Business for Society – serie

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.

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.

Sustainability Accounting, Management Control and Reporting: A European Perspective traces a picture of innovative performance measurement tools and approaches to drive organizations to implement their shared value and sustainability strategy, considering different perspectives around accounting, managerial control and reporting.In recent years, organizations managing their responsible approach with relevance and pressure from stakeholders and regulations has proven to be a major challenge. During the first two decades of the 21st century, many companies have reached a real maturity in this area and have deployed coherent responsible approaches that are integrated into their overall strategy. It is now a matter of steering these responsible approaches from an accounting and managerial standpoint, but also of reporting on them. It requires the simultaneous use of comprehensive accounting, controlling and reporting tools. This book provides an innovative perspective on sustainable management control, comprehensive accounting and integrated reporting, presenting the most recent proposals and the main critical issues.Aimed at researchers, academics, managers, business leaders and advanced students, the book will be especially valuable to those in the fields of corporate social responsibility, strategic management, and accounting.

Sustainability Accounting, Management Control and Reporting: A European Perspective traces a picture of innovative performance measurement tools and approaches to drive organizations to implement their shared value and sustainability strategy, considering different perspectives around accounting, managerial control and reporting.In recent years, organizations managing their responsible approach with relevance and pressure from stakeholders and regulations has proven to be a major challenge. During the first two decades of the 21st century, many companies have reached a real maturity in this area and have deployed coherent responsible approaches that are integrated into their overall strategy. It is now a matter of steering these responsible approaches from an accounting and managerial standpoint, but also of reporting on them. It requires the simultaneous use of comprehensive accounting, controlling and reporting tools. This book provides an innovative perspective on sustainable management control, comprehensive accounting and integrated reporting, presenting the most recent proposals and the main critical issues.Aimed at researchers, academics, managers, business leaders and advanced students, the book will be especially valuable to those in the fields of corporate social responsibility, strategic management, and accounting.

This book discusses (auto- )ethnographies of accountability, undertaken (in close collaboration) by a multinational group of accounting and organization theory researchers over a period of three years. The key assumption underlying the book is that accountability is inherently an identity- creating process where the study of account- making has to be done participatively, with radical openness to the one(s) being researched, as well as to their context. That openness we call ‘ethnography’. The values or assumptions inherent to the practices of account and identity-making, in a specific context, are what (auto- )ethnographies seek to describe and identify. These values and assumptions warrant critical, ethical reflection, and this is what the researchers presented here have tried to provide.The chapters in this book all are mini- studies of relatedness. The scale of examination is intimate; the reflections provided by the researchers are mainly methodological.This book is of interest to accounting and organization theory students and scholars who believe that accountability can fruitfully be studied through (auto-) ethnography. The book extends currently existing views on how accountability can be handled and discharged between researchers and their researched, when local, intimate settings are studied.

This book discusses (auto- )ethnographies of accountability, undertaken (in close collaboration) by a multinational group of accounting and organization theory researchers over a period of three years. The key assumption underlying the book is that accountability is inherently an identity- creating process where the study of account- making has to be done participatively, with radical openness to the one(s) being researched, as well as to their context. That openness we call ‘ethnography’. The values or assumptions inherent to the practices of account and identity-making, in a specific context, are what (auto- )ethnographies seek to describe and identify. These values and assumptions warrant critical, ethical reflection, and this is what the researchers presented here have tried to provide.The chapters in this book all are mini- studies of relatedness. The scale of examination is intimate; the reflections provided by the researchers are mainly methodological.This book is of interest to accounting and organization theory students and scholars who believe that accountability can fruitfully be studied through (auto-) ethnography. The book extends currently existing views on how accountability can be handled and discharged between researchers and their researched, when local, intimate settings are studied.

This book provides an overview of the opportunities and risks of digitalisation and the platforms that embody it and constitute society's new infrastructure. From a management point of view – defined here as the steering of organised and finalised collective action – understanding this major socio-technical disruption is paramount. The book helps to comprehend its main players, such as the American GAFAM, their power and its sources, their architecture, and their impact on different industries and professions, labour markets, companies, and education.Responding to the dominance of tech giants, numerous initiatives are striving to regulate their influence, safeguard democratic sovereignty, promote fair competition in the digital sphere, and employ frugal digitalisation methods to counteract detrimental aspects of these “oligopolistic” platforms. In essence, shouldn't the overarching aim of digitalisation be to foster community development, strengthen individual and collective capabilities, and preserve the environment, while producing goods and services to meet shared societal interests? Throughout the four sections of this book and its 16 chapters, actors in the digital process and/or academics provide analyses and illustrations of the great digital transformation, examining the ways in which socio-technical advances can be created or used for the benefit of all, while avoiding major risks.

This book provides an overview of the opportunities and risks of digitalisation and the platforms that embody it and constitute society's new infrastructure. From a management point of view – defined here as the steering of organised and finalised collective action – understanding this major socio-technical disruption is paramount. The book helps to comprehend its main players, such as the American GAFAM, their power and its sources, their architecture, and their impact on different industries and professions, labour markets, companies, and education.Responding to the dominance of tech giants, numerous initiatives are striving to regulate their influence, safeguard democratic sovereignty, promote fair competition in the digital sphere, and employ frugal digitalisation methods to counteract detrimental aspects of these “oligopolistic” platforms. In essence, shouldn't the overarching aim of digitalisation be to foster community development, strengthen individual and collective capabilities, and preserve the environment, while producing goods and services to meet shared societal interests? Throughout the four sections of this book and its 16 chapters, actors in the digital process and/or academics provide analyses and illustrations of the great digital transformation, examining the ways in which socio-technical advances can be created or used for the benefit of all, while avoiding major risks.