The topic of this research is marketing practices of socially responsible and sustainable businesses. It examines the strategies companies and brands use to represent themselves to the public through products, advertising, and philanthropy. This includes an evaluation of existing frameworks and case studies, as well as in-depth interviews. The question that this research will answer is as follows: How can new or existing companies embrace and integrate social responsibility or sustainability in a way that is authentic and contributes to a positive public reputation? Younger generations are increasingly willing to switch to and, in some cases, pay more for products and brands that contribute positively to society and the environment. An increasing number of businesses are leveraging this trend and working to create a positive image that resonates, particularly with Millennials and Gen Z, as one that integrates social and environmental concerns into business operations. The methodology of this research consists of analysis of secondary research and in-depth interviews. The culmination of this research is a set of guidelines that will assist marketers in reconsidering their businesses' public image in a way that consumers perceive as clear, compelling, and authentic. As consumers' priorities continue to shift, businesses are being pushed to reconsider what values and causes, if any, they represent. This research translates into an adaptable set of steps for businesses to capitalize on this growing trend.

有鑑於全球愈來愈重視企業營運對社區造成的社會、環境和經濟影響，企業的利害關係人除了重視企業的財務績效之外，也愈來愈關心企業是否有善盡其「社會公民」的責任與角色。企業責任報告之目的就是在傳統的財務報表之外，進一步揭露企業的營業活動對於社會及環境所造成的影響。為了使資本市場能更有效地運作，公司管理當局應該要揭露範圍更廣、透明度更高、並有助於投資決策的攸關性資訊，因此，發布社會責任報告的企業有日益增多的趨勢。本研究之目的即在探討三個與企業責任報告有關的議題：(1) 企業的公司治理結構之良窳與管理當局企業責任報告揭露決策的關係；(2) 企業揭露社會責任報告之決策是否會產生股價溢酬；(3)企業社會責任報告揭露決策對企業的事前權益資金成本的影響。在控制樣本的自我選擇偏誤之後，本研究的主要發現有二：第一、公司治理結構愈好的企業愈傾向於揭露企業責任報告，而且也愈可能以專節的形式在該報告中揭露公司治理資訊；第二、從有無揭露企業責任報告的角度來看，本研究發現有揭露的公司均有較高 (低) 的股價 (資金成本)。其次，從揭露的內容做進一步分析之後，本研究發現「環境績效」、「社會績效」與「公司治理」三大類內容的揭露決策均具有價格溢酬。至於「企業承諾」則對公司股價並無顯著影響。最後，企業責任報告揭露程度較高之企業會有較顯著的價格溢酬以及較低的資金成本。 / In light of the increasing emphasis on companies’ social, environmental and economic impacts on the communities, stakeholders are more concerned about whether firms appropriately assume their responsibility as a social citizen. To fulfill stakeholders’ demand of such non-financial information, many companies have recently begun to voluntarily issue the corporate responsibility reports (CRR) as a means to disclose their social, environmental and economic performance and their commitment to do business responsibly. This study intends to answer the following three key questions related to the CRR disclosure: (a) Will companies with stronger corporate governance be more willing to issue CRR? (b) Will the voluntary disclosure of CRR leads to stock price premium? (c) Will companies making voluntary disclosure of CRR have lower ex ante cost of capital? After controlling for the self-selection bias, the empirical results reveal several important findings. First, the stronger the companies’ coporate governance, the more likely the management will issue CRR. Particularly, these companies tend to disclose their comporate governance policy and procedures in a separate section in the CRR. Second, companies disclosing CRR experience significantly higher (lower) stock prices (cost of capital). A further examination shows that three out of four major components reported in the CRR (i.e., environmental performance, social performance, and corporate governance) give rise to significant price premium. The disclosure of business commitment, however, seems to bear little or no information content embedded in the stock price. Finally, companies disclosing more information in their CRR have higher price premium and lower cost of capital than those disclosing less information. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Corporations are increasingly being expected to be responsible to not only shareholders, but also to employees, society and for the environment. This expectation increases as business crises, such the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the Enron collapse, continue to occur. In New Zealand several umbrella organisations were established to aid organisations in the quest to become sustainable or corporately responsible, such as New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development, New Zealand Businesses for Social Responsibility, and the Sustainable Business Network. A number of high profile companies such as Hubbard Foods Ltd, Landcare Research, Fonterra and Telecom belong to these umbrella organisations and have produced reports that reflect not only economic prosperity but also environmental quality and social equity. The aim of this research is to identify how organisations are implementing corporate responsibility issues into the operations, and using this information to construct a maturity model. The value of a maturity model is as an analytic tool, where an organisation can be benchmarked against the best in the field. Developing a maturity model for integrating corporate responsibility into an organisation enables managers to identify at which stage the organisation is currently situated and then provides an action plan of where to progress in the future. A preliminary maturity model is developed based on previous models from the fields of corporate responsibility, environmental management and sustainability. This exploratory study used the case study method to analyse six organisations that are members of the New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development and are producing annual sustainability reports. Using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines for sustainability reporting, 10 years of annual reports from each case company were analysed and compared against these guidelines. The results were used to identify what corporate responsibility areas businesses are currently reporting on and therefore implementing within the organisation, and identifying if there is an evolutionary pattern applicable to all organisations thereby enabling the construction of a maturity model. The findings show that although there was an increase in the GRI indicators included the reporting is poorly developed. The major areas of change have been in the reporting of governance and management structures, the development and inclusion of vision statements and changes in management policies. There was increased reporting in some environmental and social indicators, but no clear patterns of change emerged. Using the data and analysis a refinement of the proposed maturity model was made.

