future students and researchers stand to gain insights into the mentalities of organizations that hail from different industries and are based in different parts of the world. Future students and researchers could also derive their own interpretations of our respondents words based on the culture prevalent in the country in which the respondents are based. Apart from this, one can note that the respondents were also from a range of departments and their professionally skewed perspective on our topic makes for an interesting contribution to those seeking insights into our topic and those interlinked.   Key Words: Corporate Social Contract, Corporate Social Responsibility, Reciprocity, Corporate Sustainability, Corporate Citizenship, Shared Value, and Willingness to Pay.

Nowadays most companies are now being faced with the reality that Corporate Social Responsibility is more than merely a fad. Drawing upon CSR, HR and stakeholder related theories this research aims to substantiate empirically by exploring HR¡¦s contribution to responsible leadership within corporations with the endeavor to explore to what extent Taiwanese companies have integrated CSR practices in their Human Resource Management policies and practices. Relying on the quantitative analysis of 82 questionnaires and qualitative analysis of interviews with CSR and HR executives from 3 corporations in Taiwan, an analysis of whether HR supporting functions towards employee training and development (CSR and General), employee wellbeing, employee engagement and CSR communication to employees contributed to the success of CSR programs. Findings of this research uncovered that companies pay due attention to employee training and development, employee wellbeing as well as employee engagement. The study also helped explain the existence of implicit CSR practices in Taiwanese firms suggesting that an inside-out approach to CSR communication exists in Taiwanese firms; most firms do not engage in philanthropic activities but are more akin to ensuring that they maintain a high level of employee work-life balance. The thesis concludes that the HR has the potential to dig deeper into the company levels and structures and identifying underlying definitional issues that may prevent or facilitate the success of CSR programs.

Background The market together with the demands on companies are ever-changing and it has for long been a growing trend for companies to work in a responsible way towards its society, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). CSR gives the opportunity of improving a company‟s brand image, but it has yet to been explored which dimensions of the well known- and cited CSR pyramid, that affect brand image among consumers. Purpose To explore how consumers brand image of companies are affected by companies‟ CSR activities.Methodology The thesis was conducted by a qualitative case study, through focus groups. Conclusion To be able to gain brand image from the work of CSR, companies have to work above the line of what is expected by society‟s consumers. The economic and legal dimensions have to be fulfilled, but they do not independently create a strong brand image. Philanthropic, and partially ethical CSR activities however, provide the possibility of a strengthened brand image.