Theory and Practice of Corporate Social Responsibility

Modern businesses and organizations understand that corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become an important factor for sustainable success. At the same time CSR has established itself as a widely accepted element of courses in managerial training and education. This book, designed to support CSR teaching, collects 14 essays that clearly illustrate and explain the benefits and challenges of socially responsible corporate policies.

Aligning theory and practice, the book focuses on four central themes: management, environment and sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and accounting and financial reporting. Business students and experienced managers alike will find this book a valuable resource that helps them to discover the strong forces that link successful management with corporate social responsibility.

Samuel O. Idowu is a senior lecturer in Accounting at the city campus of London Metropolitan Business School, London Metropolitan University where he was course organizer for Accounting Joint degrees and lately the Course Leader/Personal Academic Adviser (PAA) for students taking Accounting Major/Minor and Accounting Joint degrees. He is a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Chartered Secretaries & Administrators and a named freeman of the City of London. Samuel has published about forty articles in both professional and academic journals and contributed chapters in edited books. Samuel has been in academia for 23 years, winning one of the Highly Commended Awards of Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence in 2008. He has examined for the following UK professional bodies: the Chartered Institute of Bankers (CIB) and the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and has marked examination papers for the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). His teaching career started in November 1987 at Merton College, Morden Surrey; he was a Lecturer/Senior Lecturer at North East Surrey College of Technology (Nescot) for thirteen years where he was the Course Leader for BA (Hons) Business Studies, ACCA and CIMA courses. He has also held visiting lectureship posts at Croydon College and Kingston University. He was a senior lecturer at London Guildhall University prior to its merger with the University of North London; when London Metropolitan University was created in August 2002. He is currently an external examiner at the University of Sunderland, University of Ulster, Coleraine and Belfast, Northern Ireland and Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford and Cambridge, Samuel is the Treasurer and a Trustee of Age Concern, Hackney in East London and he is on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Management of Environmental Quality Journal. He has been conducting research in the field of CSR since 1983 and has attended and presented papers at national and international workshops and conferences on CSR.

Céline Louche is Assistant Professor at Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School in Belgium, where she teaches and researches in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability. In her work, she explores the way processes of change take place. Celine’s major research interests are in CSR as a factor of innovation and value creation; SRI and stakeholders processes.

Before joining Vlerick, Céline worked for five years as a Sustainability Analyst for Socially Responsible Investment at the Dutch Sustainability Research institute.

Céline received her PhD from the Rotterdam Erasmus University. She is a recipient of the 2005 FIR award for the best European PhD thesis in Finance and Sustainability. She is the author of several articles in both academic and non-academic journals and has contributed chapters in several books on the subject of responsible investment, stakeholder management, corporate governance and CSR and has attended and presented papers at several international conferences.

She is member of the Academic Board of the European Academy of Business in Society, the Scientific Committee of the International Network for Research on Organisations and Sustainable Development, and the SRI advisory Committee of Dexia Asset Management. She was the president of the FIR 'Finance and Sustainability' European Research Award 2010.