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:48:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 71050100636.pdf.jpg: 18475 bytes, checksum: cef76060e1567144b6d6df05643a4a54 (MD5) 71050100636.pdf: 1411133 bytes, checksum: 7e366994dab8b42eb7d458fbd264a90b (MD5) 71050100636.pdf.txt: 636208 bytes, checksum: 1b231f6201adc4780d2585b2fd3b41a5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-12-17T00:00:00Z / A Tese discute as implicações e desdobramentos da construção de Parcerias Tri-Setoriais na esfera pública, de forma a avançar na compreensão de suas perspectivas, impasses e armadilhas para a modernização da gestão de políticas e projetos sociais e a ampliação da cidadania no cenário brasileiro. São consideradas Parcerias Tri-Setoriais aquelas que envolvem simultaneamente atores governamentais, da sociedade civil e do mercado. Para tanto, são analisadas três experiências de intervenção em projetos sociais apoiadas pela Fundação AVINA no Brasil nas agendas de intervenção de educação, meio ambiente, pobreza e infância e adolescência. A discussão teórica levanta as principais correntes e tradições teóricas que analisam a ação do Estado, das organizações da sociedade civil e das empresas em direção à esfera pública. Em seguida são discutidas e articuladas propostas teóricas de interpretação das interações colaborativas entre atores sociais, de forma construir um quadro analítico capaz de guiar a pesquisa de campo. A investigação se inscreve no âmbito do chamado Estudo de Caso Extendido e recorre à abordagem metodológica qualitativa para coleta, tratamento e análise dos dados. Os resultados indicam que práticas tradicionais de construção de projetos de intervenção social e também de parcerias perduram dentro dos processos de interação das Parcerias Tri-Setoriais, apontando que modelos lineares e gerencialistas de explicação e intervenção na dinâmica desse fenômeno são pouco consistentes em termos de capacidade explicativa da realidade. As interações entre atores da sociedade civil, do Estado e de mercado são marcadas pela complexidade e pela construção de uma práxis não linear e marcada simultâneamente pela ocorrência de processos de conflito e cooperação, engajamento e distanciamento, e resistência e adesão. Frente a isso, as melhorias na provisão de políticas e projetos sociais advindas das Parcerias Tri-Setoriais nem sempre se fazem acompanhadas de avanços na construção da cidadania e de uma esfera pública mais plural e democrática no cenário brasileiro. Todo esse quadro informa a necessidade de se problematizar as Parcerias Tri-Setoriais a partir de modelos teóricos que incorporem a discussão da esfera pública e dos encontros e desencontros entre atores nessa dimensão, a fim de se melhor compreender as promessas, desdobramentos e armadilhas que tal perspectiva traz para a gestão social. / This Thesis discusses the implications of Tri-sectorial Partnerships in the public sphere, in way to understand its perspectives and challenges for the modernization of the management of social policies and projects and the enlargement of the citizenship in the Brazilian scenery. Three experiences supported by the AVINA Foundation in Brazil are analyzed in the areas of education, environment, poverty and childhood. The theoretical aproach discusses the main currents and traditions that analyze the action of the State, the civil society organizations and the companies in the public sphere. The collaborative interactions among social actors are discussed too, in way to build an analytical framework capable to guide the field research. The investigation is basead in the methodological proposal of Case Study Extended and in the qualitative approach for collection, treatment and analysis of the data. The results indicate that traditional practices of construction of projects of social intervention and also of partnerships can be find inside the the processes of interaction between actors in the Tri-sectorial Partnerships. Managerial and tecnicists models of explanation of that phenomenon offer little contribution in terms of explanatory capacity of the reality. The interactions among actors of the civil society, State and market are marked by the complexity and for the construction of practices based simultaneously on conflict and cooperation, engagement and estrangement, resistance and adhesion. The improvements in the provision of social policies and projects with the Tri-sectorial Partnerships not always results in progresses in the construction of a more plural and democratic public sphere in the Brazilian scenery. This perspective point the relevance of understand the Tri-sectorial Partnerships from theoretical models that incorporate the discussion of the public sphere, in order to advance the studies in the field of social management.

