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This paper aims to study the state of the art of corporate social responsibility (CSR) governance and operational structure within the most sustainable companies to arrive at a typology of CSR organization. Whether companies consider corporate social responsibility (CSR) a strategic management task is mirrored in the department and governance structure of CSR.

By conducting a web content analysis, the authors apply a “best practice” approach to examine the vertical and horizontal organization of CSR within the “most sustainable companies worldwide” (Robeco SAM, 2013).

The results show that most corporations have in place governance structures for CSR that organize it horizontally in stand-alone departments. Three types of CSR organization best practice emerged: the single-headed, two-headed and infused types.

The paper indicates three different ways that companies can organize CSR internally. The authors discuss the feasibility of such organization for large and small companies and their day-to-day business.

The paper addresses the under-researched area of vertical and horizontal CSR organization at the micro level. The authors analyze the state of the art of organizational and governance structures of CSR in the most sustainable companies and deduce three types of CSR governance and operational architecture.

This paper develops a typology of argumentation strategies used in lobbying. Unlike in other strategic communication functions such as crisis or risk communication, such typologies have not been proposed in the sub-field of public affairs.

The article synthesises the strategic communication, political communication and policy studies literature and employs exchange theory to explain the communicative-strategic exchange in public affairs. It showcases its explanatory potential with illustrative examples from Big Tech lobbying.

The paper describes that categories of argumentation strategies that a public affairs professional will choose are based on the contingency of the issue, policy objective and lobbying objective. The descriptive typology will require empirical testing to develop further.

The paper describes how public affairs professionals influence public policy through their argumentation strategies, which sheds light on the usually opaque activities of lobbying.

The proposed typology is the first of its kind for the field of public affairs. Beyond, it contributes communication-scientific insights from a rhetorical tradition to strategic communication research and other social science fields where lobbying is studied, e.g. policy studies.

The purpose of this paper is to add to a better understanding of relationship of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate philanthropy. The authors argue that corporate philanthropy is exclusive to CSR because of their different characteristics.

This paper is based on a profound literature review and discusses the relationship of CSR and corporate philanthropy from a theoretical point of view. By conceptually combining the CSR pyramid and the triple bottom line approach, the authors show that corporate philanthropy has a special role outside of the classical CSR concept.

Four fundaments of corporate philanthropy – economic, motivational, creative and moral – are described that illustrate the importance and outstanding role of corporate philanthropy for today’s businesses. Based on these, the authors formulate three new forms of corporate giving, volunteering and foundations, which the authors subsume under the novel notion of “exclusive corporate philanthropy”.

The main contribution of this paper for future research is to regard corporate philanthropy as exclusive to CSR. Future studies might, therefore, consider the different characteristics of corporate philanthropy and engage in an empirical investigation of this new type.

The model of exclusive corporate philanthropy presented in this paper provides practitioners with a better understanding of how corporate philanthropy can be rolled out today.

This paper offers a new perspective on the relationship of CSR and corporate philanthropy. Based on the economic, motivational, creative and moral characteristics of corporate philanthropy, the authors establish a clear distinction between the two concepts.

Companies in challenged industries such as fashion often struggle to communicate credibly with their stakeholders about their social and environmental achievements. Credible corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication, however, has been described theoretically as a predictor of legitimacy for organizations in society, but never proven empirically. The purpose of this paper is to test perceived credibility of a CSR website as a main predictor of input and output (pragmatic, cognitive and moral) legitimacy.

A 2 × 2 between-subjects online experiment with participants recruited from the SoSci Panel (n=321) is conducted on an anonymized website of a fashion company.

Credible CSR websites result in output (cognitive and pragmatic) legitimacy. However, participation in the CSR decision-making process (input or moral legitimacy) did not matter. Instead, the more subjects accepted the outcome of the CSR communication process, the more they found a company to be legitimate.

The CSR communication process on a website is just one specific example. In other settings, such as social media, the role of participation in the CSR communication process will be different.

Communicating credibly is a key, particularly in challenged industries, such as fashion. Thus, designing credible communication material matters for legitimacy.

The findings for the first time confirm the credibility–legitimacy link in corporate communication empirically. Participation in CSR-related decision-making processes is overrated: the outcome of the CSR communication process is important for stakeholders and their acceptance of a company in society, the participation in the process less. This confirms the idea of CSR as stakeholder expectations management.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Practitioners should develop argumentation strategies based on contextual dependencies and the optimal strategy that aligns with the political cause.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

Academic work on responsible leadership has emphasised two aspects: the value orientation of leaders, and the scope of interests they consider in their leadership – the range of stakeholders, current and future, human and non-human. I address these via two questions that are equally important but different in scale: one is about the motives for individual action and the other about the coordination of multiple organisations. Possible answers are considered in the context of leadership development: the developmental pathways, and the structure of leader and leadership development programmes, that are most likely to promote responsible leadership.

On the question of moral motivation (drawing on the work of Paul Ricoeur) I suggest four influential factors: witnessing the suffering of others, admonitions of “masters of justice”, welfare of loved ones, and networks within which to discuss these matters. These I summarise as “the echo of conscience”.

