In recent years, social innovation has experienced a steep career. Numerous national governments and large organisations like the OECD, the European Commission and UNESCO have adopted the term. Social innovation basically means that people adopt new social practices in order to meet social needs in a different or more effective way. Prominent examples of the past are the Red Cross and the social welfare state or, at present, the internet 2.0 transforming our communication and cooperation schemes, requiring new management concepts, even empowering social revolutions. The traditional concept of innovation as successful new technological products needs fundamental rethinking in a society marked by knowledge and services, leading to a new and enriched paradigm of innovation. There is multiple evidence that social innovation will become of growing importance not only concerning social integration, equal opportunities and dealing with the greenhouse effects but also with regard to preserving and expanding the innovative capacity of companies and societies. While political authorities stress the social facets of social innovation, this book also encompasses its societal and systemic dimensions, collecting the scientific expertise of renowned experts and scholars from all over the world. Based on the contributions of the first world-wide science convention on social innovation from September 2011 in Vienna, the book provides an overview of scientific approaches to this still relatively new field. Forewords by Agnes HUBERT (Member of theBureau of European Policy Advisers (BEPA) of the European Commission) and Antonella Noya (Senior Policy Analyst at OECD, manager of the OECD LEED Forum on Social Innovations)

An exploration of the interplay between social responsibility, entrepreneurship and the common good. A plethora of books deal with corporate social responsibility alone, social entrepreneurship alone or to a lessen extent with the concept of common good. However no other book has developed an interdisciplinary reflection to analyze the dynamics between these three concepts. Authors from all around the world have contributed to this analysis which is organized in four sections: business and the common good; educating responsible entrepreneurs; corporate social responsibility (CSR) challenges and the common good; and CSR and entrepreneurship in emerging economies.

This volume explores corporate governance from three perspectives: a traditional economic, a philosophical, and an integrated business ethics perspective.

Corporate governance has enjoyed a long tradition in the English-speaking world of management sciences. Following its traditional understanding it is defined as leadership and control of a firm with the aim of securing the long-term survival and viability of that firm. But recent business scandals and financial crises continue to provide ample cause for concern and have all fuelled interest in the ethical aspects. As a result, corporate governance has been criticized by many social groups. Economic sciences have failed to provide a clear definition of the corporate governance concept. Complexity increases if we embed the economic approach of corporate governance in a philosophical context. This book seeks to define the concept by examining its economic, philosophical and business ethics foundations.

The public downfall of giant companies and an increase in corporate scandals and corporate crimes worldwide has drawn the attention of many in the business world. Growing economic activities that focus on increasing profits at the expense of social and environmental matters have led to self-centred, narrow-focused business planning and decisions. At a time of increasing globalisation and inter-connected economic systems, such a phenomenon is a concern for business practitioners in every country in the world. Consequently, shareholders and other stakeholders have encouraged firms to place issues of accountability at the centre of their activities, recognising the vital importance of an ethical firm culture, transparent governance issues and the adoption of more socially responsible business practices. This book is comprised of academic work on key current issues pertaining to the areas of ethics, governance and corporate crimes. Showcasing some of the current effort being made in addressing these crucial issues, the book provides a platform for researchers to publish their work, articulate their concerns and offer critical perspectives on what they see happening around them.

This book challenges the separation between CSR and law. It also demonstrates that BRHR may be gradually separating from CSR through emphasis on state obligations. Authors from around the world discuss how businesses engage in CSR and human rights, and how governments and intergovernmental organisations may support business in taking responsibility

As a result of the recent financial crisis, new ways of doing finance have developed, creating alternatives to the regular financial system. This book explores non-conventional banking and financing mechanisms in detail, with case studies and examples in which these alternative methods have succeeded.

Readings in Virtual Research Ethics: Issues and Controversies provides an in-depth look at the emerging field of online research and the corresponding ethical dilemmas associated with it. Issues related to traditional research ethics such as autonomy or respect for persons, justice, and beneficence are extended into the virtual realm and such areas as subject selection and recruitment, informed consent, privacy, ownership of data, and research with minors, among many others are explored in the media and contexts of email surveys and interviews, synchronous chat, virtual ethnography, asynchronous discussion lists, and newsgroups.

