Public Policies for Corporate Social Responsibility in Four Nordic Countries

Midttun, Atle; Gjølberg, Maria; Kourula, Arno; Sweet, Susanne; Vallentin, Steen

doi:10.1177/0007650312450848

Cited by 69 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…In this respect, the EU has pioneered and championed the concept of social responsibility, promoting sustainable, socially responsible practices by public bodies among its Member States [28,61]. In response, various European countries have enacted laws requiring their governments to publish sustainability information [29,62].…”

Section: Sustainability Transparency and Administrative Culturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Based on a positive law tradition, public administration tends to be hierarchical and bureaucratic, relying on administrative law, in which the central government sets the general rules for the provision of public services, collects most tax revenues, maintains territorial delegations and places less emphasis on government accountability [21]. The Nordic administrative culture is located in an intermediate position, characterised by the existence of a welfare state and taking particular interest in issues related to social responsibility [61].…”

Section: Sustainability Transparency and Administrative Culturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Enhancing Sustainability Transparency in Local Governments—An Empirical Research in Europe

2018

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In the current socioeconomic context, the question of local government sustainability transparency is of great interest to policymakers, managers, citizens and other stakeholders, and yet one to which previous research has devoted little specific attention. At the same time, the Internet has become an instrument of good governance worldwide and government entities in Europe have strived to promote e-government to improve transparency towards citizens. The aim of this study was to identify factors that can help politicians and managers improve practices of sustainability information disclosed by European local governments. To do so, an empirical study was conducted of 91 municipalities in nine countries, comparing three main administrative cultures. Our analysis of the study results highlights various demographic, socioeconomic, financial and legal factors that may be useful to policymakers and managers in promoting the online provision of sustainability information in Anglo-Saxon, Nordic and Southern European countries.

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Section: Sustainability Transparency and Administrative Culturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sustainability Transparency and Administrative Culturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing Sustainability Transparency in Local Governments—An Empirical Research in Europe

2018

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“…Having an ethical investment policy can help to legitimize stock market investments. Both the UK and Norwegian governments have taken a positive stance towards ethical investment in recent times (DTI, 2004;Sparkes, 2006;Midtun et al, 2013). Therefore, we conjecture that a charity receiving public sector funding would be more likely to implement an ethical investment policy to ensure it is not "out of line" with government policy when it comes to investing.…”

Section: 2mentioning

confidence: 99%

Charity ethical investments in Norway and the UK

Kreander

McPhail

Beattie

2015

Accounting, Auditing &Amp; Accountability Journal

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Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emeraldsrm:198285 [] For AuthorsIf you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to explore whether, how and why ethical investment practices of charities differ between two countries with quite different ideological and institutional frameworks -Norway and the UK. Design/methodology/approach -The paper uses mixed methods and a cross-sectional field study design to explore the ethical investment practices of 300 of the largest charities by investments in the UK and Norway. Practices are theorized using the dual lens of institutional theory and social origins theory. Findings -The paper provides evidence on why charities established the practice of ethical investment. The results show that large charities were more likely to have an ethical policy; that charities with moderate public sector funding were more likely to have an ethical policy. In line with institutional theory some Norwegian charities with public sector funding mimic the policy of the Government Pension Fund, and the ethical investment policy of Norwegian charities was more influenced by donors. Institutional entrepreneurs (charity founders) had a more prominent influence in UK charities.Research limitations/implications -The paper highlights that more research is needed on sovereign wealth funds, their investment practices and how they affect charities. Practical implications -The findings of this paper highlight the potential role that the ethical investment practices of sovereign can play a soft regulatory function in changing the behaviour of other investors. Social implications -To the extent that ethical investment practices are construed as having a positive social impact, then this study shows how a government sovereign wealth fund can influence the spread of ethical investment practices. Originality/value -This paper, which sits at the nexus of the charity and corporate social responsibility (CSR) literatures, contributes by responding to calls for more research on charity practices in different countries and CSR practices in different countries. This comparison also contributes to the development of institutional theory by shedding ...

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“…; Brejning ; Midttun et al. ). For example, Matten and Moon () describe the complexity of CSR‐state constellations by distinguishing between two different ideal‐typical varieties of CSR, each associated with a certain, more general, politico‐institutional regime.…”

Section: Public Support For Csr and State Intervention In The Market:mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…; Brejning ; Midttun et al. ). Against this background, this study aims to explore how public support for CSR relates to public attitudes towards state intervention in the market.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public Support for Corporate Social Responsibility in the Welfare State: Evidence from Sweden

Lindh

2014

Scand Pol Stud

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Several scholars have claimed that we are currently witnessing a growing saliency of so‐called ‘corporate social responsibility’ (CSR). Yet, while there is a lot of work suggesting that public opinion might prompt firms to behave in socially responsible ways, there is a lack of empirical studies exploring the extent ordinary to which citizens actually support CSR. Moreover, the state is conventionally theorised as the main institutional device for governing markets and their social consequences, and there is a growing literature exploring the relationship between CSR and the state. On the basis of these observations, this article juxtaposes public attitudes towards CSR and state intervention in the market. Considering that attitudes might vary across groups with different structural relationships to the firm, this study also looks at the social bases of support for different attitude profiles. Using Swedish survey data collected in 2011 and latent class analysis, the empirical results demonstrate that most Swedes in favour of CSR are highly supportive of state intervention in the market. The study of social cleavages restates this pattern: social groups with fewer marketable resources are strongly over‐represented in supporting a combination of CSR and state intervention in the market. No clear social profile is found for the relatively small group of people who support CSR but not state intervention. It is concluded that voluntary CSR is unlikely to offer a serious full‐scale alternative to the welfare state: Swedes continue to think of public authorities as the ultimate institutional guarantor of social welfare.

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Public Policies for Corporate Social Responsibility in Four Nordic Countries

Cited by 69 publications

References 25 publications

Enhancing Sustainability Transparency in Local Governments—An Empirical Research in Europe

Enhancing Sustainability Transparency in Local Governments—An Empirical Research in Europe

Charity ethical investments in Norway and the UK

Public Support for Corporate Social Responsibility in the Welfare State: Evidence from Sweden

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