• Describe, classify, structure, and combine the concepts, theories, methods, and models of the course.
• Identify and develop relevant problems within CSR strategy on the basis of marking problems.
• Analyze and synthesize concrete problems within CSR strategy by applying the concepts, theories, methods, and models of the course.
• Evaluate and disseminate solutions to problems concerning a CSR strategy at an independent and reflected academic level.

 Course content, structure and teaching
Analyze how new social and environmental demands from a variety of stakeholders pose new risks and opportunities to business leaders. Western firms operating in or sourcing from developing countries are increasingly held responsible for a range of issues such as climate change, labor rights and human rights that have previously been seen as outside a firm’s sphere of influence (Reich 1998). Today stakeholders as diverse as investors, employees, the media, NGOs and customers have strong views on how corporations should be run. One example is Nike, which owned no factories in the US but purchased shoes from factories in Indonesia, China and Vietnam. Nike came under severe criticism in the mid 1990s because Nike’s suppliers had forced workers to work extremely long shifts under dangerous conditions. As a response to the criticism, Nike issued its own code of conduct for suppliers. Another example is Wal-Mart which according to Jon Entine, a journalist with the magazine Ethical Corporation, has turned “from evil empire to jolly green giant” (Entine 2008: 36). Wal-Mart now works with suppliers on greening its supply chain including increasing the purchase of organic cotton, improving energy efficiency, etc. The course addresses the following key questions:
 

• What drives the Corporate Social Responsibility agenda?
• How should business respond: Minimizing business risk
• How should business respond: Maximizing business opportunity
• Limits to CSR
• Managing CSR initiatives: Codes of conduct
• Reporting: benefits and drawbacks
• Institutional investors and socially responsible investments
• The crystal ball: New CSR issues and challenges?

Key words: Corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainability, business environment, strategy, management
 

• Which are most expensive?
• Why the price difference?
• What did you learn about Starbucks’ achievement of Fair Trade goals?

Case: Fair Trade Coffee: The Mainstream Debate. Authors: Richard M. Locke, Cate Reavis, Diane Cameron. This case can be downloaded for freefrom MIT at https://mitsloan.mit.edu/MSTIR/sustainability/Fair-Trade-Coffee/Pages/default.aspx
Abstract: This note describes the coffee industry, the rise of the Fair Trade movement, and if and how Fair Trade coffee can be scaled up without compromising the economic and social standards that are at the heart of Fair Trade.
 
Session 4: Limits to CSR
Deborah Doane (2005). “The myth of CSR: The problem with assuming that companies can do well while also doing good is that markets don’t really work that way”. In Stanford Social Innovation Review, fall, 23-29.
 
Timothy Devinney (2009). “Is The Socially Responsible Corporation a Myth? The Good, Bad and Ugly of Corporate Social Responsibility”. In Academy of Management Perspectives, forthcoming May
 
Ethan B. Kapstein (2001). “The Corporate Ethics Crusade”. In Foreign Affairs, September/October.
 
Robert Reich (1998). “The New Meaning of Corporate Social Responsibility”. In California Management Review, Winter, 40, 2.
 
 
Case: Stanford case (please note that we have THREE related cases:
 “Anatomy of a Corporate Campaign: Rainforest Action Network and Citigroup (A). P42A. By David P Baron et al
“Anatomy of a Corporate Campaign: Rainforest Action Network and Citigroup (B). P42B. By David P Baron et al
“Anatomy of a Corporate Campaign: Rainforest Action Network and Citigroup (C). P42C. By David P Baron et al
 
 
Session 5: Managing CSR issues: Codes of conduct.
Jette Steen Knudsen 2011. ”Company Delistings from the UN Global Compact: Limited Business Demand or Domestic Governance Failure?” Journal of Business Ethics. 103 (3): 331-349. DOI: 10.1007/s10551-011-0875-0. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2139325
 
Jette Steen Knudsen 2012. The Growth of Private Regulation of Labor Standards in Global Supply Chains: Mission Impossible for Western Small and Medium-Sized Firms? Journal of Business Ethics. Forthcoming. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2139229
 
 
 
Richard Locke, Fei Qin and Alberto Brause (2006), “Does Monitoring Improve Labor Standards? Lessons from Nike”, MIT Sloan Working Paper No. 4612-06.
 
