Research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) flourished pre-COVD-19 and could reasonably claim to be one of the most widely read and cited sub-fields of management. However, the pandemic has clearly challenged a number of existing CSR assumptions, concepts, and practices. We aim to identify four key areas where CSR research has been challenged by COVID-19 – stakeholders, societal risk, supply chain responsibility, and the political economy of CSR – and propose how future CSR research should be realigned to tackle them.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/joms.12642

COVID-19 and the future of CSR research

textWe use convergent elements of major ethical theories to create a typology of corporate stakeholder cultures—the aspects of organizational culture consisting of the beliefs, values, and practices that have evolved for solving problems and otherwise managing stakeholder relationships. We describe five stakeholder cultures—agency, corporate egoist, instrumentalist, moralist, and altruist—and explain how these cultures lie on a continuum, ranging from individually self-interested (agency culture) to fully other-regarding (altruist culture). We demonstrate the utility of our framework by showing how it can refine stakeholder salience theory.

/pdf/ethical-theory-and-stakeholder-related-decisions-the-role-of-2dqdrqyqrv.pdf

Ethical theory and stakeholder-related decisions: The role of stakeholder culture

Stakeholder engagement has grown into a widely used yet often unclear construct in business and society research. The literature lacks a unified understanding of the essentials of stakeholder engagement, and the fragmented use of the stakeholder engagement construct challenges its development and legitimacy. The purpose of this article is to clarify the construct of stakeholder engagement to unfold the full potential of stakeholder engagement research. We conduct a literature review on 90 articles in leading academic journals focusing on stakeholder engagement in the business and society, management and strategy, and environmental management and environmental policy literatures. We present a descriptive analysis of stakeholder engagement research for a 15-year period, and we identify the moral, strategic, and pragmatic components of stakeholder engagement as well as its aims, activities, and impacts. Moreover, we offer an inclusive stakeholder engagement definition and provide a guide to organizing the research. Finally, we complement the current understanding with a largely overlooked dark side of stakeholder engagement. We conclude with future research avenues for stakeholder engagement research.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/00076503211066595

Stakeholder Engagement: Past, Present, and Future

This article investigates how organizations deal with drivers and barriers to the adoption of low‐carbon operational (LCO) practices and, accordingly, we propose a framework for relationships with stakeholders to guide organizations in orchestrating stakeholders, resources and capabilities to meet the challenges and opportunities arising from climate change. Data was collected through interviews with experts working within companies participating in the Carbon Disclosure Program and the Brazilian GHG Protocol Program. Our findings show that the level of willingness of stakeholders influences how companies select mechanisms to deal with drivers and barriers to LCO practices. Our results, qualified by stakeholder relationships theory and the natural resource‐based view, introduce an analytical approach called ‘mechanisms of responses’ to understand how organizations deal with drivers and barriers in the context of climate change in order to guide companies to adopt LCO practices, strengthen co‐operation with stakeholders and develop the required organizational capabilities.

The interplay between stakeholders, resources and capabilities in climate change strategy: converting barriers into cooperation

A cross cultural investigation of retailers commitment to CSR and customer citizenship behaviour: The role of ethical standard and value relevance

To contribute to the continuing challenge of explaining how managers identify stakeholders and assess their salience, in this article, we chronicle the history, assess the impact, and evaluate the ...

Stakeholder Identification and Salience After 20 Years: Progress, Problems, and Prospects

To contribute to the continuing challenge of explaining how managers identify stakeholders and assess their salience, in this article, we chronicle the history, assess the impact, and evaluate the possibilities opened by Mitchell, Agle, and Wood (MAW-1997). We do so through two types of qualitative analysis, and also through utilizing a quantitative network analysis tool. The first qualitative analysis categorizes the major contributions of the most influential papers succeeding MAW-1997; the second identifies and compares the relevant issues with MAW-1997 at the time of initial publication and today. We apply main path analysis, a quantitative tool, to map how this scholarly domain has evolved. These three analyses robustly depict the impact of MAW-1997 and the ensuing scholarly conversation, and they enable us to illustrate the current state and trajectory of stakeholder identification and salience scholarship. We close by discussing pressing topics related to the broader body of stakeholder theory literature.

Logan M. Bryan

Papers

Stakeholder Identification and Salience After 20 Years: Progress, Problems, and Prospects

Stakeholder Identification and Salience After 20 Years: Progress, Problems, and Prospects