This book outlines the creative process of making environmental management decisions using the approach called "Structured Decision Making." It is a short introductory guide to this popular form of decision making and is aimed at environmental managers and scientists. ""This is a distinctly pragmatic label given to ways for helping individuals and groups think through tough multidimensional choices characterized by uncertain science, diverse stakeholders, and difficult tradeoffs. This is the everyday reality of environmental management, yet many important decisions currently are made on an ad hoc basis that lacks a solid value-based foundation, ignores key information, and results in selection of an inferior alternative. Making progress - in a way that is rigorous, inclusive, defensible and transparent - requires combining analytical methods drawn from the decision sciences and applied ecology with deliberative insights from cognitive psychology, facilitation and negotiation. The authors review key methods and discuss case-study examples based in their experiences in communities, boardrooms, and stakeholder meetings. The goal of this book is to lay out a compelling guide that will change how you think about making environmental decisions.

Visit www.wiley.com/go/gregory/sdm to access the figures and tables from the book.

Two aspects link together the notions of corruption and integrity from an epistemological perspective: the complexity of defining the two notions, and their richness in forms. This volume brings together the perspectives of six disciplines - business, political science, law, philosophy, anthropology and behavioural science - to the debate on integrity and corruption. The main goal is to promote a fruitful interdisciplinary dialogue on complex themes such as integrity and corruption in business and politics. The book investigates possible ways in which corruption and integrity apply to everyday practices, ideas and ideologies, and avoids the stigmatizations and oversimplifications that often plague these fields of research.

This book is compiled based on the research methodology and technical approach applied in the Blue Book of Corporate Social Responsibility. It consists of five parts: Summary, index, Industry, Case Studies, and Appendices. The index evaluates Chinese enterprises annually on their performance in CSR management and the level of information disclosure by assessing four different aspects: responsibility management, economic responsibilities, social responsibilities and environmental responsibilities. Moreover, it identifies and analyzes phase-specific characteristics of CSR development in China in the hope of providing references for further studies on Chinese CSR.

Leadership in Education, Corrections and Law Enforcement: A Commitment to Ethics, Equity and Excellence fills a unique gap in the knowledge base - the juncture between leadership, ethics, law, and how public institutions/organizations understand and practice the essence of all three. Authors from law enforcement, corrections education, and educational leadership present different yet overlapping constructs around ethics and law, and make an important step towards reconciling these differing views to demonstrate the significance of collaboration and partnerships for a common purpose.

European approaches to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) are supposed to be largely different from those in other continents like America, Asia, and Africa. Yet, European approaches to CSR are not a single and static one, but vary across and within national states and shift over time. This edited volume aims at exploring the uniqueness and complexity of European CSR approaches, perspectives, and practices through a critical lens. It contributes to existing understanding of European CSR by addressing the frontier CSR issues in the current state at the EU, national and institutional levels. Specifically, the volume critically examines the macro-level CSR frameworks, policies, and trends and their impact on CSR practices at the micro-level, including the roles of EU and national governments in shaping the CSR landscape in similar and different ways. It also analyses how various stakeholder groups and business sectors and firms across major European countries perceive, interpret and approach CSR in a dynamic way. Contributors of this book are experts mainly from Western and Eastern European countries and thus provide rich experiences, fresh insights, and deep understanding of the critical state of CSR in Europe.

In his Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate Pope Benedict XVI proposed a new humanistic synthesis to realign the economy with its social purpose. The aim of this book is to interpret, comment and develop aspects of the Encyclical Letter which are significant for economic and business activity and contribute to humanistic management.

The book examines the changing external environment of organizations. This book explores the contradictions within the global capitalist system and their consequences to assess and find ways in creating new knowledge for managers/leaders to reorient themselves in appropriate restructuring of organizations to better serve their stakeholders.

