Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) represents a recent manifestation of the shifting of Role of Business in Society (RBiS). This thesis aims to study the development of and negotiation of various RBiS among various governance actors as manifested in CSR practices. In so doing, it reveals the heterogeneity of CSR practices over time as a contrast to the rigid and simplistic delineation of CSR practices; the institutionalisation of CSR into business strategy that so far has been perceived as a black box in the CSR literatures; and the co-constructed dynamic exchanges between perspectives of RBiS and their respective supporters, which I have called a relational perspective on governance and RBiS.This research employs a single case study research strategy with a qualitative multi-methods design as the synthesis of multiple instruments each pertain to particular level of analysis i.e. institutional, organisational, and individual. The research methodology is intentionally designed to operationalise a multilevel analysis of CSR and longitudinal insights on CSR. As such, the research methodology is offered as one of contributions in this research.The thesis finds that longitudinal insights matter, in order to understand various CSR practices as responses to external crises and situations, which at the same time, serve as an arena for negotiating interests between related parties in particular political-economic-social-environmental contexts. The thesis reveals processes of incorporating CSR into business strategy. Particularly, it demonstrates how businesses mobilise external resources and internal resources to meet shifting domains of responsibility through various investment inputs, to achieve a range of CSR outcomes. CSR practices, as situated within changing understandings of RBiS, reflect the negotiation between various interests, in relational perspective, linked to the perceived effectiveness of government as the guardian of wider public interests. The thesis argues that a simplistic view of CSR and RBiS as suggested by much of the available literature is partial and provides inadequate accounts and explanations of the burgeoning of CSR practices; in particular in appreciating the various competing interests and perspectives which are brought to bear during processes which continually shape and (re-) shape CSR practices; as well as the variety of mechanisms and practices through which CSR is incorporated into business strategy.I conclude the research by offering a proposition to examine and understand CSR. I propose to see CSR as a dynamic heterogeneous temporal and contextual tool incorporated by businesses through multi-avenues into corporate strategy as a result of negotiation of interests of various alliances of governance actors.

The drive that initiated this doctoral thesis was the absence of a resource that investigated social trauma’s effect on business ethics; therefore this thesis investigates the relationship between social trauma and business ethics practices aiming to make the first contribution on an academically untouched topic. As in the case of individual psychology, social psychology also examines matters on a case-tocase basis for a clear understanding of the underlying phenomena and complex processes. Hence, considering the past and the current characteristics of Cypriot Turks of North Cyprus, they were chosen as the case study society. In order to explore social trauma’s impact on business ethics, different disciplines were uniquely synthesized through particular lenses; large group psychology, business-government-society relationship and individual ethical decision-making. The absence of previous work in this area suggested exploratory, qualitative research to be the optimum approach. Rich primary and secondary data were collected through interviews, observations, photographs and documents. The resulting data analysis and findings contribute to the current body of research on business ethics, social trauma and business-government-society relationship at the empirical and conceptual levels. The key contribution of this research is to substantiate the link between social trauma and business ethics, and the way social trauma causes unethical behaviour through its effect on the institutions and individual-social interaction. Furthermore, a model of social trauma and business ethics relationship was developed which also provides a framework for potential future research in other social contexts. Even after decades, social trauma can impact on the conduct of business and can interfere with the individual ethical decision-making process in multiple ways; the causes and consequences of this are discussed in depth. The way this impact occurs and its particulars may differ from one large group to another, and this should be noted before the framework is applied to any other society.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) prevail in their business communities and constitute the base of many nations’ economies. As a reason it is vital that SMEs show their active engagement and relatedness of their CSR activities making them at the core of their business strategies, as well as maintain their role as responsible citizens in their communities.CSR activities and practices being mainly developed by large corporations impede the way they can be applied on their smaller counterparts; ultimately leading to different results. SMEs require different solutions and run in different settings, which afford them unique opportunities to become sustainable enterprises. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the level of CSR engagement in Småland, Sweden. The study was divided into two parts, social (community wise) and environmental. We aimed to understand the reasons behind engagement and non-engagement in this matter. Also, it was important to find a pattern for future development of CSR among SMEs. We relied on previous research conducted for SMEs around Europe, and compared mainly the results from Sweden to our research findings. This study was largely done by using the quantitative survey method, where a questionnaire was designed to collect the results. Descriptive and exploratory statistics is at the core of interpreting the results. Some of the findings were confirmed by previous research while the rest were either unprecendeted or surprising, both in a positive and negative way. The CSR involvement was highly related to the size of the companies, in total more than half of the companies were involved to some extent. The main reasons for involvement in local communities were ethical as well as to satisfy own employees. The reasons for non-engagement were due to lack of resources, time and money, but also the fact that many companies simply never thought about engagement. When it comes to the environmental part, the results showed that companies act very responsibly. They are also aware and compliant to legislations and have environmental policies. Again, ethical reasons were the main driving force behind environmental concerns for the companies, but also the enhancement of the image was a chief reason. In general, companies do not seem to find economical benefits behind the engagement in CSR and less than half of the companies that engage in social responsibilities today are planning on continuing in the near future. Social involvement is voluntary and companies choose to do it mainly because of ethical reasons. On an overall basis, the engagement of SMEs in social activities is quite weak to moderate, while in environmental engagement the results are to some extent more optimistic. However, we cannot allege that a handful of Smålands SMEs see the full business benefits of engagement and as a result they cannot be said to be working towards ‘doing well by doing good’. Policy makers, municipalities and larger firms need to support the SMEs in their further engagement.

