// Archives

Should we be using carrots rather than sticks?

You’ve probably heard about flashmobs, but have you heard about carrotmobs? I came across this article in the Financial Times last week (FT 31st Jan, Activists trade stick for carrotmob by Amy Tsang), which raised some interesting questions. A carrotmob is described as a group of consumers coming together to buy a company’s product in order …

Corporate Social Responsibility: Trends, Threats and Opportunities

It was great to be back at the Singapore Compact CSR Summit last year. There appears to have been a continuing growth of interest in CSR among Singapore firms, public and civil society organisations, and professions.  Moreover, the international interest was very exciting, both reflecting developments in the ASEAN region and interest in CSR in …

Is it Ethics or Imagination we need most?

On Tuesday 6th November the tenth series of Doing the Business will begin with a screening of The Revenge of the Electric Car.  The series is designed to encourage discussion and debate on the topic of social, environmental and ethical issues in business.  Please join the debate live on Tuesday at Broadway, Nottingham or add your comments below. …

Social Media & Social Responsibility: Crowdsourcing, Conversations & Competition

I recently read a blog post that argued that hanging around on Twitter can be classed as work (thanks @thesiswhisperer)! As a PhD researcher in the midst of observing how businesses have shifted from communicating CSR information to stakeholders, to constructing CSR knowledge with them, I spend a lot of time immersed in online activity. …

Sponsorship, Sports and Ethics

  The 2012 Olympics and Paralympics have raised issues of ethics and sponsorship of sports.  Some of us have quite set critical views, e.g.: ‘There is already far too much sport, and sponsorship only encourages media saturation of these banal activities at the expense of artistic, intellectual or economic flourishing’.  For others ‘Sponsorship of sports …

‘Getting away from it all’: social responsibility in tourism

Amongst a series of thoughtful comments on my last blog (thank you!), it was noted that in spite of some negative impacts on the environment, tourism was a powerful force in addressing social issues such as poverty and unemployment. In this blog, I put forward the main social benefits of tourism and reflect upon the …

Is there a different CSR future in Asia?

Presumably! However, we still do not know the exact answer. At this year’s ICCSR Conference CSR Futures, we raised this timely issue in the CSR Asia dedicated track: Asian CSR and its dynamics. Why Asia? Asia is emerging as indicated by its astonishing economic growth and opportunities. However, as Kent Walker, one of the presenters at the …

Beyond 2015: Moving Forward on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

The role and impact of business in development continues to generate a lot of discussion and debate.  At CSR Futures the ICCSR’s 10th Anniversary Conference, a track was dedicated to discuss the contribution of business to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).  Participants in the track were eager to discuss whether business as development stakeholders …

CSR Futures: the practitioner perspective

One of the highlights of CSR Futures was the practitioner panel, who were asked to consider the future of CSR and Sustainability, the following summarises the key points: Gerry Boyle, Head of Business Relations, Oxfam Emphasised the importance of ensuring that corporate sustainability agendas embrace social as well as environmental impacts. That there remains a …

CSR or sustainability education – the practitioners perspective (or wearing many hats).

As a precursor to CSR Futures – the conference marking the 10th anniversary of the International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility – Alumni of the MBA in CSR and MA/MSc in CSR programmes – now working in related fields, were invited to share their views on the profession with students past and present. In particular, …