Yu, Chi Ching. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 55-58). / Abstracts in English and Chinese ; appendices also in Chinese. / Chapter Chapter 1: --- Introduction --- p.1 / Definition of CSR --- p.1 / Consequence of CSR --- p.2 / The effect of CSR on affective and cognitive components of consumer responses --- p.3 / The effect of CSR on behavioral component of consumer responses --- p.5 / Attribution as underlying mechanism --- p.8 / Effect of attribution on consumer responses --- p.10 / Mechanism for making attribution --- p.11 / Inter-relationships between dimensions --- p.15 / Other potential variables affecting consumer responses --- p.16 / Chapter Chapter 2: --- Method --- p.18 / Participants --- p.18 / Scenario --- p.18 / Questionnaire --- p.19 / Measures --- p.20 / Chapter Chapter 3: --- Result --- p.23 / Validity Check --- p.23 / Descriptive statistics --- p.23 / Dimensionality --- p.25 / Reliability --- p.30 / Model testing results --- p.30 / Hypothesis testing --- p.33 / Total amount of variance explained --- p.34 / Chapter Chapter 4: --- Discussion --- p.35 / Attribution as the underlying explanation of CSR effect --- p.35 / Mechanism of how consumers form attribution of CSR activities --- p.37 / Managerial implication of the present study --- p.40 / Limitation of the present study and further research direction --- p.42 / Appendix --- p.44 / Appendix 1: Questionnaire of pilot study 1 --- p.44 / Appendix 2: Questionnaire of pilot study 2 --- p.46 / Appendix 3: Result of pilot study 2 --- p.48 / Appendix 4: Measurement items --- p.49 / Reference --- p.55

Abstract not available

Over the past decade, the business sector has come under increasing pressure to improve their environmental, safety, and health (ESH) performance. This pressure has stemmed from both external and internal sources with the organization. Public image, legislative and regulatory requirements, stakeholder awareness of environmental performance, sustainable development, and changing corporate values are driving forces that are leading companies to take a serious look at their ESH function. The increased focus on the business and sustainable aspects of ESH issues has created a demand by management to assess the current organizational strategy related to ESH. Strategy, in this respect, can be thought of as the manner in which issues are approached and handled. Unfortunately, a comprehensive approach does not exist for assessing the ESH and sustainable development strategies of an organization and linking it to the overall competitive strategy of the organization. Developing a framework for assessing the ESH strategies in an organization was the focus of this study. The major portion of the research was the development of profiles for each of the four strategy developmental levels under the elements of an ESH management system. Six elements were identified from the literature that comprise an ESH function's strategy: 1) Strategic plan, 2) structure, 3) finance, 4) technical, 5) evaluation, and 6) information management. Within each of these elements, profiles were created for each of the strategy developmental levels that these elements may utilize: Resistive, adaptive, proactive, and sustainable. The study went beyond previous research by including safety and health aspects into the environmental strategy typologies, looking at ESH elements other than the strategic plan and structure, and providing a more detailed and comprehensive explanation of the strategy levels. These profiles were peer reviewed then transformed into a series of questions that qualitatively assess the ESH strategies used within an organization. A pilot study was completed of a large high-tech manufacturing organization in Portland, OR. The pilot study demonstrated the usefulness of the tool to identify areas of improvement in an ESH function. Use of this assessment tool is the first step an organization needs to take to understand where they exist in the scale of ESH strategies, and if this is the ideal strategy to follow. / Graduation date: 2002

Thesis (M.Com.)--University of Canterbury, 2008. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 119-126). Also available via the World Wide Web.

The development of catering business in Hong Kong is facing a wide range of challenges and issues, including the increase in operating costs, growing pressure from public prospection about healthier diets, food safety as well as environmental protection, etc. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), acting a brand new corporate strategy can be adopted to upgrade catering business industry structure and achieve long term sustainability. The aim of this study is to investigate the current performance of CSR in Hong Kong’s catering business in terms of its contribution to the well-being of the environment, community and economy. Using web-based questionnaires, relevant data was randomly collected from 16 restaurants located in the Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories. The analysis and results indicate that 1) most managers from catering business have basic awareness of CSR concept and its benefits for corporations; 2) Only a minority of catering business in Hong Kong has adopted CSR; 3) Restaurants without CSR strategy have expressed strong willingness to implement CSR, most notably for small and medium sized restaurants; and 4) Among the five key CSR aspects, ethical procurement performed worst in the self-assessment system. In order to promote CSR into catering business, numerous recommendations are given. 1) Strengthening in education and training by government and interested organizations; 2) Providing incentives and policy support, establishing legislative regulation by government; and 3) Improving the quantity, quality and reliability of corporations communication with other stakeholders, such as disclosing CSR report. / published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

