Special issue on CSR in BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) Countries

Citation

(2011), "Special issue on CSR in BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) Countries", Journal of Global Responsibility, Vol. 2 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/jgr.2011.46602baa.001

Special issue on CSR in BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) Countries

Article Type: Call for papers From: Journal of Global Responsibility, Volume 2, Issue 2

Call for papers for Social Responsibility Journal

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has emerged as a concept for business from within developed Western economies. Such economies are underpinned by functioning institutions, where compliance with regulation is assumed. CSR is therefore based on the assumption that firms will voluntarily engage in activity to address perceived responsibilities outside the firm’s legal and economic obligations.

Recently a number of scholars (Argandona and Hoivik, 2009; Devinney, 2009; Dobers, 2009; Dobers and Halme, 2009) have challenged the capacity of this traditional CSR approach to take account of the different economic and institutional arrangements found within developing, emerging and transition environments. In countries where institutions are weak, where property rights are applied inconsistently, and the enforcement of law is arbitrary, CSR may get a very different ‘‘twist’’ (Dobers and Halme, 2009, p. 242).

These and other scholars have therefore called for CSR research to be more contextualised. In addition, Western interpretations about what CSR is, and how it is enacted, need to be broadened and challenged, to take account of different stages of economic development. Without such contextualisation, understandings regarding the type, nature and robustness of the CSR being undertaken in non-Western settings are likely to be misinterpreted, or lost.

To date CSR research in emerging and transitioning countries has tended to focus on multinational companies ‘‘doing’’ CSR in emerging and/or developing contexts (Akpan, 2008; Amaeshi and Amao, 2009; Hamann, 2006; Mishra and Suar, 2010) rather than on the CSR activity of domestic firms. To address this gap, this special issue will encourage a broader insight into the type, nature and scope of CSR within domestic firms within some of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

The BRIC (Brazil, China, India and Russia) countries are respectively the 8th, 2nd, 11th and 12th largest economies in the world (World Bank, 2009). However, massive economic growth over the last 20 years has come at the expense of environmental degradation, institutional development and poor income distribution. India still has up to 60 per cent of its population living on less than US$1 per day (World Bank, 2010), Russia is ranked 154th out of 178 countries for corruption (Transparency International, 2010), whilst Brazil has some of the highest levels of income inequality in the world (World CIA Report, 2009). In addition, China has no functioning democracy, and Russia has taken radical steps to curtail freedom of the press and control civil society organisations since 2000.

Given these factors, the type, nature, scope and motivations for firms to engage in CSR in the BRIC are likely to be different from other (Western) contexts. Outcomes for CSR in such settings will assist in contextualising the field and offering new and different perspectives on what CSR is and how it is enacted in settings beyond Western, developed economies.

Papers are invited that address the theme of this issue within the BRIC. Important aspects include:

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  Motivators for CSR.

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  The influence of MNC and globalisation on CSR.

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  Sustainability and environmental management issues.

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  Influence of social movements on CSR activity.

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  Employee and human rights.

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  Poverty alleviation.

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  Corruption.

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  Sustainable development.

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  Ethics and corporate behaviour including philanthropic activity.

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  Reflections on contextualising CSR for non-Western settings

The special issue will be published in 2012. The deadline for submission of full papers is November 1, 2011 but early submission is encouraged.

Authors should submit their manuscripts electronically (preferably in Word format) to Jo at j.crotty@salford.ac.uk The length of submitted papers should not exceed 10,000 words including all references, tables, figures, author bios, abstract and keywords, although in some cases, involving mainly the reporting of qualitative data, longer manuscripts may be accepted. All authors’ details must be printed on a separate sheet and authors should not be identified anywhere else in the article. A title of not more than eight words should be provided. An abstract of no more than 250 words should accompany the paper along with six key words.

All papers will be subject to the normal blind refereeing process. Authors wishing to discuss their paper prior to submission may contact either Guest Editor.

Guest Editors

Professor Jo Crotty Professor of Strategy and CSR Salford Business School, Manchester j.crotty@salford.ac.uk

Dr Sarah Marie Hall Research Associate Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Keele University (Staffordshire) and Marches Energy Agency (Shrewsbury) s.m.hall@humss.keele.ac.uk