One key to CSR’s success has been its fuzzy definition, whereby its meaning is constantly (re)defined by practice and through the dialectical relationship between companies and their stakeholders. This thesis focuses upon the influence of MNOCs’ socio-political field upon their CSR (rather than upon specific CSR projects), from a critical realist perspective, contributing to existing research in three key ways. Firstly, I present original explanatory models that outline the practice of CSR in Colombia and Venezuela. From these models, I develop further models that categorise the types of CSR practiced in each country. I argue that Colombia follows a conventional model of private-led CSR; by contrast, the Venezuelan model pushes the boundaries of more traditional CSR definitions. Given the government’s dirigiste approach, I categorise the Venezuelan model as an example of a new form of CSR, that I call Regulated CSR (RCSR), noting the inherent contradictions of regulating to increase responsibility. Secondly, I produce original research on MNOCs’ CSR reports, examining how MNOCs’ agency is affected by global socio-political discourses. Paradoxically, whilst CSR is an important element of corporate communication, many MNOCs only disclose limited CSR-related information. Thirdly, this thesis contributes to the growing discussion of CSR’s role within the neoliberal paradigm. I argue that CSR is not and cannot be a panacea for social absences and can have negative social effects. Therefore, appropriate regulation is necessary, starting with greater corporate transparency at an international level to level-up MNOCs’ practices, and national oversight of MNOCs’ CSR budgets and practices.

Titel: ESG-betygets samband med värdeskapandet – en studie av börsnoterade företag mellan en svensk och norsk kontext.   Nivå: Examensarbete på Grundnivå (kandidatexamen) i ämnet företagsekonomi.   Författare: Robbie Afram Chamun och Rebecca Sundholm.   Handledare: Jan Svanberg.   Datum: 2022 - Januari.   Syfte: Intresset för företagens hållbarhetsarbete har lett till att deras värderingar även baserats på detta fenomen. Ett hållbarhetsmått som används som bas för att utvärdera företagens hållbarhetsarbete är ESG-betyget. Genom att undersöka sambandet mellan ESG-betyget och företagens värdeskapande, ur delvis en svensk kontext och delvis en norsk sådan, ämnar studien visa om samband finns. Vidare ska undersökningen visa om detta samband skiljer sig åt mellan två kontexter med olika grad av reglering. Syftet med studien är därmed att undersöka sambandet mellan ESG-betyget och värdeskapande för svenska och norska börsnoterade bolag.   Metod: Studien utgår från en positivistisk forskningsfilosofi med en deduktiv ansats och kvantitativ forskningsmetod. Utförandet av en longitudinell design innebar att undersökningen samlade in data från 68 företag över en sjuårsperiod. Datan är sekundärdata som inhämtats från Refinitiv Eikon, där vidare analys genomförts genom statistikprogrammet SPSS.   Resultat & slutsats: Studiens resultat visar att inget signifikant samband mellan ESG-betyget och företagens värdeskapande existerar. Studien bekräftar att företag ur en svensk kontext erhåller högre ESG-betyg än företag ur en norsk sådan.   Examensarbetets bidrag: Genom att jämföra svenska och norska börsnoterade bolag har studien bidragit till att fylla den lucka kring ESG-betygets påverkan av företags värdeskapande för dessa länder. Utifrån denna studies resultat kan det fastslås att de ESG-betyg som finns till förfogande inte ensamt tycks påverka företagens värdeskapande signifikant.   Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Framtida forskning bör ta upp hur värdeskapandet påverkas vid avsaknad av ESG-betyg.    Nyckelord: Hållbarhetsrapportering, värdeskapande, ESG, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). / Title: The connection between the ESG rating and value creation – a study of listed companies between a Swedish and Norwegain context.   Level: Student thesis, final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration.   Author: Robbie Afram Chamun och Rebecca Sundholm.   Supervisor: Jan Svanberg.   Date: 2022 - January.   Aim: The interest in companies´ sustainability work has led to their valuation also being based on this phenomenon. A measure for sustainability as a basis to evaluate the companies´ CSR is the ESG score. By examining the connection between the ESG score and the companies’ value creation, from partly a Swedish context and partly a Norwegian one, studies are intended to show whether the connection exists. Furthermore, the study shows whether this connection differs between two contexts with different degrees of regulation. The purpose of the studies is therefore to investigate the connection between the ESG score and value creation for Swedish and Norwegian listed companies.    Method: The research is based on a positivist research philosophy with a deductive approach and a quantitative research method. The execution of a longitudinal design meant that the research collected data from 68 companies over a period of 7 years. The data was collected from Refinitiv Eikon and was analyzed through the statistical programme SPSS.    Result & Conclusion: The results of the study show that no significant connection between the ESG score and the companies' value creation exists. The study confirms that companies from a Swedish context receive higher ESG ratings than companies from a Norwegian one.   Contribution of the thesis: By comparing Swedish and Norwegian public listed companies, the study has helped to fill the gap around the ESG score´s impact on companies´ value creation for these countries. The results of this study could not state that the ESG scores alone significantly affects the companies' value creation.    Suggestions for future research: Future research should address how value creation is affected in the absence of ESG score. Key words: CSR disclosure, Value Creation, ESG, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

