Corporate Social Responsibility beyond Law: Preliminary Instances during COVID-19
Keywords:
corporate social responsibility; soft and hard law; beyond law; coronavirus pandemic; tort lawAbstract
A new wave of corporate social responsibility is emerging during the COVID-19 pandemic, which deserves research attention. Objective: the objective of this research is to present a preliminary instances of corporate social responsibility beyond law in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic. Prior work: the paper is inclined on the stakeholder theory of corporate responsibility. Approach: the paper applied a qualitative conceptual review and document analysis of information from the World Economic Forum on corporate social responsibility during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: pandemic can instil altruistic corporate social responsibility beyond what the law may prescribe; such can alleviate humanitarian crisis and elevate corporate image. The corporate may not often be an infinitely capitalist prone entity, it can be empathic and altruistic under certain unexpected conditions such disease pandemic. Implications: corporate social responsibility beyond law has the potential to upgrade corporate image and social asset. Policy makers may save certain costs of enforcing social reasonability compliance by appealing to the conscience of the corporate. Value: this paper fills the gap in the literature regarding how and when the corporate can play the role of striving to carter for the poor during times of pandemic – a beyond law altruistic social responsibility.
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Rafaj, P., & Kypreos, S. (2007). Internalisation of external cost in the power generation sector: Analysis with Global Multi-regional MARKAL model. Energy Policy, 35(2), 828-843.
Waagstein, P. R. (2011). The mandatory corporate social responsibility in Indonesia: Problems and implications. Journal of business ethics, 98(3), 455-466.
World Bank (2004) Public sector roles in strengthening corporate social responsibility: taking stock. Retrieved from: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/548301468313740636/pdf/346560CSR1Taking1Stock.pdf, date: 04.28.2020
World Economic Forum (2020) How are companies responding to the coronavirus crisis? Retrieved from: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/how-are-companies-responding-to-the-coronavirus-crisis-d15bed6137/, date: 04.28.2020
Zhou, L., & He, Z. (2009). On corporate social responsibility “beyond law” in China. Frontiers of Law in China, 4(3), 457-473.
Zhu, W., & Yao, Y. (2008). On the value of traditional Confucian culture and the value of modern corporate social responsibility. International Journal of Business and Management, 3(2), 58-62
Agudelo, M. A. L., Jóhannsdóttir, L., & Davídsdóttir, B. (2019). A literature review of the history and evolution of corporate social responsibility. International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, 4(1). Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40991-018-0039-y, date: 03.18.2020
Barnett, T (2020) corporate social responsibility. Retrieved from:
https://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Comp-De/Corporate-Social-Responsibility.html, date: 03.18.2020
Bharadwaj, S. (2020). Definition, Scope and Evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility. Retrieved from:http://studymaterial.unipune.ac.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456789/4181/1/DEFINITION%20EVOLUTION%20AND%20SCOPE%20OF%20CSR-converted.pdf, date: 03.18.2020
Cahill, S., & Cahill, P. (1999). Scarlet letters: Punishing the corporate citizen. International Journal of the Sociology of Law, 27(2), 153-165.
Carroll, A. B. (1999). Corporate social responsibility. Business & Society, 38(3), 268–295
Carroll, A. B. (2008). A history of corporate social responsibility: Concepts and practices. The Oxford handbook of corporate social responsibility, 19-46.
Fiandrino, S., Busso, D., & Vrontis, D. (2019). Sustainable responsible conduct beyond the boundaries of compliance. British Food Journal, 121(5),1035-1049
Foreign Policy (2020) China and the United States Are Both Losing the Blame Game. Retrieved from: https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/04/22/china-united-states-relations-coronavirus-crisis-distraction/, date: 04.20.2020
Freeman, R. E. (2001). A stakeholder theory of the modern corporation. Perspectives in Business Ethics Sie, 3, 144. Retrieved from:http://academic.udayton.edu/LawrenceUlrich/Stakeholder%20Theory.pdf, date: 04.20.2020
Frideman, M (1970) The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits, The New York Times. Retrieved from: http://umich.edu/~thecore/doc/Friedman.pdf, date: 04.20.2020
Gatti, L., Vishwanath, B., Seele, P., & Cottier, B. (2019). Are we moving beyond voluntary CSR? Exploring theoretical and managerial implications of mandatory CSR resulting from the new Indian companies act. Journal of Business Ethics, 160(4), 961-972.
