In today’s globalized and competitive business environment, companies increasingly look to restructuring, mergers & acquisitions and downsizing to survive, grow and maximize profits. However, when they are not managed in a socially responsible manner, restructurings may exert the negative impact on employees, shareholders, communities, and society as a whole. The book empirically explores the phenomena of corporate social responsibility (CSR), restructuring, and relationships with firms’ performance in China. It gives an insight into how Chinese firms respond to expectations of stakeholders by making social goals a part of their overall business operations. It also gives a fresh view of the new concept of socially responsible restructuring. For those seeking to promote socially responsible practices in restructuring, the book provides a unique and stimulating analysis and touchstone.

The current economic situation has highlighted deficiencies in corporate governance while also showing the importance of stakeholder relations. It has also raised the profile of the debates regarding corporate social responsibility and shown the inter-relationship with governance. And the two together are essential for sustainable business. The social and environmental contexts of business are generally considered to be as significant as the economic and financial contexts and good governance will address all of these aspects. The combination of these aspects offers long term benefits for a firm, such as reducing risk and attracting new investors, shareholders and more equity as well as sustainable performance. Written by experts from all over the world, A Handbook of Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility is the most authoritative single-volume guide to the relationship between good governance and social responsibility and the reality of managing both. In addition to the theory and practice of governance and CSR, the book includes case studies from large and small organizations and NGOs to highlight examples of good and bad practice, and to show international and cultural similarities and differences while at the same time furthering the debate regarding the relationship between good governance and social responsibility.

This paper examines Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and its relationship with firm performance. We use three accounting-based firm performance measures, return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), and return on sales (ROS), and three market-based firm performance measures, earnings per share (EPS), market-to-book value (MBV), and price to earnings ratio (PE). Our sample contains Standard and Poor's COMPUSTAT and MSCI ESG KLD STATS data from 1991 to 2013. Our study consists of correlation analysis in which we examine the correlations between our variables. Then, we conduct two sets of regressions. The first set of regressions focus on CSR ratings and their relationship with our six firm performance measures, and the second set of regressions focus on the presence of socially responsible activities within firms and their relationship with our six firm performance measures. Lastly, we investigate whether there is a causal relationship between CSR ratings and firm performance through causality testing. The result of this study concludes that CSR has a negative relationship with ROS and EPS, but it does not have a significant influence on firm performance.

While emerging market economies do not have a mature market structure yet, there is a need for research on corporate governance practices in these economies from different perspectives, including corporate social responsibility. Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility: Emerging Markets Focus fills the gap with a collection of high-quality research and policy-based papers addressing these issues, using various market cases as illustrations.Unlike previous books that often focused on one or several emerging markets, this book covers a much broader set of countries and tackles ethical, legal and societal aspects of corporate governance, beyond financial issues. It also discusses how companies work towards best corporate governance practices, particularly, in the aftermath of recent financial and economic crises. Readers will benefit from the wide range of theoretical, empirical, and case analyses, selected with care to reflect cutting-edge corporate governance and corporate social responsibility issues in countries with emerging markets.

Over the last few years, we have witnessed the enormous success of corporate social responsibility and business all over the world. These developments, including those in which governments foster both growth through entrepreneurship and achievement of sustainable development by creating tools for worldwide impact to reconcile business interests with the demands of communities, have been unequivocal concerning job and wealth creation. Replacing short-term visions, however, has become instrumental to business success throughout the industry. Conceptual and Theoretical Approaches to Corporate Social Responsibility, Entrepreneurial Orientation, and Financial Performance is a pivotal reference source that explores corporate social responsibility through the lens of entrepreneurship and firm performance in an effort to change the approach towards long-term growth. While highlighting topics such as risk management, stewardship theory, and CEO duality, this publication explores contributions to societal welfare and methods of business creation. This book is ideally designed for managers, executives, human resources professionals, entrepreneurs, developers, academicians, researchers, industry professionals, and students.

China�s recent economic transformation and integration into the world economy has coincided with increasing pressure for corporate law reform to make corporate social responsibility (CSR) integral to business and management strategy in China. This time

The role of Corporate Social Responsibility in the business world has developed from a fig leaf marketing front into an important aspect of corporate behavior over the past several years. Sustainable strategies are valued, desired and deployed more and more by relevant players in many industries all over the world. Both research and corporate practice therefore see CSR as a guiding principle for business success. The “Encyclopedia of Corporate Social Responsibility” has been conceived to assist researchers and practitioners to align business and societal objectives. All actors in the field will find reliable and up to date definitions and explanations of the key terms of CSR in this authoritative and comprehensive reference work. Leading experts from the global CSR community have contributed to make the “Encyclopedia of Corporate Social Responsibility” the definitive resource for this field of research and practice.

More recent incidents and scandals such as Sweatshops by different sports equipment and electronic devices producers and finally the financial crisis which made the headlines among many others, which did not make it to the front page, have forced companies to consider CSR way more than in the past. But also other issues such as climate change and global warming, human rights situation and terrorism affect how companies conduct their strategies and operational practices today. Almost every large corporation in the western world makes some effort to communicate how it is committed to social issues that lie beyond its basic profit objectives – even in controversial industries such as the tobacco and petroleum industry. The industries claim to produce healthier food more fuel-efficient vehicles, conserve energy and other resources in their operations to make the world a better place. CSR often begins to be wishful thinking to hide the true face of a business. Doubtless what has come to be called responsibility of companies for ecological and social issues besides economic issues is now a sales and branding instrument for many companies. Hence, numerous other companies, also small and medium sized companies are currently asking themselves the questions: Shall we also invest in CSR initiatives? Why should we do that – just to do something? Is this still an instrument to gain a competitive advantage? Especially the last question implies the question, if consumers still believe in the basic idea of CSR initiatives, or with the overload of CSR initiatives, if they even show reactance and mistrust against such issues.