Unpacking Stakeholders’ Complex Responses to Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Sustainability
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2023) | Viewed by 1756
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate sustainability (CST) have been increasingly recognized as a critical feature that differentiates firms from competitors in the market (Eccles et al., 2014; Porter & Kramer, 2006). By developing proper strategies and implementing specific practices for CSR and CST, firms are expected to gain legitimacy (Zheng et al., 2015) and favorable responses from various stakeholders (Barnett, 2007). Nonetheless, anecdotal and scholarly evidence indicate that stakeholders do not always show the same attitudes and responses to such actions. For instance, while well-branded eco-friendly products enjoy premium from consumers (e.g., Patagonia), they often elicit negative responses from consumers (e.g., H&M). Corporate disclosures for CSR and CST are not always hailed by stockholders (Lu et al., 2021). Employees tend to be proud of their organization’s actions for CSR and CST, but often express cynicism (Serrano Archimi et al., 2018). Communities normally welcome CSR and CST, but often showcase antagonistic behaviors against them (McLennan & Banks, 2018). These cases imply that scholars need to delve deeper into the inquiry when stakeholders are favorable to CSR and CST and when they are not. This Special Issue aims to deviate from a naïvely positive approach, and calls for more critical research works focusing on underexplored “boundary conditions” where/when/how/why stakeholders become more or less favourable to CSR and CST. This Special Issue seeks both conceptual and empirical works, including interdisciplinary and international studies, that may address topics including, but not limited to, the following:
- Top managers’ complex reactions to CSR and/or CST;
- Consumers’ complex reactions to CSR and/or CST;
- Investors’ complex reactions to CSR and/or CST;
- Employees’ complex reactions to CSR and/or CST;
- Suppliers’ complex reactions to CSR and/or CST;
- Communities’ complex reactions to CSR and/or CST;
- Host countries’ complex reactions to CSR and/or CST.
I look forward to receiving your contributions.
Prof. Dr. Young K. Chang
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- corporate social responsibility
- corporate sustainability
- ESG
- corporate philanthropy
- corporate citizenship
- stakeholders
- stakeholder management
- stakeholder response
- boundary condition
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