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This paper aims to examine the significance and challenges of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives organized by multi-stakeholders and to clarify the function of CSR initiatives: What is the significance of multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs)? What conditions are required for CSR initiatives to work satisfactorily? How do CSR standards function effectively in companies?

The significance and challenges of multi-stakeholder CSR initiatives are clarified theoretically, based on previous literature from relevant research fields.

MSIs are beyond the “dichotomy” of two traditional approaches to CSR, namely, voluntary vs mandatory. However MSIs do not automatically ensure good performance. We should discuss not only the legitimacy of MSIs but external monitoring and evaluation systems for responsible companies in the market, as well as organizational efforts to incorporate CSR standards into managerial processes.

This paper shows that an MSI is an important platform for establishing and promoting a CSR standard, and further that market maturity and stakeholder engagement are required to make CSR work.

The study explains that ceremonial compliance with CSR standards may be inevitable even where the legitimacy of an MSI is secured, and that we should recognize that monitoring and sanction systems in the market and an organizational approach to the incorporation of CSR in management practices are required.

With the growth in the use of technology currently, it is inevitable that all individuals are currently facing the risk of data misuse by irresponsible parties. This study aims to investigate whether companies disclosed information about customer privacy in their reports. The study will also focus on the activities that have been taken by companies to protect customers’ information, and to determine if the disclosure is sufficient to show the company’s performance on the customer privacy issues based on the GRI 418 customer privacy disclosure.

This study uses qualitative, quantitative and exploratory research based on secondary data collected from annual reports and sustainability reports. The sample used in this study are the annual reports and sustainability reports from Indonesian listed companies in the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) from the year 2019 to 2021.

The findings elucidate that customer privacy disclosures are still low. Applying a content analysis method, this study uses the sustainability disclosure guidelines from the Global Reporting Initiative.

This study is important as it will contribute to the literature on customer privacy, which is scarce in the extant literature. Given the lack of reporting in this issue, this study found that only six out of seven industries disclose customer privacy.

This study is the first study that examines the product responsibility disclosures relate with customer privacy concerns of Indonesian companies from their disclosures in their sustainability reports and annual report based on the GRI 418 customer privacy disclosure.

The origins of corporate social responsibility (CSR) have been widely attributed to the work of scholars, and business managers as well, in North America and Western Europe. Inevitably, however, as the economic interaction of individual firms and entire nations has grown over the past several decades — call it globalization — so too has the concept and the practice of CSR spread throughout the world. It is certainly time to explore how CSR is being incorporated into the practice of business management in other regions and other countries. Therefore, in this chapter we will focus on Asia: specifically on Japan, South Korea, India, and China. It is interesting for academicians to understand how CSR is being absorbed and adapted into the business cultures of these four countries. Perhaps of even greater importance, it is vital that business managers know what to expect about the interaction between business and society as well as the government as their commercial activities grow in this burgeoning part of the world.

For each of these four countries, we will provide an overview of the extent to which CSR has become a part of the academic community and also how it is being practiced and incorporated in everyday management affairs. We will see that there are very significant differences among these countries which lead to the natural question: why? To answer this question, we will use an eight-part analytical framework developed specifically for this purpose. We will look at the history, the dominant religious beliefs, the relevant social customs, the geography, the political structures, the level of economic development, civil society institutions, and the “safety net” of each country. As a result of this analysis, we believe, academicians can learn how CSR is absorbed and spread into commercial affairs, and managers can profit from learning more about what to expect when doing business in this increasingly important region.

The purpose of this paper is to examine Kikkoman’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication with public schools associated with a new food education law in Japan. It describes how an internationally recognized soy sauce maker, Kikkoman, effectively entered a previously untapped market, public schools in Japan, and improved its corporate image using the vehicle of CSR activity.

Three traditional qualitative data sources were utilized: documents, interviews, and observations.

Social, political, economic, and environmental factors pushed Kikkoman to create a soy sauce lesson as a new CSR activity, which created challenges in corporate communication. The company, with the help of government, overcame the difficulties and was able to effectively communicate its CSR and improve its corporate image while promoting its signature product to children. This case presents a successful public relations strategy using a stakeholder approach as a framework.

It is difficult to generalize the findings to CSR communication in Japan because this is a single case study with interviews with one company representative and observations at two schools.