Forced labour presents a severe human rights violation and affects about 27.6 million people worldwide. Most forced labour in the private economy takes place in businesses linked to the global market economy. In efforts against forced labour, it is therefore crucial to address the role of business operations in global supply chains. The European Commission has presented a proposal for a ban on products made with forced labour on the EU market which applies to all companies and industries. Although this initiative has been welcomed broadly the proposal has served as a topic for political debate in the EU. Stakeholders have contrasting views on what would serve as the most effective solution to the problem and, indeed, what actually constitutes the problem. Research on policy design acknowledge that the way a problem is framed and understood determines which kind of solutions will be deemed as appropriate. This thesis aims to understand the foundations of how the European Commission perceives the problem by conducting a frame analysis of the proposal focusing in turn on how the problem is framed, which actors are included, and how causes and solutions are framed. The frame analysis reveals that the Commission’s framing of the problem is ambiguous and twofold - it includes aspects of human rights perspectives as well as market and trade perspectives. The aim of the proposal is to contribute to the eradication of forced labour, but it also addresses the issue of distortion on the internal EU market and on removing unfair competition. Although the proposal fails to address some of the underlying root causes of forced labour this initiative, together with other legal measures in the business and human rights field, presents an important step towards keeping companies accountable for their adverse human rights impacts.

Denna uppsats behandlar företags ansvar och samarbeten för ”Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR) mellan frivilligorganisationer och företag. Arbetet är en fallstudie utförd i Argentina med syftet att studera frivilligorganisationers syn på företags ansvar. Syftet är även att undersöka om ett samarbete skulle kunna innebära att ett företags CSR-arbete stärks. Metodvalet för studien är semi-strukturerade intervjuer med representanter för NGO:s i Argentina som arbetar med CSR. Intervjuerna har analyserats med hjälp av kategorianalys utifrån de teorier för företags ansvar som presenterats. Precis som många av teorierna definierar informanterna företags ansvar utifrån de behov och rättigheter som ett företags ”stakeholders” kan sägas ha. Studien visar vidare att ansvaret sträcker sig längre än att endast följa lagen, företaget ska även vara en god ”coporate citizen”. Ett samarbete är dock inte problemfritt eftersom organisationens legitimitet och självständighet sätts på spel i utbyte mot möjligheten att påverka företaget inifrån. Av de fyra organisationerna i studien menar representanterna för tre av dem att ett företags CSR-arbete stärks genom ett samarbete och att det kunskapsutbyte som är resultatet av samarbetet är mycket värdefullt. Den fjärde organisationen ser inte samarbete som ett alternativ utan har istället valt att påverka staten för att få den att skapa ett strängare kontrollsystem för företags verksamhet. / This essay deals with the responsibilities of corporations and partnerships for “Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR) between NGO:s and companies. The work is a case-study taking place in Argentina with the purpose to study the view NGO:s has on corporate responsibility. Further on the purpose is to investigate if partnerships could mean a strengthening of a company´s work for CSR. The method of choice is semi-structured interviews with NGO representatives in Argentina that work with CSR. The interviews have been analyzed through a category-analysis based on the theories on corporate responsibility presented. Just like many of the theories the interviewees define a company´s responsibility through the needs and rights that could be considered given to a company´s stakeholders. The study also shows that the responsibility goes further than obeying the law, the company should also be a good corporate citizen. A partnership is though not without problems since the legitimacy and independence of the organization are put in jeopardy in exchange for the possibility to influence the company from the inside. Of the four organizations in the study the representatives of three of them consider that a company´s work for CSR is strengthened through a partnership and that the exchange of knowledge that is the result of the partnership is greatly treasured. The fourth organization doesn´t see cooperation as an alternative but has chosen to influence the state to have it create a stronger system of control for a company´s operation.

South Africa presently experiences high levels of crime daily. Although crime is accepted as an everyday occurrence for its citizens, it affects the economy of the country. This study analysed security measures implemented on Commercial Private Game Reserves (CPGRs) in Limpopo and the impact of crime thereof. CPGRs are enclosed areas containing various species of fauna and flora. Visitors from domestic and foreign origins visit these reserves to enjoy nature and its tranquillity. This study analysed the security measures to determine their effectiveness for CPGRs. The study further explored the use of security risk management strategies and risk assessments as crime reduction tools. The study was carried out using a case study research design. Data were collected by the researcher using three methods: observation, onsite checklists and semi-structured one-on-one interviews which were conducted on site. Validity and reliability indicate the trustworthiness of the study. The researcher reduced the data gathered through the use of thematic data analysis. Interviews were transcribed and themes were created and identified by the researcher. The comprehensive data indicated the importance of a security risk manager on a CPGR. The research found that very few security risk managers are employed and that managers of security risks employed on CPGRs have various titles. However, while the CPGRs have similar risks, their risk reduction strategies vary. The most commonly used measures are people, physical and technological measures with each having various subdivisions. The security measures implemented by CPGRs in the Limpopo province which were analysed are not formulated using a scientific approach as most properties do not make use of a formal security risk assessment. The study is deemed valuable as a model was developed from the findings that could be used by game reserves to guide them to apply relevant security measures. A formal security programme is often limited due to financial constraints of the reserve or the reserve owners, however, not all strategies should be considered as a financial expense as much can be done without exhausting financial reserves. The findings contributed to making recommendations to improve the overall security of CPGRs. This study encourages more research into the subject to improve the security industry and to stimulate the tourism industry. / Security Risk Management / M. Tech. (Security Management)