George, E (2020) Can Corporate Social Responsibility Be Legally Enforced? Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/uhenergy/2019/10/11/can-corporate-social-responsibility-be-legally-enforced/#608918b63d44, date: 04.20.2020
Gotoh, F. (2020). Industrial associations as ideational platforms: why Japan resisted American-style shareholder capitalism. The Pacific Review, 33(1), 125-152.
IFHRB (Institute for Human Rights and Business), (2009) Setting boundaries: clarifying the scope and content of the corporate responsibility to respect human rights. Retrieved from: https://www.ihrb.org/pdf/Setting_Boundaries-Clarifying_Scope_and_Content_of_Corporate_Responsibility_to_Respect_Human_Rights.pdf, date: 04.20.2020
Jean, A. T., Wang, X., & Suntu, S. (2020). Corporate social responsibility in madagascar: an investigation on chinese companies. International Journal of Construction Management, 20(1), 29-38.
Jentsch, V. (2018). Corporate social responsibility and the law: international standards, regulatory theory and the Swiss responsible business initiative. Retrieved from: https://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/59084/MWP_WP_Jentsch_2018_05.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. date: 04.20.2020
Lambooy, T. (2014). Legal aspects of corporate social responsibility. Utrecht Journal of International and European Law, 30(78), pp.1–6.
Mares, R. (2016). Rejoinder to G. Skinner's Rethinking Limited Liability of Parent Corporations for Foreign Subsidaries' Violation of International Human Rights Law. Washington and Lee Law Review online , 73, 117 – 158
McBarnet, D. (2009). Corporate social responsibility beyond law, through law, for law. U. of Edinburgh School of Law Working Paper, (2009/03). Retrieved from: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/28968976.pdf, date: 04.20.2020
Necodemus, A (2020) for some companies in the age of coronavirus, ethics pays. Compliance Week. Retrieved from: https://www.complianceweek.com/ethics-and-culture/for-some-companies-in-the-age-of-coronavirus-ethics-pays/28625.article, date: 04.20.2020
Newell, P., & Frynas, J. G. (2007). Beyond CSR? Business, poverty and social justice: an introduction. Third world quarterly, 28(4), 669-681.
Parker, C. (2007). Meta-regulation: legal accountability for corporate social responsibility. Retrieved from: https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/bitstream/handle/11343/25422/Meta-regulation.pdf?sequence=3, date: 04.20.2020
Pichai, S. (2020) COVID-19: $800+ million to support small businesses and crisis response, A Message from Our CEO: Google and Alphabet. Retrieved from: https://blog.google/inside-google/company-announcements/commitment-support-small-businesses-and-crisis-response-covid-19, date: 04.20.2020
Rafaj, P., & Kypreos, S. (2007). Internalisation of external cost in the power generation sector: Analysis with Global Multi-regional MARKAL model. Energy Policy, 35(2), 828-843.
Waagstein, P. R. (2011). The mandatory corporate social responsibility in Indonesia: Problems and implications. Journal of business ethics, 98(3), 455-466.
World Bank (2004) Public sector roles in strengthening corporate social responsibility: taking stock. Retrieved from: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/548301468313740636/pdf/346560CSR1Taking1Stock.pdf, date: 04.28.2020
World Economic Forum (2020) How are companies responding to the coronavirus crisis? Retrieved from: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/how-are-companies-responding-to-the-coronavirus-crisis-d15bed6137/, date: 04.28.2020
Zhou, L., & He, Z. (2009). On corporate social responsibility “beyond law” in China. Frontiers of Law in China, 4(3), 457-473.
Zhu, W., & Yao, Y. (2008). On the value of traditional Confucian culture and the value of modern corporate social responsibility. International Journal of Business and Management, 3(2), 58-62
Published
2020-11-02
How to Cite
Ngwakwe, C. (2020). Corporate Social Responsibility beyond Law: Preliminary Instances during COVID-19: Array. Acta Universitatis Danubius. Juridica, 16(3). Retrieved from https://dj.univ-danubius.ro/index.php/AUDJ/article/view/624
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