Organisations operate under unpredictable business environments. These business environments can be classified into internal and external environments. The decision taken by organisations to allocate resources for CSR depends on business environments. Organisations have no control of external business environments. Global financial crisis is an example of an external business environment of which organisations have no control over. The event in the business environments can influence the organisation to review its CSR operations. The beneficiaries of the organisation's CSR program get affected by such decision reviews and face even bigger challenges.

Currently corporate scandals are making headlines in the news. Stakeholders are demanding transparency through better information disclosure in order to curtail this problem and to regain trust. Businesses must find better and more effective ways of communicating not only financial but also non-financial information to these stakeholders. Information disclosures in both annual reports and on websites are important but the two media are used differently. Online CSR disclosures provide timely information and will meet stakeholders’ demands for greater speed and volume of information disclosure. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the current level of online CSR disclosures among public listed companies in Malaysia, with particular reference to the influence of leadership variables. This study seeks to explain any variations in online CSR disclosures by using the following variables as the explanatory factors: ethical leadership behaviours, consisting of people orientation, fairness, power sharing, concern for sustainability, ethical guidance, role clarification and integrity; leadership styles, comprising transactional and transformational leadership styles; and leader roles. In investigating this issue, a quantitative approach was employed using a sample of 100 top Malaysian public listed companies. The data collection started with examining corporate websites using a disclosure index, followed by a questionnaire survey to grasp employees’ opinions on their leaders’ ethical leadership behaviours, leadership styles and leader roles. Due to the limitations of a quantitative approach, seven semi-structured interviews with managers were conducted to give context to the quantitative findings as well as supplement the data. The results show that Malaysian companies’ level of online CSR disclosure was low and the majority of companies did not fully utilise their websites to disseminate CSR information, although all the companies had websites. The results of the multiple regression indicated that ethical guidance, concern for sustainability and integrity contributed to the amount of CSR information disclosed on the Malaysian companies’ websites but interestingly, these were inverse relationships. Consequently, the interview findings revealed that not all leadership variables were perceived by managers to be determinants of online CSR disclosures. The inverse relationships were possibly due to factors such as leader’s confidence, moral recognition, personal recognition, external factors and cultural factors. This research contributes to the understanding of corporate voluntary disclosure strategies through the focus on online CSR disclosure. Prior disclosure studies emphasize financial, accounting and economic related variables as determinants to online CSR disclosures. This study provides a new insight for company leaders, policy makers and academics on how the behaviours of leaders, who are key corporate players, can impact the setting of CSR goals and enhance transparency by disclosing online.

Thesis (Ph.D. Strategic Management)--University of Waikato, 2010. / Title from PDF cover (viewed Apr. 22, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 460-497)

