Brown Bag Seminar: Does the emperor have clothes? A study of environmental and social outcomes of CSR

Presenter: Jette Steen Knudsen (Professor at University of Copenhagen, Instiute for Political Science and associated with cbsCSR)

Discussant: Jasper Hotho (Assist.prof. Dept.of Strategy and Globalization), Glen Whelan (Nottingham University Business School, Visiting fellowship at cbsCSR )

ABSTRACT

It is often taken for granted that corporate social responsibility (CSR) will bring about social benefits and environmental improvements. Research has overly focused on the influence of CSR on financial performance rather than its societal outcomes. We take one of the pioneering steps by studying empirically environmental and social outcomes of CSR of 19 European companies. We ask which configurations of external drivers and internal CSR practices lead to positive (or negative) environmental and social performance, and identify a set of pathways that can lead to high environmental performance and others that lead to low performance. The findings indicate that contrary to a common assumption, good environmental performers are not necessarily good social performers, and vice versa.

Work-in-progress:

Please note that this is very much a work in progress. All comments would be much appreciated.

Time:

May 14, 12.00-13.00

Place:

Room PH18b-S.023
Copenhagen Business
School
Porcelænshaven 18B,
fourth floor
2000 Frederiksberg