<p>Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) prevail in their business communities and constitute the base of many nations’ economies. As a reason it is vital that SMEs show their active engagement and relatedness of their CSR activities making them at the core of their business strategies, as well as maintain their role as responsible citizens in their communities.CSR activities and practices being mainly developed by large corporations impede the way they can be applied on their smaller counterparts; ultimately leading to different results. SMEs require different solutions and run in different settings, which afford them unique opportunities to become sustainable enterprises. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the level of CSR engagement in Småland, Sweden. The study was divided into two parts, social (community wise) and environmental. We aimed to understand the reasons behind engagement and non-engagement in this matter. Also, it was important to find a pattern for future development of CSR among SMEs. We relied on previous research conducted for SMEs around Europe, and compared mainly the results from Sweden to our research findings.</p><p>This study was largely done by using the quantitative survey method, where a questionnaire was designed to collect the results. Descriptive and exploratory statistics is at the core of interpreting the results. Some of the findings were confirmed by previous research while the rest were either unprecendeted or surprising, both in a positive and negative way. The CSR involvement was highly related to the size of the companies, in total more than half of the companies were involved to some extent. The main reasons for involvement in local communities were ethical as well as to satisfy own employees. The reasons for non-engagement were due to lack of resources, time and money, but also the fact that many companies simply never thought about engagement. When it comes to the environmental part, the results showed that companies act very responsibly. They are also aware and compliant to legislations and have environmental policies. Again, ethical reasons were the main driving force behind environmental concerns for the companies, but also the enhancement of the image was a chief reason. In general, companies do not seem to find economical benefits behind the engagement in CSR and less than half of the companies that engage in social responsibilities today are planning on continuing in the near future. Social involvement is voluntary and companies choose to do it mainly because of ethical reasons. On an overall basis, the engagement of SMEs in social activities is quite weak to moderate, while in environmental engagement the results are to some extent more optimistic. However, we cannot allege that a handful of Smålands SMEs see the full business benefits of engagement and as a result they cannot be said to be working towards ‘doing well by doing good’. Policy makers, municipalities and larger firms need to support the SMEs in their further engagement.</p>

The research’s intent is improvement in governance and strategic management initially by comparing Shareholder Theory and Stakeholder Theory and making results useful for both Practitioner and Academic audiences. A conceptual model for how a society establishes and evolves the roles it legitimizes for a business to support reasoning about those roles and the process originating the expectations, responsibilities, obligations, contributions and freedom to act in the roles is proposed. Understanding this process would enable better governance and strategic management of a firm while avoiding unintended consequences when fulfilling the role and consequences for failing the role. The model becomes a basis for comparing Shareholder and Stakeholder Theories. Context for the model comes from practitioner narratives around changes occurring in business and their themes around the relationship of a business with its ecosystem. To incorporate both the societal and business relationship components, the model building process was based upon concepts and ideas from General Systems, Economics, Sociology, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Evolution, Complexity and Complex Adaptive Systems, Semiotics, as well as Business. This was an iterative abductive, inductive, deductive process with each iteration compared to relevant theory, integrated across the subject domains, then tested against other academic research on the issue, evidence of the model in practice, and a culturomics study across social and industry literature. These results are exploratory, descriptive, directional, and suggestive for future research opportunities. Problems with Stakeholder Theory are identified but potentially addressed with the conceptual model, in turn suggesting a systemic approach to governance and strategic management. It was determined that Shareholder Theory results in many unintended consequences detrimental to society and the firm. The conceptual model provides points of intervention in the process and suggests potential tooling for governance and strategic management. A side effect of the research was a perspective on the practitioner / academic divide as the research grappled with the “wicked problem” nature and transdisciplinary nature of process being described. By introducing systems and complexity paradigms in the model, potential ways to address the divide are suggested, such as 3 level analysis (micro, meso, macro).