While professional football clubs are facing increasing pressures to balance their business with social goals, an important unanswered question is whether these rather stakeholder-oriented organizations understand the nature and impact of corporate and social responsibility (CSR). Research has yet provided little information on how football clubs perceive and react to CSR. This thesis examines how three important aspects of CSR (communication, development and integration with other strategies) evolve across different football clubs and cultures. Because specific clubs may have unique social responsibilities attributed to them, the current study is not limited to one industry and one particular club / segment. It rather contains three complementary case studies and explores CSR activities associated with an overall 38 professional football clubs residing in a pan-European, national (league), and organizational context respectively. Specifically, the primary international analysis reveals that while most football clubs communicate various CSR efforts, these activities primarily refer to ten distinct areas. These areas, as well as prior literature, served as the framework for the development of an international football CSR typology. In addition, qualitative results gathered from a second study across football clubs from the same national context sought to determine the moderating role of national business system characteristics (i.e. legislations, socio-political drivers, internal and external barriers, and phases of CSR development). The results of a third study generally supported the aforementioned contentions providing additional information on the strategic benefits more integrative CSR can offer. Synthesizing outcomes and findings from three complementary studies, this thesis develops a conceptual model that brings together the two different views of the modern CSR debate. This conception theorises CSR as being a legally, socially and organizationally constructed umbrella positioned over the corporate organization. On one hand, CSR is an umbrella protection to cover up corporate irresponsibility, window-dress illegitimate actions, and distract public attention from sensitive business issues. On the other hand, more collaborative, planned, participative and long-term involvement to CSR activity can turn the umbrella model upside down and provide a collector of public support, or a battery where public benevolence can be stored and reused for future purposes. These findings are discussed in the context of contributions to the field of sport management and marketing, practitioners within the football industry, and scholars pursuing a research agenda in the area of CSR and sports. Future research suggestions are forwarded.

This thesis contributes towards improving corporate social and environmental reporting (CSR) in South Africa, by determining what about CSR would need to be and could be improved. The sources of information for this were twofold. A comprehensive literature review, besides providing the background to the study, determined what specific criticisms have been levied against existing CSR disclosure and CSR systems. This thesis argued that many of these limitations arise out of the many primarily rule-based systems in existence and use, and that CSR should rather be based on sound fundamental principles and a conceptual framework, and be an enforceable standard i.e. with legal backing to ensure compliance. The second source of information on possible areas of improvement was from the users and or the stakeholders. In Part I of the thesis, these users or stakeholders were surveyed to determine which areas of reporting were important, and which needed to be better reported. What was important was that significant expectation gaps were found in CSR specifically regarding reporting the impacts on employees, the public and consumers and the physical and biotic environment. This provided evidence for the need for improvements in actual reporting in these traditional CSR areas, and hence il, . justification for the work ofthis thesis. Having identified areas of weakness and potential improvement in current CSR, an analysis was required to be performed to determine how these areas could be better reported. An assessment would need to be made if in fact these areas could be measured (and hence reported), which was undertaken in Part 2 of the thesis. The thesis revealed the need for improved CSR, and a greater degree of accountability and transparency by business that improved CSR could provide. It was argued that reporting, other than financial, which includes CSR should be prepared using a conceptual framework of principles, similar to that used in financial reporting, and thus a principle-based approach to CSR should be used as opposed to a rule based one. It was noted that such a principle-based approach would address many of the qualitative criticisms levelled against CSR practices, and current rule based systems. Using a systems based approach, a framework of interactions and impacts caused by businesses on social and physical systems was developed, which was used as the basis for a suggested CSR model. The model was validated using a peer and expert review process, and by comparison to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), which was used to represent international and South African best practice. However, it was noted that potential measurement difficulties would be encountered if the proposed model were used. It would also need to be determined what practical barriers would exist to implementingthese CSR models in business, which was the objective of Part 3 of this thesis. When the practical implementation of a comprehensive CSR system was evaluated in industry, both the proposed model and the GRI were considered. An important part ofthe measuring process was noted to be company risk assessment, often undertaken by the company's insurers. Where environmental impacts, health and safety, or other potential impacts (e.g. accidents or spills in the transport industry having significant impacts on other road users), were noted to be a significant risk, measurement systems and control procedures had been put in place by most companies. Perhaps the most significant part of risk, besides the potential loss in earning capacity, is potential litigation. Common law litigation would encourage companies to monitor and protect the health of their workers and consumers. Legislation e.g. National Environmental Management Act and Air Quality Act, would encourage companies to monitor their environmental impacts. Thus a combination of risk and legislation encourages monitoring and measurement. The findings of the third part of the thesis suggest that increased pressure should be placed on companies to become IS014001 certified as this would facilitate increased CSR reporting, however, this in itself is unlikely to occur unless increased pressure is placed on companies by (legal of customer). The author suggests that IS014001 certification would be more effective in ensuring environmental protection, than simple CSR disclosure. Significant challenges exist to the possible implementation of many of the key areas identified in the proposed CSR model (specifically where measurement problems exist), and no companies were found to be in a position to report on these aspects comprehensively. The findings of this thesis include that existing legislation and financial imperatives influenced measurement and recording of certain impacts and influences. At the same time, many managers suggested that lack of financial (and other resources), as well as the absence of legal requirements were some of the reasons why other impacts and influences were not measured. Thus it could be concluded that legislation enforcing CSR, together with financial incentives (or penalties for failure to meet such standards), could play a significant role in improving CSR in South Africa. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

