Business For Society

This book is about promoting corporate responsibility in its original meaning: businesses should have a positive impact on society, and society should not only be a lever of making a profit. When we treat social responsibility as an external function of the core business, we are exposed to the worst. Business for Society seeks to redress the balance and promotes the original idea of corporate responsibility. This first book in the series of the same name sets the scene and presents the key theories across the various management disciplines to answer the following questions: 'How, why and under what conditions can business act for society?' The book narrows and discusses examples of businesses which are making impressive strides in delivering positive impacts for society as well as their bottom lines; but as the concept of corporate responsibility has become more mainstream in recent years, many organisations have adopted the term and reduced it to a marketing message. Areas covered include a historical perspective on the hijacking of business responsibility towards society, management knowledge and value, the Business for Society project against hijacking, accounting for society, finance for society and governance for society and democracy. The book will be of interest for scholars and students in the fields of corporate social responsibility, business ethics and governance.

Corporations dominate our societies. They employ us, sell to us and influence how we think and who we vote for, while their economic interests dictate local, national and global agendas. Written in clear and accessible terms, this much-needed textbook provides critical perspectives on all aspects of the relationship between business and society: from an historical analysis of the spread of capitalism as the foundation of the 'corporate' revolution in the late nineteenth century to the regulation, ethics and exclusionary implications of business in contemporary society. Furthermore, it examines how corporate power and capitalism might be resisted, outlining a range of alternatives, from the social economy through to new forms of open access or commons ownership.

Recipient of a 2021 Most Promising New Textbook Award from the Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA) Business and Society: Ethical, Legal, and Digital Environments prepares students for the modern workplace by exploring the opportunities and challenges they will face in today′s interconnected, global economy. The author team discusses legal and ethical issues throughout and uses real-world cases to provide students with a holistic understanding of stakeholder issues. Chapters on social media and citizen movements, big data and hacking, and privacy in the digital age provide in-depth coverage of how technology is transforming the relationship between organizations and consumers. Included with this title: The password-protected Instructor Resource Site (formally known as SAGE Edge) offers access to all text-specific resources, including a test bank and editable, chapter-specific PowerPoint® slides.

A roadmap to improve corporate social responsibility The 2016 U.S. Presidential Campaign focused a good deal of attention on the role of corporations in society, from both sides of the aisle. In the lead up to the election, big companies were accused of profiteering, plundering the environment, and ignoring (even exacerbating) societal ills ranging from illiteracy and discrimination to obesity and opioid addiction. Income inequality was laid squarely at the feet of us companies. The Trump administration then moved swiftly to scrap fiscal, social, and environmental rules that purportedly hobble business, to redirect or shut down cabinet offices historically protecting the public good, and to roll back clean power, consumer protection, living wage, healthy eating initiatives and even basic public funding for public schools. To many eyes, and the lens of history, this may usher in a new era of cowboy capitalism with big companies, unfettered by regulation and encouraged by the presidential bully pulpit, free to go about the business of making money—no matter the consequences to consumers and the commonwealth. While this may please some companies in the short term, the long term consequences might result in just the opposite. And while the new administration promises to reduce "foreign aid" and the social safety net, Stanley S. Litow believes big companies will be motivated to step up their efforts to create jobs, reduce poverty, improve education and health, and address climate change issues — both domestically and around the world. For some leaders in the private sector this is not a matter of public relations or charity. It is integral to their corporate strategy—resulting in creating new markets, reducing risks, attracting and retaining top talent, and generating growth and realizing opportunities. Through case studies (many of which the author spearheaded at IBM), The Challenge for Business and Society provides clear guidance for companies to build their own corporate sustainability and social responsibility plans positively effecting their bottom lines producing real return on their investments. This book will help: • Create an effective corporate social responsibility and sustainability plan • Provide long-term bottom line benefit • Protect and enrich brand value • Recruit and retain top talent Perfect for CEOs, CFOs, Human Resource/Corporate Affairs executives, but also for government and not-for-profit leaders, this book helps you come up with a solid plan for giving back to society, producing real sustainable value.

This book brings together leading scholars in the field of stakeholder management to bring to light new and cutting edge perspectives on this important field. It is intended as a resource for both emerging and established scholars to create innovative advances in stakeholder management.

The world of business is constantly evolving and management education institutions will likely face a number of challenges in keeping up with these changes. While most books focus on the needs of management education institutions, this work addresses the needs of the corporate world in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Featuring an extensive research study spanning 11 countries, it offers a unique perspective on the business challenges and developmental needs of companies in emerging and recently emerged economies, and on the missing links between those needs and management education. Using both company-specific and country-level data, the book provides businesses and educators with rare insights and recommendations on strengthening existing partnerships (or establishing them anew) between management education institutions and the corporate sector in order to make management education relevant for the 21st century. The book argues that ‘relevance’ should take the center-stage of all higher education institutions in order to accomplish their third mission, namely service to society. This is especially important for management education institutions, whose mission is to mold future managers and leaders who can have a significant influence on economic success and the wellbeing of society.

Business and Society: Stakeholder Relations, Ethics and Public Policy by Lawrence/Weber/Post, has continued through several successive author teams to be the market-leader in its field. For over thirty years, Business and Society has been updated and reinvented in response to society’s relationship to business. Business and Society, 11e highlights why government regulation is sometimes required as well as new models of business-community collaboration. Business and Society, 11e is a book with a point of view. Lawrence, Weber and Post believe that businesses have social (as well as economic) responsibilities to society; that business and government both have important roles to play in the modern economy; and that ethics and integrity are essential to personal fulfillment and to business success. The book is designed to be easily modularized; an instructor who wishes to focus on a particular portion of the material may select individual chapters or cases to be packaged in a Primis custom product.

As consumers, our access to—and appetite for—information about what and how we buy continues to grow. Powered by social media, increasingly we look at the companies behind the products and are disappointed when their actions do not meet our expectations. With engaged citizens acting as 24/7 auditors of corporate behavior, one formerly trusted company after another has had their business disrupted with astonishing velocity in the wake of what, in the past, might have been written off as a bad media cycle. Gone are the days when a company could hide behind “socially responsible” branding or when marketing controlled the corporate narrative. That control has shifted to engaged stakeholders in the new social landscape, requiring a more radical change to company practices. James Rubin and Barie Carmichael provide a strategic roadmap for businesses to navigate the new era, rebuild trust, and find their voice. Reset traces the global decline of trust in business at the same time that the public’s expectations for business’s role in society is increasing. Today, businesses must bridge this widening gap at a time when online stakeholders are committed to holding business accountable for its behavior, with unprecedented internal and external scrutiny. This requires strategic solutions anchored in a critical outside-in understanding of the stakeholder footprint of the business model. Reset offers case studies of reputations lost and found, suggesting fundamental strategies to mitigate risk and build the corporate brand. In this new era of instant transparency, corporate behavior has become the proof of corporate character for recruiting and retaining both customers and the next generation of talent. Offering essential advice for managing brand, reputation, and risk, this book is a guide to navigating the pitfalls and taking advantage of the opportunities of the reset.