「社會企業責任」是一個自相矛盾的名詞 ，它擁有無數有可能的意思 -「企業」暗喻賺取利潤，「社會」暗喻很多不同人士關注的不同利益，「責任」暗喻必要及非自願的行動。它是一個非固定的概念。跟據跨媒體議題設定理論，這研究利用內容分析,探討香港兩間本地電力公司如何利用有關社會企業責任的新聞稿影響報章的報道。結果顯示社會企業責任主題的新聞稿並沒有得到報章的重視，報章普遍認為某些對與公眾相關的主題的重要性較高。但關於社會企業責任的描述，例如發生的地區及合作的機構，就與報章的報道有相關性。而與社會企業責任活動有關的持份者及新聞稿中的引述數目與報章報道的次數是沒有關連的。這研究將原本的議題設定理論作出更改，以社會企業責任不同的「主題」代替「議題」為第一層議題設定作出分析；而第二層的分析就以被引用的源頭及引用內容的取態作出分析。。在報章的報道中，不同報章對各個主題的重視程度不一，所以它們報道的取態都有所不同。由於社會企業責任相關的資訊都較為正面，新聞稿是結構性的策略，目的是改變傳媒的行為，希望得到重視。這研究顯示出在新聞選擇、取態及擬訂的過程中，某些因素能取決社會企業責任相關資訊的新聞價值。 / “Corporate social responsibility“ is an oxymoron with multiple possible meanings - “corporate“ implies profit making, “social“ implies a multiplicity of interests and “responsibility implies required, thus involuntary actions. It is a fluid concept. Based on the intermedia agenda setting theory, this study employed content analysis to investigate how the CSR-related news releases published by the two local electricity providers in Hong Kong have contributed to press coverage. The results reflect that the salience of CSR theme is not transferred - the press assigns different degrees of emphasis to themes of higher relevance to the general public. The descriptions using which the CSR information is presented, such as location and the CSR partner with whom the CSR activities were carried out, are found to be significant to the amount of press coverage. However, the stakeholder groups affected by the CSR activities and the number of sources quoted in the news releases are not related to the amount of press coverage. The original agenda setting effects model was revised; apart from measuring CSR theme as the 1st level, the 2nd level was changed - source attributions and the tone of those attributions were studied. In the media agenda, the newspapers differ in their degrees of emphasis assigned to each CSR theme, thus, also vary in the tone of their coverage. Given the distinctive nature of CSR information being mostly positive, news releases are structured efforts intended to push for a behavioral change in the media. This study shows the process involves contingent factors that highlight the measurements of the newsworthy elements of CSR themes during the process of news selection, framing and elaboration. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Tam, Lai Shan. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 136-148). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.5-11 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Theoretical Framework on Agenda Setting --- p.12-31 / The Agenda Setting Theory / Intermedia Agenda Setting Effects / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Theoretical Review on CSR Communication --- p.32-57 / What is Corporate Social Responsibility? / The Corporate Agenda / The Public Agenda / The Media Agenda / Research Questions / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Methodology --- p.58-69 / Methods / Sampling / Data Collection / Variables / Statistical Analysis / Revised Framework / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Results --- p.70-94 / The Corporate Agenda / The Media Agenda / Relationships between the Corporate and Media Agendas / Chapter Chapter 6 --- Conclusion & Discussion --- p.95-135 / Measuring “Issue“ in CSR Communication / Defining the “Attributes of Issues“ / Defining the “Transfer of Attributes“ / Monitoring Media Coverage / Measuring Consistency within CSR Communication / Contributions to the Intermedia Agenda Setting Research / CSR Communication & Intermedia Agenda Setting / The Media Ecology / Nature of Business & Application to Other Industries / The Hong Kong Context / Limitations / Chapter Chapter 7 --- References --- p.136-148

This study attempts to achieve two things. Firstly it contextualizes corporate citizenship drawing on scholarly, government, media, legal and business discourses which when viewed as a whole, reveals the importance of exchange as a central determinant in how all the major themes or subfields of corporate citizenship function and subsequently become valued within public discourse. Secondly, it reports on exploratory action research where I as a researcher occupied a central role in understanding and contributing towards how organizational settings socially construct and evolve corporate citizenship in real time through various exchange behaviour, drawing from four years field research within BP and its interactions with the external world. This research contributes to new knowledge by building a rare contextual understanding into how cultural change evolves over time within an organization, from its public face, through policy, down into employee and stakeholder reactions, including identifying the crucial role played by Cultural bridges’ in shifting entrenched organizational culture towards embracing new, more sustainable ways of doing business, and additionally how practitioners can legitimately act as a researcher in facilitating this process by assisting an organization to move from simple, transactional relationships to more sustainable integrated social, financial and environmental exchange between business and its broader context. Importantly, this research develops entirely new theoretical models for understanding the social application and commercial value of corporate citizenship to both business and society.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2010. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 89-96). Also available on the World Wide Web.