This study raises important questions about the motivation that is driving companies to adopt social responsibly programmes, and why they should engage in the field of social development in the first place. Many would argue that the role of business is to make profit and that their only responsibility is to act within the law, while others urge the need for business to get more socially involved and become more accountable in terms of their actions. Particular in developing countries, where governments are often dysfunctional and ineffective, private sector hold the key to resources that does not exist elsewhere, and should contribute to improve those societies. As a result of increased awareness of the role of business in society, which has been triggered through numerous corporate scandals throughout the past decades, the term corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gained great attention. Today, most big companies invest a notable amount of money in CSR programmes of various kinds, however, it is not always clear why they do this. Is it because they really care and want to make a change, or is it because they want to gain or maintain a good public reputation? CSR has long been accused for what has been called “green-washing”, in the sense that it is only an attempt to conceal any forms of unethical and irresponsible behaviour. Nevertheless, there has also been a growing perception that business should play a greater role in the social aspects of society, and by carefully selecting their programmes, this can lead to win-win situations for all the stakeholders involved. This study aims to examine these issues by addressing the need for more sustainable and transparent stakeholder relationships between the companies and the beneficiary organisations. This attempt is achieved through the selection of case studies, as well as examinations of a wide range of literature existing in the field. / Thesis (M.Dev.Studies)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

The implementation of sustainable development challenge facing South Africa is significant. There appears to be a growing interest within the private sector to participate in partnership with the public sector in contributing towards corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes and initiatives. This partnership seeks to address the overall socio-economic and sustainable development of the country. However, it is an enormous task to address socio-economic challenges in South Africa due to high expectations. The aim of this study is specifically focused on investigating Eskom’s contributions to the sustainable developmental needs of the community in which it operates as a state owned enterprise. Furthermore, the intent is to examine Eskom’s current funding strategy, focus and policies in an attempt to investigate Eskom’s involvement in corporate social investment sustainability. A quantitative research design is employed in this study. The target population of this research is the Eskom employees selected from the four Eskom divisions, namely, Generation, Transmission, Distribution and Corporate (which includes ESDEF). The sample was the 95 employees randomly selected, hence those who responded were 61 on the stipulated date. Eskom was chosen, because it plays a major role in accelerating growth in the South African economy by providing electricity. Data was collected using the Eskom’s e-mailing system which referred to as the GroupWise system and used as a database that contained the population of all Eskom Holdings employees, and the questionnaire survey was developed by the researcher. The research study revealed that, although Eskom makes significant contributions in corporate social responsibility, communities need to be brought on board to define the funding objective and to select projects to be funded by Eskom. The results of study should be regarded as exploratory and provides directions to researchers for further, more in-depth research in this area. From the findings it appears as if perception plays the most important role in determining whether or not organisations support social responsibility programmes. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting in annual reports has been investigated by researchers over the past three decades. Because the Internet has significantly eased dissemination of information to global audiences, companies have begun to report CSR-related materials on their corporate websites.The present study is a content analysis examining what CSR principles, processes, and issues are mentioned on corporate websites of top companies in Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, and Taiwan. Two coders analyzed seventy-one websites: Hong Kong (19), Japan (19), Taiwan (19), and Malaysia (14). Content on the websites were coded based on definitions and categorizations which were patterned after Maignan and Ralston's 2002 study on CSR reporting. / Department of Journalism