This book is the first to explore the issue of corporate governance in China's new corporations. With rapid development over the last two decades, China has seen compelling achievements in overseas investment. Specifically, an increasing number of Chinese companies have been "going out" to become multinational enterprises. From the practical view, corporate governance issues have been identified in the literature as one of the most important factors in determining whether these Chinese multinational enterprises succeed or not. However, existing literature provides little investigation and understanding about corporate governance of Chinese multinational enterprises. This book fills that gap and will be of value to corporate executives, scholars of China's economy, and journalists.

This book investigates the value orientation of ecologically conscious business. It analyzes, in a systematic and comparative way, the value commitments and business models of exemplary ecologically conscious businesses from around the world. Ecological consciousness is gaining importance in modern business thinking, as the effects of the Anthropocene - acidification of oceans, diminishing potable water, climate change, and decreasing biodiversity - are becoming more evident. Surviving this ecological crisis requires a radical inner transformation of humanity, and an ecological transformation of business and the economy. This book is valuable reading for masters and Ph.D. students, as well as academics, business practitioners, and policymakers who are working in the field of business ethics, business and the natural environment, business and society, sustainability, and corporate social responsibility. It also serves as general reading for reflective practitioners who are interested in progressive, ecologically conscious businesses, ethical business functioning, and business model innovation.

Contributes to the tide of activism that is calling for higher ethical standards and corporate social responsibility within the corporate world. It offers a new way to look at a company, work, a product and company organization. Nobel prizewinner Milton Friedman says that the only social responsibility a company has is to make a profit. Albert Low questions this basic assumption and provides an alternative view: a company is a complex field of interacting and conflicting forces out of which a product emerges. The interests of the stockholder make up just one set of these forces. The corporate system arises out of the natural creativity of human beings and is expressed in the work that we do. Therefore to understand a company, its organisation and its reason for being, we must understand creativity and work -- what they involve, and their importance to our mental health. This new understanding of social responsibility is imperative for the very survival of our way of life. 'Business Ethics' quotes Thomas Donahue, US Chamber of Commerce President, as saying, "There is something fundamentally out of balance when short-term considerations become so dominant." The book offers a new way to look at the corporate system and long-term corporate social responsibility. Depression is widespread throughout western society. A contributing factor is the way the corporate system operates. People are now adjuncts to the system and the result is alienation and impotence. China and India are looming as major industrial competitors, and their employees are very well motivated. To compete in the West we must revise the present antiquated corporate philosophy that asserts that the interests of the stockholder are the only interests that the corporation can legally serve and adopt policies that promote corporate social responsibility.

Building better organisations, with a clear sense of purpose, is a common challenge faced by many entrepreneurs and executives in industry. A fully integrated corporate sustainability strategy can help organisations to better manage risks, to win business opportunities and to ultimately strengthen reputation. Building on the experience of renowned strategists, sustainability, finance and academic experts, this book offers practical tools and approaches that can be used to develop and implement fully integrated corporate sustainability strategies.

This volume is divided into three major parts, each of which symbolizes a new virtuous circle that is added to the previous one in order to foster the dissemination of humanistic management (HM) among corporations and social institutions. After an introductory chapter explaining the concept of humanistic management and the plan behind this research project, the first part of the book is devoted to education. The authors address pedagogical strategies that can be used in higher education to introduce students to HM. In turn, the second part of the book focuses on the implementation of HM in corporations, while the third presents an approach for measuring and monetizing the social value generated by corporations through their economic activities. In the closing chapter, the editors illustrate how the three parts of the book can be combined to generate virtuous cycles in corporations.

This book discusses the ontological foundation for organizational analysis and organizational life from a phenomenological perspective. The objective of this book is to provide the reader with an understanding of organizations that adequately takes into account the current philosophical knowledge regarding human nature. A key result of this analysis is that organizations are existentially founded human experiences of emotions, ethics, culture and narrative. This understanding of organizations is furthermore complicated by the existence of concepts of power, relationship, interaction and identity, which all can be perceived as contradicting notions of objectivity, professionalism and rationalism. The question is not whether this is an easy description to navigate nor apply, but rather where we go from here. This book would be of interest to students and scholars working on the philosophy of business, and academics in critical organization studies and alternative philosophy of organization. The book would also be of interest to people in all organization trying to understand everyday of dilemmas and contradictions.