The Link REITs is the most renowned, world-wide real estate investment trust in Hong Kong since 25 November 2005. Yet, the performance of The Link REIT is controversial under the management of The Link Management Limited (“The Link”). The excellence financial performance of The Link is well known, but the non-financial performance is uncertain. While The Link has adopted a sustainability framework for sustainability management, the three key concepts including i) CSR, ii) sustainability and iii) the building of reputational capital will be integrated into one as a prism for analysis. “Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”) is simply part of the scope under the concept of sustainability and the notion of building reputational capital is ingrained in various theories in relations to CSR and sustainability. Business that operates to comply with economic and legal responsibilities can be asserted to survive. Together with its compliance with the ethical and philanthropic responsibilities, a company could enjoy increasing competitiveness by gaining consumer confidence over a long term. The Link has been experiencing changes in its moral system prior to its personnel change upon these years. Start from the individual level, CEO of The Link disseminated his espoused ethical values to the organizational and then to the societal level. The moral system will be examined; barriers against the dissemination of ethical practice will be addressed. Upon The Link’s behavioural change in its ethical practice, a reputation audit which is also known as perception test will be used to test if there are perception gaps exists in between levels of the dissemination. Contrasting the existing state of The Link’s ethical performance with the desired state wanted by The Link’s key constituencies, this would help to address the perception gaps. Whether these perception gaps are opportunities to improve or challenges to overcome, it is important information for The Link to further develop and to gauge its sustainability management strategy. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

No description available.

Problem: Because an organizations’ profits are generally derived from product sales, it is important to recognize the relationship between consumers’ purchase intentions and organizational involvement in socially responsible practices. A gap exists in the research and studies conducted on consumer social responsibility as it relates to purchase intentions from a consumer perspective. H1: A positive association exists between an organization’s involvement in CSR programs and consumers’ purchase intentions. Thus, consumers are more likely to purchase an organization’s product if that organization is involved in socially responsible practices. RQ1: Are consumers aware of specific organizational involvement in socially responsible programs? RQ2: Are consumers aware of a lack of specific organizational involvement in socially responsible programs? Significance of Problem: Despite evidence that consumers appear to feel strongly about organizational involvement in socially responsible programs, research has shown that social responsibility was not a dominant goal in a majority of companies studied. Value: The relationship between CSR and consumers’ purchase intentions is important to understand because often CSR is dismissed as merely another public relations’ tool. However, understanding the underlying reasons consumers make purchases in relation to CSR would contribute to the understanding of CSR as a strategic management function overall. Methodology: Using a combination of interviews and emailed surveys, consumers were asked questions to determine the association between organizational involvement in socially responsible programs and consumers’ purchase intentions. Additionally, consumers were asked to identify their awareness of specific organizational involvement in socially responsible programs / Department of Journalism

The collapse of WorldCom (USA 2002), Enron (USA 2001), Exxon Valdez (USA 1989) and Union Carbide (India 1984) has inevitably invited tighter scrutiny from the public on unethical business practices. In order to be competitive in today's market economy, businesses need to be socially responsible and sensitive to the interests of various stakeholders, including the environment and society in general. / A study of senior managers' perceptions of CSR is vital as they are the most influential people in an organization, possessing the requisite power and resources to achieve its expectations. The petrochemical industry is chosen in this study due to its highly environmentally sensitive nature. In this research project, the CSR perceptions of senior managers in the petrochemical industry in Malaysia are examined from the perspectives of their demographic attributes, specific organizational characteristics and organizational culture. The main objectives are to study the CSR perceptions of senior of senior managers in the Malaysian petrochemical industry, to analyse the complex relationships among the moderating variables and CSR perceptions, as well as study the relationships among the four types of responsibilities of Carroll's (1979) CSR construct. Multivariate analysis, namely MANOVER, is used to analyse the complex relationships among senior managers' CSR perceptions, their demographic attributes, organizational characteristics and organizational culture. / The research findings indicate that there are simultaneous relationships among the variables correlated with the CSR perceptions of senior managers. These findings can provide useful guidelines in formulating organisational CSR policies, and human resource recruitment policy, as well as in designing training programs to increase CSR awareness among the employees. The CSR perceptions of the senior managers surveyed support Carroll's (1979) CSR model that the economic and legal responsibilities are viewed as more important than ethical and discretionary responsibilities. The relationships among the four types of responsibilities are also found to be consistent with the literature. Content analysis is used to supplement the quantitative analysis to give an overview of CSR in the Malaysian petrochemical industry by understanding the organisational culture pertaining to CSR. It is important to note that all participating companies are committed to being socially responsible in protecting the environment, despite the different levels of emphasis given in their organisational documents. / Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2007