Managing Company Stakeholder Responsibility: Why it Might Be Easier Within Countries than between Countries

35 Pages Posted: 31 May 2006

See all articles by Geoffrey Williams

Geoffrey Williams

Academy of Responsible Management

John Zinkin

Nottingham University Business School (NUBS)

Date Written: May 2006

Abstract

This paper looks at how companies might respond to the demands of stakeholders when developing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies. Using empirical evidence across five countries we show that stakeholder expectations on CSR do not appear to conflict within countries but are significantly different between countries. We argue that this simplifies management of CSR from a practical perspective since it reduces the variety of CSR policies that companies need to adopt. It also suggests that the theoretical development of the new concept of, 'Company Stakeholder Responsibility,' proposed by Freeman (2006), should focus primarily on international differences in stakeholder characteristics and in particular on the developmental trajectories of respective national business systems and the role of the State.

Keywords: Stakeholder Theory, Corporate Social Responsibility, National Business Systems

JEL Classification: M14, M21, M20, M10

Suggested Citation

Williams, Geoffrey Alan and Zinkin, John, Managing Company Stakeholder Responsibility: Why it Might Be Easier Within Countries than between Countries (May 2006). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=905194 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.905194

Geoffrey Alan Williams (Contact Author)

Academy of Responsible Management

Suite 2B-12-3, Block 2B, Plaza Sentra
2 Jalan Stesen Sentral 5
Kuala Lumpur, 50470
Malaysia

John Zinkin

Nottingham University Business School (NUBS) ( email )

Jubilee Campus
Wollaton Road
Nottingham, NG8 1BB
United Kingdom

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
368
Abstract Views
2,899
Rank
148,458
PlumX Metrics