In an increasingly changing and complex environment, sustainable development, corporate social responsibility, effective knowledge management, and intellectual assets represent the basis of today's innovations and therefore the new ways for organizations to compete in the marketplace. In this regard, organizations need to incorporate a sustainable approach to their operations because there is a growing awareness of environmental issues among customers. They are faced with increasingly stringent environmental regulations, and the development of sustainable practices can lead to sustainable competitive advantages over time. Intellectual Capital as a Precursor to Sustainable Corporate Social Responsibility provides a body of research that explores the theoretical and practical aspects of linking corporate profitability, intangible assets, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability with respect to business management practices. Covering topics such as green intellectual capital, ecology of organizations, and green knowledge, this premier reference work is an essential resource for business practitioners, small business owners, entrepreneurs, students and educators of higher education, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

This edited volume presents ethical and economic analyses of agrifood competition. By systematically examining fairness and openness in agricultural markets, it seeks to answer the question of whether there is adequate competition in the agrifood industry and whether the system is fair to all participants. It outlines ethical and economic principles important for understanding agrifood competition, presents arguments for and against consolidation, globalization and the integration of agrifood industries, and looks at the implications of globalization on the nature of competition in specific agricultural contexts.

This book demonstrates that during Japan's early modern Edo period (1603-1868) an ethical code existed among the merchant class comparable to that of the well-known Bushido. There is compelling evidence that contemporary merchants, who were widely and openly despised as immoral by the samurai, in fact acted in highly ethical ways in accordance with a well-articulated moral code. Japanese society was strictly stratified into four distinct and formally recognized classes: warrior, farmer, craftsman and merchant. From the warriors' perspective, the merchants, at the base of the social order, had no virtue, and existed only to skim profits as middlemen between producers and consumers. But were these accusations correct? Were the merchants really unethical beings who engaged in unfair business practices? There is ample evidence that negates the ubiquitous slanders of the warrior class and suggests that merchants - no less than the warriors - possessed and acted in accordance with a well-developed ethical code, a spirit that may be called shonindo or "The Way of the Merchant." This book examines whether a comparison of shonindo, depicting the ethical point of view of the merchant class, and Bushido, embodying that of the warrior class, reveals that shonindo may have in fact surpassed Bushido in some aspects. Comparing contemporarily published historical documents concerning both shonindo and Bushido, as well as Inazo Nitobe's classic work Bushido: The Soul of Japan, published in 1900, the author examines how Bushido surpassed shonindo in that warriors were willing to die for their strict ethical code. Shonindo, however, may have surpassed Bushido in that merchants were liberal, willing to expand and extend application of their ethical beliefs into all aspects of everyday life for the overall benefit of society. This ethical code is compared with that of the conservative Bushido, which demonstrably proved not up to the task for the modernization and improved well-being of Japan. Ichiro Horide is professor emeritus of Reitaku University. Edward Yagi (Reitaku University) and Stanley J. Ziobro II (Trident Technical College) collaborated in the translation of the original Japanese manuscript into English.

The purpose of the books in this series is to explore the central and unique role of organizational ethics in creating and sustaining a pluralistic, free enterprise economy. The primary goal of the research studies published here is to examine how profit seeking and not for profit organizations can be conceived and designed to satisfy legitimate human needs in an ethical and meaningful way.

An instant classic. --Arianna Huffington Will inspire people from across the political spectrum. --Jonathan Haidt Longlisted for the Porchlight Business Book of the Year Award, an essential shortlist of leadership ideas for everyone who wants to do good in this world, from Jacqueline Novogratz, author of the New York Times bestseller The Blue Sweater and founder and CEO of Acumen. In 2001, when Jacqueline Novogratz founded Acumen, a global community of socially and environmentally responsible partners dedicated to changing the way the world tackles poverty, few had heard of impact investing--Acumen's practice of "doing well by doing good." Nineteen years later, there's been a seismic shift in how corporate boards and other stakeholders evaluate businesses: impact investment is not only morally defensible but now also economically advantageous, even necessary. Still, it isn't easy to reach a success that includes profits as well as mutually favorable relationships with workers and the communities in which they live. So how can today's leaders, who often kick off their enterprises with high hopes and short timetables, navigate the challenges of poverty and war, of egos and impatience, which have stymied generations of investors who came before? Drawing on inspiring stories from change-makers around the world and on memories of her own most difficult experiences, Jacqueline divulges the most common leadership mistakes and the mind-sets needed to rise above them. The culmination of thirty years of work developing sustainable solutions for the problems of the poor, Manifesto for a Moral Revolution offers the perspectives necessary for all those--whether ascending the corporate ladder or bringing solar light to rural villages--who seek to leave this world better off than they found it.

This first volume in The Palgrave Series on Global Sustainability addresses the pressing need to align business practices with the requirements of a sustainable world. The book's authors address new models for conducting business, the implications of undertaking new approaches to business practice, and the ways businesses are transforming and being transformed by their environments.

