Corporate Responsibility and Sustainable Development

Lez Rayman-Bacchus is Visiting Research Fellow at University of Winchester Business School, UK.

This book explores the gaps and overlaps between corporate social responsibility and sustainable development, two concepts that might reconcile many of the big challenges facing the world: tensions between respect for the natural environment, social justice, and economic development; the long view versus short-term imperatives; the competing priorities between developed and developing economies; the private interests of businesses and the public interests of communities and civil society. These concerns overlap because they implicate corporate practices, state development policy challenges, the concerns and priorities of non-governmental organisations, and the potential for innovative forms of organisation to address these challenges.

Introduction Part 1. Challenging Corporate Accountability 1. Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Accountability: A Historical Overview 2. Corporate Human Rights Risk: Reconciling Law and Firm Behaviour Part 2. Community Interests and Responsibility 3. A Space of Isolation: entrepreneurship in a time of crisis in Italy 4. Locating Local Community Interests between Government's Assurances and Investor's Expectations Part 3. Reconciling Stakeholder Expectations 5. Health and well-being vulnerability of the socio-economically disadvantaged: The role of food 6. Explaining Corporate Social Performance through Multilevel Analysis Part 4. Effecting Sustainable Partnerships 7. A Theory of Public-Private Sustainable Development Partnerships 8. Meta-regulation for Environmental Monitoring and Corporate Sustainability Reporting 9. Timber companies and state building in the Congo Basin Conclusions