Offering an original contribution to the field of luxury and fashion studies, this edited collection takes a philosophical perspective, addressing the idea that humans need luxury. From this framework it delves deep into two particular dimensions of luxury, emotions and society, and concludes with cases of brand building in order to illustrate the two dimensions at work. Comparative analysis between countries is brought together with an emphasis on China. Chapters address the ongoing growth in the market, as well as the significant changes in the sector brought about by fast international expansion and an increased focus on ethical supply and sustainability, making the book an insightful read for scholars of fashion business, luxury and branding.

This book presents a series of empirically based case studies conducted by social change scholars from Asia-Pacific, showcasing the latest social marketing approaches geared at improving societal well-being in the region. Cutting across cultural perspectives, the contents gather ideas on social marketing campaigns and strategies from around the region and use these case studies as a platform to address concomitant challenges in employing marketing tools to positively change social behaviour. The selection of case studies covers and compares aspects of public health and well-being, and public environmental consciousness in terms of driving attitudes towards implementing improved sustainability in developing and developed countries. Drawing on related policies and legislation, and examining social behaviour at the individual, community, and organisational levels, the authors propose innovative new methods in social marketing and social change research. The book is of interest to researchers and practitioners in social marketing, business ethics, behavioural science, public health, and development studies.

This book does not present a single philosophical approach to taxation and ethics, but instead demonstrates the divergence in opinions and approaches using a framework consisting of three broad categories: tax policy and design of tax law; ethical standards for tax advisors and taxpayers; and tax law enforcement. In turn, the book addresses a number of moral questions in connection with taxes, concerning such topics as: * the nature of government * the relation between government (the state) and its subjects or citizens * the moral justification of taxes* the link between property and taxation* tax planning, evasion and avoidance * corporate social responsibility* the use of coercive power in collecting taxes and enforcing tax laws * ethical standards for tax advisors * tax payer rights * the balance between individual rights to liberty and privacy, and government compliance and information requirements * the moral justification underlying the efforts of legislators and policymakers to restructure society and steer individual and corporate behavior.

Critical Studies on Corporate Responsibility, Governance and Sustainability examines the social, economic and environmental impacts of corporations, and the real effects of corporate governance, CSR and business sustainability on societies in different regions. It facilitates a better understanding of how value systems, cultures and traditions in different societies may affect the policies and practices of corporate responsibility, governance and sustainability. The latest volume in the series identifies the future development trends of corporate responsibility, governance and sustainability in contexts when examining and exploring those key issues.

This book aims to move beyond the concepts of 'bureaucracy', 'hierarchical control' and 'performance' that classic organizational and managerial studies often focus upon. Instead, it considers these managerial leverages as instruments that are liable to lead to a decline in positive worker behaviors. It proposes a shift from traditional management towards a type of organization based upon self-control, equality and liberation - a model far better suited to the turbulent business environment of today. In order to support this analysis, it draws on interdisciplinary research, including the Italian Civil Economy tradition, the connection between agapic love and leadership, and philosophical perspectives on management. It will be of interest to scholars working in the fields of management studies, philosophy, organisation studies and business ethics.

Companies increasingly play a meaningful role in civil society and the philanthropic sector through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Corporate Philanthropy (CP). The most well studied form of allocating these resources is through outright contributions to operating external foundations and other nonprofit organizations. However, far less is known about the use of corporate foundations, separate and independent nonprofit entities aimed at channeling corporate giving to a social mission related to a company. Corporate foundations are often linked to the founding company through their name, funding, trustees, administration and potential employee involvement. As these foundations are growing in number, size and importance and becoming increasingly visible in the philanthropic sector, the urgency to understand their role and functioning becomes more important. The primary aim of this volume is to deliver a holistic analysis of the current state-of-the-art on corporate foundations. For that reason, the book includes different perspectives on and use a hybrid concept of corporate foundations. The book includes three main parts. First, looking further into the organizational processes of corporate foundations, the book analyzes governance and operations as major aspects of organizational performance. Second, it sheds light on the role of corporate foundations in various institutional settings. Lastly, the book includes various stakeholder perspectives on corporate foundations, including corporate employees, beneficiaries, and their non-profit partners. By reading the book, readers will build a comprehensive understanding of the role and functioning of corporate foundations, understand new avenues for research and, in case they are practitioners in the field, find practical advice rooted in academic research.