Trust is the fundamental facilitator between actors in society, yet the past decade has seen the public openly question through demonstrations and elections whether business and political institutions deserve the trust society has placed in them-or whether the common person has been abandoned in favour of organisations and systems that are 'too big to fail'. The tenth anniversary of the crisis that shook financial markets in the early years of this century provides a chance to reflect on institutions' efforts to regain the trust lost in that debacle. It is particularly instructive to examine the steps that financial and governmental institutions have taken in one of the hardest-hit economies, Iceland. Those who witnessed the crisis and its aftermath know the wrenching effects it had on society, underscored by scepticism toward political and economic institutions. As the crisis spread almost worldwide, so too did the public's disenchantment. Since Iceland was one of the first societies affected, it has had the most time to work on and chart its recovery. This collection addresses the broad theme of how institutions in the small, close-knit Icelandic society have gone about trying to recapture other institutions' and the public's trust. Insights from these studies expand our understanding of how institutions try to rebuild their relationships with communities in the face of political and economic change in fractured Western societies.

The first comprehensive work on the subject, this volume covers all the legal and economic issues raised by gray market goods--genuine trademarked goods manufactured with the authority of the trademark owner but imported without that entity's permission. Seth Lipner analyzes in detail the relevant judicial decisions, administrative actions, and legislation and provides a thorough discussion of the trademark law, copyright, antitrust, customs practice, and fraud issues involved in the importation of gray market goods. Designed to help both the legal and business communities understand and evaluate gray market situations, the book is written with a minimum of legal jargon and contains a supplement of relevant statutes and governmental regulations. The author also provides realistic projections about the future viability of gray market goods.

Following an introductory chapter that explores the business and economics of the gray market, Professor Lipner reviews a number of early gray market cases. Subsequent chapters address specific issues raised by gray market activities and litigation. The chapter on trademarks includes in-depth discussion of such topics as proving local goodwill, injury and the gray market, and the single international enterprise disqualification. Turning to antitrust issues, Professor Lipner covers the history of vertical restraints, antitrust law and the gray market, and specific cases. The succeeding chapters examine, in turn, customs service policies vis-a-vis gray market goods, the question of title, and copyright law and the gray market. The final section examines the effects of state laws, the International Trade Commission, and how the laws of foreign countries affect gray market trade in the United States. Discussion of cases is included throughout to illustrate points made in the text. Attorneys involved in international trade practice as well as importers, trademark owners, and licensees will find this book an indispensable guide to the business and litigation of controversies over gray market goods.

This compelling work draws on the experiences of America's most successful business leaders to examine the issue of character in business. Based on interviews with 125 CEOs of major U.S. corporations, "Managing with Integrity" shows how it is possible for the businessperson to do what is right and run a profitable company at the same time. A wealth of practical examples and anecdotes demonstrates that even today, corporate America's most powerful figures tend to place what is ethical over what is expedient and adhere to a higher standard than is generally assumed by the public. By revealing the strategies these leaders employ in the face of the myriad challenges to character encountered in the day-to-day business world, the author provides invaluable insights for executives, managers, supervisors, professionals, and entrepreneurs confronted with their own ethical dilemmas. Readers will find "Managing with Integrity" both an unusually candid look at the dimensions of executive decision making and an eminently practical guide to the development of a workable moral philosophy for business.

Is it possible for a decent human being to succeed in business? How does one find meaning in the business life? These are some of the questions asked by the author as he explores the difficulties associated with ethical thinking within the context of business. Finding that those persons and organizations that aspire to serve worthwhile purposes are ultimately the most profitable, he shows how businesses can and do prosper when high ethical and moral standards underlie executive decision making. Finally, the author examines the concept of success in business and describes the various dimensions of success which are most mentioned most often by the senior executives interviewed for the book. Written in an engaging and nontechnical style and filled with hundreds of real-world examples, "Managing with Integrity" offers an important counterweight to the cynicism that so often pervades popular thinking about corporate America.

This book provides a close look at the ethical and social responsibilities of the alcohol industry in the 21st Century. It begins with a whistle stop tour of the historical developments of alcohol. It then critiques the legislative and voluntary codes surrounding the advertising industry, popular culture, religious groups, Government and local authorities.