No description available.

Megaprojects are commonly known as large-scale projects which costs at least 1 billion USD. Megaprojects are implemented internationally, they impact millions of people, and take many years to be completed. Generally, megaprojects are infrastructural projects and they, for instance, can contribute to the country’s development, boost some infrastructural sectors, connect different regions by construction of roads, provide the opportunity for new businesses.Due to their scale and scope, megaprojects involve both primary and secondary stakeholders which have different interests, and therefore, different perception of success. Hence, project manager should identify each stakeholder and consider their interests from the very beginning of the project.As a case study for the current research it was decided to explore the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB), which is a part of One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative by China. SREB road has a very significant meaning than the previous historic Silk Way, and it will connect Asia with Europe. The old trade Silk way will be updated till huge international infrastructural megaproject. This research focuses on Kazakhstan, which one of the key actors in that project, and which is world 9th biggest country.The main purpose of the current research is to increase the understanding about how secondary stakeholders perceive the success of megaprojects. We limited the research by stakeholders in local communities, so we can explore that topic more comprehensively. In order to find the answer on research question, seven semi-structured interviews were conducted. It was decided to follow the Business-Government-Society (BGS) model (Steiner &amp; Steiner, 1980) and focus on stakeholders from three different sectors (business, government, society). Furthermore, through analysis of secondary data we got more holistic picture about research area.The research findings show that depending on communities’ sector the success perception differs. Furthermore, it was concluded from the findings that different local communities have different techniques and tools to evaluate the success, and therefore some of them perceive and estimate success in qualitative way, but others in quantitative way. In addition, the research showed that it is important to consider local communities’ interests during the project planning phase because it influences the projects’ success.The theoretical contribution of the current research is realized during the analysis of empirical findings and during the review of existing literature. The practical implication of the work is to provide the guidance on local community management in megaprojects and on how these communities perceive the success of projects.

Megaprojects are commonly known as large-scale projects which costs at least 1 billion USD. Megaprojects are implemented internationally, they impact millions of people, and take many years to be completed. Generally, megaprojects are infrastructural projects and they, for instance, can contribute to the country’s development, boost some infrastructural sectors, connect different regions by construction of roads, provide the opportunity for new businesses.Due to their scale and scope, megaprojects involve both primary and secondary stakeholders which have different interests, and therefore, different perception of success. Hence, project manager should identify each stakeholder and consider their interests from the very beginning of the project.As a case study for the current research it was decided to explore the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB), which is a part of One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative by China. SREB road has a very significant meaning than the previous historic Silk Way, and it will connect Asia with Europe. The old trade Silk way will be updated till huge international infrastructural megaproject. This research focuses on Kazakhstan, which one of the key actors in that project, and which is world 9th biggest country.The main purpose of the current research is to increase the understanding about how secondary stakeholders perceive the success of megaprojects. We limited the research by stakeholders in local communities, so we can explore that topic more comprehensively. In order to find the answer on research question, seven semi-structured interviews were conducted. It was decided to follow the Business-Government-Society (BGS) model (Steiner &amp; Steiner, 1980) and focus on stakeholders from three different sectors (business, government, society). Furthermore, through analysis of secondary data we got more holistic picture about research area.The research findings show that depending on communities’ sector the success perception differs. Furthermore, it was concluded from the findings that different local communities have different techniques and tools to evaluate the success, and therefore some of them perceive and estimate success in qualitative way, but others in quantitative way. In addition, the research showed that it is important to consider local communities’ interests during the project planning phase because it influences the projects’ success.The theoretical contribution of the current research is realized during the analysis of empirical findings and during the review of existing literature. The practical implication of the work is to provide the guidance on local community management in megaprojects and on how these communities perceive the success of projects.

No description available.

No description available.