This book explores whether there is reason to be against entrepreneurship. Just like literature on the darker sides of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship, the book is an answer to the one-sided, overly positive and uncritical image of entrepreneurship. The "twist" in this book, in comparison with literature on dark sides of entrepreneurship, is to explore being against entrepreneurship. From various perspectives such as lexical semantics, Marxism, philosophy of science and psychology, the contributors contemplate on why there may be reason to be against entrepreneurship discourse as well as entrepreneurship practice. Some chapters are based on first-hand empirical data, others are conceptual. The main overall conclusion is that there are some strong arguments for being against entrepreneurship discourse, as well as for being against certain aspects of entrepreneurship practice. Before it is reasonable to be against entrepreneurship practice in total, a convincing and practicable alternative needs to be developed. This book will be valuable reading for entrepreneurship scholars, as well as academics working in the fields of business ethics, (critical) management, and international business.

The phrase "greening of the workplace" refers to the range of resources used by an organization to ensure its management and industrial processes are conducive to the adoption of workplace pro-environmental behaviors by its employees, irrespective of their position, the nature of their work or their rank within the organization. This book provides greater visibility to research into how organizations encourage their employees to take environmental considerations into account in their daily work. It examines the connections between organizational practices, individual behaviors, and environmental performance. This book will appeal to HRM scholars interested in the psychological, managerial and organizational dimensions governing the relationship between individuals and ecology.

This book examines selected actions and investments of the European Central Bank (ECB) from a climate and sustainability standpoint. Shedding new light on the topic from various angles - ethical, philosophical, political, economical and legal - it situates sustainability mainstreaming in the finance and investment field at all levels. The former ECB President Mario Draghi once said that he considered sustainable development and an intact environment to be human rights, and therefore enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The acting ECB President Christine Lagarde added that the future path for the climate is uncertain, but it would remain within our power to influence it. However, with all that in mind the ECB's policy of buying assets as securities is often questionable. This volume analyzes these actions in connection with sustainability, and puts forward practical recommendations for improving the ECB's investment strategy on its way creating a sustainable financial market.

Research on Professional Responsibility and Ethics in Accounting publishes high-quality research and cases which focus on the professional responsibilities of accountants and how they deal with the ethical issues they face.Covering timely issues such as social responsibility and ethical judgement, the series brings together a range of articles exploring the professional responsibilities of accountants, codes of conduct which affect them, and securities regulations. Compliance with professional guidelines is judgement-based and the characteristics of the individual, the culture in which they operate, and situations all affect how these guidelines are interpreted and applied, as well as when they might be violated.

This book examines education about standardization in the context of sustainable management. It shows the role of standardization education in the global economy, and in markets, industries and businesses. The book presents knowledge on standardization for sustainable management, describes measures that can be taken to stimulate it, and highlights strategies for teaching and disseminating the concept. Subsequently presenting a number of best practices and case studies, the book seeks to align theory and practice. For researchers, this is the first academic publication that interconnects the concepts of sustainability, standardization and education. For professionals in the area of sustainability it shows that standardization is an essential instrument for enhancing sustainability for which proper education is needed. For standardization professionals the book reveals the links to sustainability and it shows not only the importance of education about standardization but also how this can be organized, and finally, for universities, the book shows that standardization deserves to be included in the curriculum, and it provides guidance and best practice examples about how this can be done.

This book provides a platform for discussing the challenges that organizations face in order to implement sustainability, ethics, and effective corporate governance, all of which are important elements of "standing out" from other companies. Examining the background of the New European Consensus on development with the new guiding motto 'Our World, Our Dignity, Our Future', the authors explore how this new legislation on sustainability issues around the world is forcing companies to deal directly with sustainability issues. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda), adopted by the United Nations in September 2015, is the international community's response to global challenges and trends in connection with sustainable development. With the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at its core, the 2030 Agenda is a transformative political framework designed to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development globally. It balances the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, including the key issues of governance and peaceful and inclusive societies, and recognizes the essential interlinkages between its goals and targets, i.e., that they must be implemented as a whole and not selectively. The respective chapters in this volume raise a number of questions regarding companies' ability to implement sustainability, ethics, and effective corporate governance. Simultaneously, they explore how organizations must adapt to sustainability-related developments.

This edited collection uses a biblical lens to explore how to lead effectively and grow in a crisis situation. The chapters examine topics such as communicating through crisis, developing organizations and leaders through crisis, personal crisis and leadership development, and ethics and morality in crisis. Case studies include David's response to Goliath's challenge, Joseph's leadership and management of Egypt, and the team leadership and resilience of Esther and Mordecai in navigating a possible Jewish genocide.This book makes a unique contribution to the crisis leadership literature by examining the topic from a Christian perspective and will foster future research into the role of spirituality in organizational crisis.