On the question of coordinated change at a systemic level, I review several approaches commonly found in leadership development programmes, interpret these as emerging from four “logics” and consider the implications for responsible leader development. The four logics are: systems are so complex that entrepreneurial innovation is a primary mode of responsible leadership; specific issues might be resolved by bringing “the system in the room”; sector-specific organising to change the rules of the game towards greater social responsibility; identifying “positive tipping points” and seeking triggers for change.

I conclude with a meditation on idealism in responsible leadership.

The purpose of this paper is to examine consumers’ motives in signing up for a week-long voluntary simplicity experiment, No Impact Week (NIW), and reducing their consumption during and afterwards.

The empirical data come from informants who filled out a pre-week email inquiry, completed a daily diary template centred on eight themes, responded to a post-week email inquiry and answered follow-up questions one month after completion.

Those who participate in NIW were motivated by personal factors, such as curiosity and desire to be more aware, to learn tips for eco-living applicable to daily life and to challenge themselves. People who chose not to participate did so largely because they did not understand what would be required of them. Participants incorporated the experiment into their lives, but the outcomes remained dependent on existing structures, in this case environmental and personal factors. The findings indicate the existence of a value–action gap and an awareness–behaviour gap.

While a mismatch between consumers’ consumption values and behaviour is not uncommon, enabling behaviour in line with values is crucial for reducing consumption. Although voluntary simplicity is a drastic form of consumption reduction that appeals only to a small but growing niche of people, the motives for and consequences of engaging in it highlight pressing issues of consumer behaviour and consumption.

The study is unique in that it links voluntary simplicity to a social marketing campaign that should appeal to those with a favourable attitude towards taking action and reducing their consumption.

Drawing from resource-based theorising, the concept of network embeddedness and a process perspective on entrepreneurship, this paper establishes a conceptual framework to explain a multi-level and multi-locational network embeddedness of creative entrepreneurs in non-urban places. It challenges stylised facts about creative entrepreneurship as a predominantly urban phenomenon.

Based upon the conceptual framework for creative entrepreneurship in a non-urban place, an illustrative case study of small-scale creative-design entrepreneurs on the Lofoten Islands in Norway (2019) is utilised to discuss the framework.

The conceptual paper derives a fine-grained understanding about how creative entrepreneurship emerges and develops in non-urban places and contributes to a better understanding of how such places can nurture such entrepreneurship through multiple network embeddedness and resource-exchange configurations.

The article will enable further empirical research that tests, validates and, if necessary, refines the framework established.

Creative entrepreneurs should use various resource-exchange combinations with diverse networks to become locally embedded in non-urban places. Public-policy managers need to be aware of this variety that may exist with the network embeddedness of such entrepreneurs to support them and develop the location through resource provisions.

The paper uses an original conceptual framework.

This chapter proposes an optimized innovative information technology as a means for achieving operational functionalities of real-time portable electronic health records, system interoperability, longitudinal health-risks research cohort and surveillance of adverse events infrastructure, and clinical, genome regions – disease and interventional prevention infrastructure. In application to the Dod-VA (Department of Defense and Veteran's Administration) health information systems, the proposed modernization can be carried out as an “add-on” expansion (estimated at $288 million in constant dollars) or as a “stand-alone” innovative information technology system (estimated at $489.7 million), and either solution will prototype an infrastructure for nation-wide health information systems interoperability, portable real-time electronic health records (EHRs), adverse events surveillance, and interventional prevention based on targeted single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) discovery.

A review on additive manufacturing (AM) of shape memory polymer composites (SMPCs) is put forward to highlight the progress made up to date, conduct a critical review and show the limitations and possible improvements in the different research areas within the different AM techniques. The purpose of this study is to identify academic and industrial opportunities.

This paper introduces the reader to three-dimensional (3 D) and four-dimensional printing of shape memory polymers (SMPs). Specifically, this review centres on manufacturing technologies based on material extrusion, photopolymerization, powder-based and lamination manufacturing processes. AM of SMPC was classified according to the nature of the filler material: particle dispersed, i.e. carbon, metallic and ceramic and long fibre reinforced materials, i.e. carbon fibres. This paper makes a distinction for multi-material printing with SMPs, as multi-functionality and exciting applications can be proposed through this method. Manufacturing strategies and technologies for SMPC are addressed in this review and opportunities in the research are highlighted.

This paper denotes the existing limitations in the current AM technologies and proposes several directions that will contribute to better use and improvements in the production of additive manufactured SMPC. With advances in AM technologies, gradient changes in material properties can open diverse applications of SMPC. Because of multi-material printing, co-manufacturing sensors to 3D printed smart structures can bring this technology a step closer to obtain full control of the shape memory effect and its characteristics. This paper discusses the novel developments in device and functional part design using SMPC, which should be aided with simple first stage design models followed by complex simulations for iterative and optimized design. A change in paradigm for designing complex structures is still to be made from engineers to exploit the full potential of additive manufactured SMPC structures.

Advances in AM have opened the gateway to the potential design and fabrication of functional parts with SMPs and their composites. There have been many publications and reviews conducted in this area; yet, many mainly focus on SMPs and reserve a small section to SMPC. This paper presents a comprehensive review directed solely on the AM of SMPC while highlighting the research opportunities.