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I met Anita Roddick in the early 1990s. I was a PhD student and her talk was so impactful that I clearly remember our interaction to this day. I enjoyed hearing her talk about her inspiration for “The Body Shop” and how she stayed true to herself in creating her company – a company based on her strengths, values, and how she would want to be treated by a business. She shared stories about her family and her travels to source new products. In her talk, she described how she translated her personal values into The Body Shop’s vision, mission, and values. She created The Body Shop to do good in the world through sustainability, corporate social responsibility, ethical decision-making, and delivering products sourced from natural ingredients. These terms are familiar to us today, but they were not common in 1976 when The Body Shop launched. This chapter explores the strengths and personal values Roddick used to create The Body Shop.

Critics maintain that for profit, business corporations should be more “responsible,” that they should take account of all constituencies affected by their operations and should even assume responsibility for broader societal problems which they may only impact tangentially. Defenders of a narrower set corporate goals and constituent interests argue that corporations should be concerned exclusively with maximizing the profits they can earn for shareholders within the law. This controversy regarding corporate goals and stakeholder interests has spanned most of the twentieth century.

I have only a limited time to begin a process of glasnost—a process of free trade in ideas—so I will be blunt. There is growing global acceptance of one of the economic establishment's most sacred cows: the unshakable belief in the omnipotence of unfettered free trade. While many celebrate its spread, I wonder whether it is possible that I am the only one with deep reservations about the course of the trade debate?

On 10 September 2007 the world was stunned by the news that Anita Roddick – the founder of The Body Shop – was dead at the age of 64. Everyone recognizes the success of The Body Shop, but it is not easily explained using traditional strategic thinking. This paper aims to shed new light on Anita Roddick's entrepreneurial and managerial flair, as well as on her legacy to the field of management.

Configuration as a quality is an intriguing and intuitively appealing new idea. The main innovation is the premise that organizational elements form common gestalts such that each can be best understood in relation to the other elements in the configuration. This paper probed the conceptual notion of configuration as a quality in an empirical sense by revisiting one of the classic Harvard Business School (HBS) case studies: The Body Shop International.

The paper shows The Body Shop as a good example of a comprehensive configuration that allows immediate intuitive apprehension of the new idea of configuration as a quality.

The main issue is the limited depth of analysis that has been achieved through the single HBS case as the main source of evidence. As such, although the propositions put forward seem highly plausible, the supplementary explanation still remains incomplete, opening opportunities for further research.

Re‐visiting classic case studies such as the HBS Body Shop International can stimulate the debate and fuel the process of theory building through the amalgamation of diversified old and new perspectives of the same phenomenon.

The purpose of this paper is to trace the changes in the retail outlets that supply erotic products and toys. It explores changes in attitude towards these products over the four decades under review.

The marketing mix (the 4Ps of marketing) is the lens through which the past and contemporary retail environment for such erotic products is examined.

What emerges from the story of the journey from backstreet to online is the change in attitude towards both shops and products, and the development of shops selling sexually‐arousing products to women, a trend unique to the last decades of the twentieth century.

The combination of an historical approach and the theoretical concept of the marketing mix provides a fresh view of the under‐researched area of erotic retailing.

Explores the practical implications and the psychological meaning of the links between specific job competences and personality variables using biographical material from the lives of famous people such as Anita Roddick, Sir John Harvey‐Jones, Lord Shaftesbury and Mikhail Gorbachev. Uses results from an earlier study, involving a meta‐analysis of personality data to provide an empirical base. Focuses on four areas: “creative/innovative”, “analysis and judgement”, “resilience” and “persuasiveness”.

Attempts to examine the following question: is Body Shop International a socially responsible organization? This exploration includes a description of the concept of corporate social responsibility and an investigation of some specific actions by Body Shop International to ascertain whether or not these actions are in fact socially responsible in nature.

To demonstrate how a company's retail store design relates to its brand and is influenced by, and contributes to, its corporate values.

The case study briefly summarises the significance of corporate values, branding and design in the retail industry, and subsequently explores The Body Shop's application of these elements to its business. The case study is contextualised by The Body Shop's retail environment forming a particularly important communication channel for the company.

The Body Shop has in many ways been the victim of its own success. Being a unique proposition, and having effectively created its own retail category, it has appeared slow to evolve its brand identity. The strong association between the company and its campaigning founder, increasing competition and changing consumer attitudes, have been significant factors in the company's struggle to re‐align and update its brand.

The case study largely draws on secondary sources. However, it is informed by one of the authors' experience and knowledge of The Body Shop's design process, which has previously remained unpublished.

The problems of planning and managing store design as a communications channel are highlighted. In particular, it demonstrates the difficulties in aligning a retailer's visual identity with its brand and market.

The case study examines the under‐researched relationship between retail branding and design, and contributes to knowledge of the problems created over time by strongly held ethical values, for both branding and design.

This paper seeks to review the potential gendering of leadership in the emerging field of corporate social responsibility (CSR). It explores whose voices are becoming dominant, how leaders speak, and what forms men's and women's leadership take.

The paper is a self‐reflective inquiry, analysing observational and secondary data to explore leadership and its gender patterning. It reflects on its approach and the voice in which it is written.

Women and men are often differently placed to work within the emerging dominant logics of CSR. The gender patternings considered are skewed rather than clear‐cut. In relation to organization‐based discourses and practices, leadership is dominated by white men. Some men are tempered radicals, inside‐outsiders acting for change. Some women leaders question the foundations of business and global power relations, and point to fundamental gender inequalities. Whilst they are recognised figures, they are operating at the margins, self‐identified as activists. Other influential women provide training in the alternative practices of leadership they advocate. Systemic theories of gendering are employed to review these findings.

Explores some of the dynamics through which leadership can become gendered, in the challenging realm of how ecological sustainability and global social justice are addressed.

Attempts to reveal the successful practices of three unique retail operations. Shows that the companies reviewed have a history of success but are also known for finding new ways to evaluate and value innovation. All three organizations are different in their configurations of environment, historical evolution, and merit structure, yet in their uniqueness they have similarities of visionary leadership, management that interfaces with leaders and workers on the front lines, empowerment to these workers, and practices of continually institutionalizing new approaches. In these cases, the originators of the businesses impart a continuity and cohesiveness that cannot be underemphasized. These are not stagnant workplaces. These enterprises are in a constant state of renewal; rapid changes in the world are embraced and addressed rather than resisted.