Social Responsibility

The essays in A Future for Everyone discuss the many ways to foster innovative and unprecedented collaborations leading to more effective partnerships between major institutions and corporations to poor and disenfranchised communities. Each original essay examines many of today's pressing issues: bridging the digital divide; community reinvestment; university and corporate partnerships; and corporate responsibility. From academics and students to nonprofit managers and community leaders to consultants and business professionals, this timely collection brings in voices from all angles.

This text argues that responsibility is a characteristic of fundamental importance for the survival of modern democratic structures. It represents a collection of psychological, philosophical and evolutionary approaches to the topic.

This book offers the most comprehensive look to date at the effort of about forty U.S. media organizations to make themselves more accountable. Nemeth provides a critical assessment of the ombudsmen's work from the ombudsmen themselves, their editors, media critics, and scholars.

Ethical failures are rooted in leadership failure, the lack of a corporate culture in which ethical concerns have been integrated, and unresponsiveness to key organizational stakeholders. This book seeks to enhance our understanding of the causes of ethical debacles in an era when ethical missteps can often lead to corporate bankruptcies or worse.

Over recent years there has been rapid consumer-led growth in investing in socially responsible companies to the extent that it has had an influence on corporate policies. New regulations recognise the public interest by requiring all pension funds to declare their ethical policy. Investors can no longer just consider the financial aspects of a company before investing but also have to consider the complex world of ethical investments. Should the ethical policy take precedence over the financial aspects? Should policies be inclusive or exclusive? What percentage of a company's income has to come from unacceptable sources before the source is excluded? Should any exclusion policy also extend to those involved in selling or transporting goods deemed unacceptable? This is the first book to look at socially responsible investment from the perspective of the institutional investor, who will be led through the complex dilemmas of socially responsible investment with practical examples and advice.

Providing a unique analysis of the growing social and environmental responsibility within the corporate sector, this book discusses corporate innovation, entrepreneurial approaches and corporate culture.

The common wisdom that business contributions to the common good are counterproductive in the new competitive global marketplace does not hold up to empirical research. In fact, doing good is good for business. In her exhaustive survey of the Iowa business community, Besser discovered that business owners and managers often act out of a sense of community spirit and a certain obligation to better the common good. She demonstrates that, while the increasingly globalized economy has encouraged a number of large corporations to become freewheelers, the vast majority of companies are firmly rooted in place and look at their locales with more than just a utilitarian eye.

This unique book posits that by being socially responsible, marketing can achieve greater profits as well as a higher quality of life for the whole society. This mission can be accomplished by being proactive, consumer oriented and by considering consumers' well-being as the highest priority. Marketing must reach out and cater to those who are less than equal opportunity consumers. Marketing must also develop environment- and consumer-friendly products and services.