In this book we capture and explore different aspects of value in corporate social responsibility (CSR). This includes the historical development of value in CSR, how value is linked to a positive vision of the future, and how it is communicated by a range of private and public organisations to various audiences. The book contrasts corporate strategic value with co-operative value, and community value in the context of sustainable development. It explains how leaders' values can drive responsible business practice and enhance social cohesion, solidarity and resilience in fractured and unequal communities. The book asks the reader to consider what value means in CSR for business and society, where it comes from and how it is enacted, alongside its broader purpose and value to the community. Finally, the book presents CSR as a global project by noting how values are cultural and how sustainability has become an urgent international priority.

This edited book is at the intersection of the discussion on family-owned business, the CSR agenda and company competition in Europe. The authors contribute to the debates on corporate social responsibility by arguing that formal management systems are not the one-size-fits-all solution they are typically presented to be. Exploring alternative interpretations of the profile environmental management activities have in SMEs, the book evaluates the way in which cultural and ethical values are embedded in European SMEs in order to drive and orientate CSR successfully without following the mainstream 'systems' approach. It addresses several values of thought within the CSR debate such as intrinsic CSR, the role of virtue ethics and moral theory in corporate culture, environmental sustainability and vision-driven CSR. Focusing on a European perspective, the book heuristically explores an alternative model for the integration of CSR, innovation dynamics and economic success driven by intrinsic values rather than extrinsic post-decision rationalisations.

This book addresses one of the most urgent issues in contemporary American law-namely, the logic and limits of extending free exercise rights to corporate entities. Pointing to the polarization that surrounds disputes like Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, David argues that such cases need not involve pitting flesh-and-blood individuals against the rights of so-called "corporate moral persons." Instead, David proposes that such disputes should be resolved by attending to the moral quality of group actions. This approach shifts attention away from polarizing rights-talk and towards the virtues required for thriving civic communities. More radically, however, this approach suggests that groups themselves should not be viewed as things or "persons" in the first instance, but rather as occasions of coordinated activity. Discerned in the writings of Saint Thomas Aquinas, this reconceptualization helps illuminate the moral stakes of a novel-and controversial-form of religious freedom.

As a response to ongoing economic, social and environmental crises, many private actors have enlarged their definition of 'value' to include environmental and social elements. Such practices, however, appear incompatible with the current epistemological structure of academic financial discourse. This paradox challenges us to reconsider the foundations of modern finance, particularly the dominant role of shareholders. The volume argues there is a need to turn the established order upside down. Studies in economics and finance have to be embedded in environmental and social welfare to answer the challenges we face, and there is a need for a radical break with the methodological individualism that dominates economics, management and (especially) finance. It is our responsibility to question social welfare when it is defined only as maximising shareholder value. Should we instead promote a substitute to the shareholder? How should we (re)define the concept of value? This volume serves as a stepping stone for rethinking academic finance, and attempts to carve out innovative paths for financial research in the 21st century.

The author of this book asserts that an absence of ethical leadership and unethical practices were the reasons for major global business scandals such as Enron, Satyam, Lehman Brothers, and WorldCom. This book analyses the causes for these unethical activities and interprets important verses from The Bhagavad Gita to show business executives and leaders how to lead ethically for the greater good of all stakeholders and society. As a remedy to avoid future scandals, the author points to several ethical directions, and the principle of Dharma, mentioned in The Bhagavad Gita by Lord Krishna, a major deity in Hinduism, who is considered Dharmatman (one who imbibes the Dharma). Written in conversation style using an executive education scenario, this book examines real world cases in various sectors like education, medical, non-government organizations (NGOs) and retail using the directions of the Dharmatman.

This book illustrates how CSR can be used as a tool to improve corporate governance in organizations and improve the relationship between business and society. Connecting corporate social responsibility (CSR) with corporate governance (CG) is a 21st century challenge, and the book argues that CSR and CG should be addressed together in synergy in the management literature. Linking these two crucial business functions, it describes the preconditions for successful integration and the tools for practical implementation. Volume 1 covers corporate governance from the perspective of CSR, where responsible and sustainable business is a common goal and the tasks are to create core values, business policy and organizational strategies.