Richard Locke and Monica Romis (2006), “Beyond Codes of Conduct: Work Organization and Labor Standards in two Mexican Garment Factories”, Working Paper No. 4617-06, MIT.
 
Lynn Paine et al (2005), “Up to the Code?” Harvard Business Review, No 12, 2005.
 
David Vogel (2008), “Private Global Business Regulation” in Annual Review of Political Science, Vol. 11, 2008:261-82. Article can be found at: http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/faculty/pdf/vogel_david.pdf
 
Case: Nike Considered: Getting Traction on Sustainability.This case can be downloaded for free from MIT at https://mitsloan.mit.edu/MSTIR/sustainability/NikeConsidered/Pages/default.aspx
 
Optional
K. Bondy, David Matten and Jeremy Moon, “The Adoption of Voluntary Codes of Conduct in MNCs”: A three country comparative study. In Business and Society Review 109(4): 449-477.
 
Session 6: CSR and board of directors.
Andrea Beltratti 2005, “The complementarity between Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility”, Geneva Papers, 30.
 
Leonhard and Rangan, “Corporate social responsibility strategy and boards of directors (boardroom briefing)”. The article can be downloaded at http://www.hbs.edu/socialenterprise/resources/corporate.html
 
Phil Mirvis, “Profile of Practice”, 2008 (this article will be uploaded on the electronic system)
 
Strandberg, “The role of the board of directors in corporate social responsibility” (report), June 2008. The report can be downloaded at: http://www.corostrandberg.com/pdfs/08-169The_Role_of_the_Board_of_Directors_in_%20CSR_Report_WEB28.pdf
 
 
 
 
Case:
Khurana, R. and James Weber (2007). “Tyco International – Corporate Governance”. Harvard Business School, 4-408-059.
 
Sessions 7 and 8: CSR and domestic institutions and regulation.
In sessions 7 and 8 we explore the growing interrelationship between private and government regulatory frameworks.
 
Campbell, J. (2007). “Why Would Corporations Behave in Socially Responsible Ways? An Institutional Theory of Corporate Social Responsibility”. In Academy of Management Review, 32: 946-967.
Jette Steen Knudsen and Jeremy Moon (2012). “Corporate Social Responsibility as Mutual Governance. International Interactions of Government, Civil Society and Business” http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2139861
Dirk Matten and Jeremy Moon (2008). “Implicit” and “Explicit” CSR: A Conceptual Framework for a Comparative Understanding of Corporate Social Responsibility. In Academy of Management Review, Vol. 33, No. 2: 404-424.
Gregory Jackson and Androniki Apostolakau (2010) “Corporate Social Responsibility in Western Europe: An Institutional Mirror or Substitute?” In Journal of Business Ethics, 94.
 
Andreas Scherer and Guido Palazzo (2011). “The New Political Role of Business in a Globalized World: A Review of New Perspectives on CSR and its Implications for the Firm, Governance and Democracy”. In Journal of Management Studies 48(4): 899-931.
 
Optional
Maria Gjølberg (2009), “The origin of corporate social responsibility: global forces or national legacies?” In Socio-Economic Review, 7.
 
 
 
 
Session 9: The crystal ball: New CSR issues and challenges? 
We will continue our discussion from session 7 on private regulation. We will close the course by discussing new potential CSR issues and challenges (internet censorship in China is one such possible challenge).
Mike Valente and Andrew Crane (2010), “Public Responsibility and Private Enterprise in Developing Countries”. In California Management Review, Vol. 52, No. 3.
 
Internet Censorship in China:
Case: Global Corporate Social responsibility vs. Local Legal Compliance: A Case of Internet Censorship in China: 706-061-1