First, collaboration between business people and public schools teachers is on the rise. This may open new opportunities for socially responsible corporations to engage in effective public relations activity through CSR in Japan. Second, human resource development in CSR activities is strategic and employees can play a pivotal role in Japanese CSR.

This paper examines the unique activities of a Japanese food industry leader from multiple data sources including observations of actual corporate behaviors in schools.

This study explores the integration of corporate reporting by Mitsubishi, a large Japanese company, using a culturally sensitive narrative that combines and reconciles Japanese and Western corporate values in one story.

We use an analytical framework drawing on insights borrowed from narratology and the notion of wrapping – the traditional art of packaging as communication.

We find that Mitsubishi is a survivor company that uses different corporate reporting frameworks during its reporting journey to construct a bespoke narrative of its value creation and cultural values. It emplots narratives to convey a story presenting the impression that Mitsubishi is a Japanese corporation but is compatible with Western neo-liberal ideology, making bad news palatable to its stakeholders and instilling confidence in the future.

Wrapping is a culturally sensitive form of impression management used in the integration of corporate reporting. Therefore, rather than assuming that companies blatantly manipulate their image in corporate reports, we suggest that future research should focus on how narratives are constructed and made sense of, situating them in the context of local culture and traditions.

The findings should interest scholars, report preparers, policymakers, and the IFRS, considering the recent release of the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards designed to reduce the so-called alphabet soup of corporate reporting. By following Mitsubishi’s journey, we learn how and why the notion of integrated reporting was adopted and integrated with other reporting frameworks to create narratives that together convey a story of a global corporation compliant with Western neoliberal ideology. It highlights how Mitsubishi used integrated reporting to tell its story rather than as a rigid reporting framework, and the same fate may apply to the new IFRS Sustainability Reporting Standards that now include integrated reporting.

The study offers a new perspective on corporate reporting, showing how the local societal discourses of cultural heritage and modernity can shape the journey of the integration of corporate reporting over time.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze a case study of an ethical strategic alliance operating in a depressed territory belonging to the South of Italy, with the aim to investigate whether an alliance guided by ethic principles could be effective in recovering a territory while pursuing, at the same time, economic aims for the alliance itself and for the whole territory.

The paper uses a case study approach. The analyses of the case data, including in-depth interviews and documentary evidence, interpreted by the authors and supported by literature review, allow for the main research question to be addressed: “Could ethical networks contribute to recover a territory?”.

The case analysis delivers new insights into the relationships between business and ethics. The findings also provide evidence that it is possible, even in a depressed area, to conjugate ethics and business with reciprocal advantages for the organizations and the territory, in the light of the creed of the Magna Grecia, kalokagathìa (the good and the beautiful).

The findings of the GOEL strategic alliance provide evidence of the role that could be played by networks in supporting social innovations, thus highlighting clear implications for policy makers, as there is still scarce empirical evidence available to inform governments on how they can influence, support and facilitate the formation of networks.

This is one of the few studies adopting an ethical perspective in studying alliances and, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the first study pursuing the aim to investigate how and whether an ethical network can succeed in recovering a depressed territory.

This paper takes a critical look at the meaning of corporate social responsibility (CSR) based on the available literature on the subject matter. As CSR is an evolving concept both in meaning and practice, this study aims to highlight CSR actions of the world's six largest organizations (Google, Twitter, Amazon, Apple, ExxonMobil and Walmart). The purpose of choosing these organizations and their CSR adoption was to examine the business-society relationship and the role of key stakeholders in establishing this association.

This study examined CSR through the case study approach and provides valuable insights by showing that CSR is a connecting link between business and society. Specifically, the authors took a crucial look at various contentious, often ambiguous definitions, theoretical framework, brief historical development, issues and controversies surrounding it, the role of CSR in community development and summing it up with the future direction and managerial implications.

This study observed that there are some developmental strategies taking place today which are relevant to the issue at stake, such as: contributing to the world economy, corporations donating or engaging in a wide range of philanthropic gestures now than ever and contributing to the beauty of the society by meeting rising community expectations.

By analyzing the worlds' 6 largest companies' CSR initiatives, this study provides valuable insights by showing that CSR is a connecting link between business and society and is based on win-win collaborations between civil society, business, investors and government. These companies' CSR initiatives have been mostly unexplored in past studies.