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In my dissertation, I investigate the role of culture, governance, and institutions in the antecedents and outcomes of firm’s socially responsible behavior vis-à-vis corporate social responsibility (CSR). In the first essay, I examine how national and corporate culture depicting long term orientation influences the extent of CSR activities globally. In the second essay, I investigate how corporate ownership and the identity of controlling shareholders affect the extent of environmental CSR. The third essay analyzes whether there is a significant difference between strategic and tactical CSRs in terms of their impact on firm value. Together, this dissertation examines what drives organizations to integrate the interests of stakeholders into strategy formulation concerning CSR; and how organization’s CSR behaviors are influenced by diverse internal and external factors such as corporate governance, culture, and institutional environments. / Business Administration/Strategic Management

The purpose of this study was to conduct a qualitative examination which explored the Social Innovation Orientation (SIO) of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practitioners as part of a broader contribution towards developing an augmenting and or an alternative mechanism to address the challenges faced by CSR practitioners and companies in fulfilling societal expectations in developing countries. The study sought to answer the question: In what ways are CSR practitioners building an SIO? The study also aimed to answer questions on whether any profound change or challenge was posed by CSR practitioners to the current systems through basic routines, authority flows, beliefs and resources (Westley and Antadze, 2010). The status of CSR advancement by companies was also explored. These questions were answered in the context of a developing country, more specifically South Africa. In order to set a relevant contextual background, the literature review covered two main broad variables, CSR and social innovation, as well as a detailed description of an SIO through four facets, namely: social experimentation, collaboration and inclusivity, scale mind-set, and institutional impact. The sample comprised CSR practitioners who met the sampling criteria. Information was gathered from these CSR practitioners using a semi-structured interview protocol. An analysis of the data gathered led to the description of the patterns which emerged, which presented across a continuum both narratively and graphically those CSR practitioners who were making the strides on the SIO continuum and those that were not. The study found that even with the CSR practitioners' strong desire to be viewed as delivering results, they needed to manage the expectations of stakeholders, particularly within their own companies, regarding what success was and what it was not. It was discovered that being more deliberate contributes to the building of an SIO. Through a focus on not repeating past mistakes while still working together with stakeholders in a manner which is proactive instead of defensive, CSR practitioners could be building an SIO. The results showed that fostering a participatory and inclusive environment from an early stage was beneficial in the development of an SIO. Another discovery was that the size of an intervention was of less importance than the significance of its potential impact. Practical contributions are proposed for companies and CSR practitioners as a result of this research, some of which are: a support approach to existing mechanisms, a component to be used in recruitment and performance appraisal, and a view to understanding social innovation and what it can mean for the company-centric perspective. Overall, the study revealed that CSR practitioners are building an SIO. Social experimentation, and collaboration and inclusivity were found to be more prevalent than the scale mind-set and institutional impact. SIOs were not void of the latter elements. These two elements should not be discarded. Whilst the SIO elements have been positioned as non-linear, it was revealed that some categorical features and linearity did exist.

No / The purpose of this paper is to highlight the loss of moral capital incurred by an organization from indifferent or deferential followers of bad leaders. Despite the proliferation of codes of conduct and ethics and compliance programs throughout the business community, the prevalence of malevolence and malfeasance in organizations continues to rise. While a good deal is known about bad leadership, far less is known about bad followership.

This dissertation comprises two essays in financial economics. They study how firms finance and invest in innovative and intangible assets. The first essay examines the impact of technology spillovers on corporate financing decisions for innovative firms. I find that greater technology spillovers lead to higher leverage in innovative firms. Furthermore, in firms with greater technology spillovers, equity is more costly relative to debt. I find that these financing effects are generated by at least three related mechanisms: information asymmetry, asset redeployability, and equity undervaluation. All three mechanisms lead firms to substitute away from equity and toward debt. The results are robust to exploiting variation in RandD tax credits to identify the causal effect of technology spillovers. The second essay is coauthored with Ambrus Kecskés at York University and Sattar Mansi at Virginia Tech. My coauthors and I enter the long-lived debate about whether stakeholder capital investment increases shareholder value. We argue that long-term investors are natural monitors that can ensure that managers choose stakeholder capital investment to maximize shareholder value. We find that long-term investors increase the value to shareholders of stakeholder capital investment, not as a result of higher cash flow but rather of lower cash flow risk. Also following prior work, we use indexing by investors and the staggered adoption of state laws on stakeholder orientation for identification. Our findings suggest that firms can create value for shareholders by investing in stakeholder capital as long as managers are properly monitored by long-term investors. / Ph. D.

In the competitive atmosphere of today's business world, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become yet another factor organizations use to distinguish themselves and make their values apparent to their audiences. Social media have helped organizations communicate these characteristics with their audiences by enabling timely and cost-effective communication between individuals and organizations. While many studies have explored the role of social media in communicating CSR messages, few studies have focused on the social transformational cues that visual elements of these tools offer organizations in terms of communicating their socially responsible activity. Through a content analysis of social media posts by both the Reputation Institute's 20 most responsible companies and the institute's top 20 Fortune 500 companies, this study explored the ways in which organizations communicate their CSR activities over a three-month period. The analysis examined companies' CSR initiatives through their text and image posts on Instagram and Twitter, as well as how socially responsible companies express brand personality using these social media sites. Furthermore, this study compared organizations' use of image, text, and text-only based social media posts, as well as their use of image-power strategies. This study also contributed to existing work on CSR in social media by examining trends in the social media strategies of the most responsible and highest earning organizations in terms of how they communicate cues related to CSR. / Master of Arts