Call for Papers

THE MANAGERIAL DIMENSION OF CORPORATE SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSER) IS BECOMING increasingly important to practitioners and scholars alike. The question on how to strategically implement CSER on an overall company level and in different managerial areas is turning out to be a crucial success factor, not only with regard to toughening international competition, but also to address the social and environmental challenges of the 21 century. Though still being far from a satisfactory or sufficient state, the environmental dimension of CSER has received a fair degree of attention in recent years, as reflected by management standards and systems such as the ISO 14000. The development of social management systems, however, is still in its infancy, mainly because of the enormous complexity of assessing the social impact of business operations. An additional challenge for the managerial implementation of CSER lies in the question on who is responsible for the implementation process. Can CSER be successfully implemented as a traditional top-down approach or do new ways have to be found which integrate employees on lower levels to a much higher degree? Challenges also arise with regard to the implementation across different functional areas, as it seems likely that different functions within a company will require different emphasis. So while the environmental dimension will be more relevant for sourcing or production, the social dimension will be of greater importance for human resources or financing. Thus, it has to be asked to what degree CSER management has to take the different characteristics of functional areas into account. Similarly, the focus of CSER will vary across industries and countries. Concerning industries, can mining or paper companies apply the same approaches to CSER management as banks or insurers do? Are suitable universal management techniques to be found or are industry specific approaches inevitable for the successful implementation of CSER? The issue of the variation of CSER across countries or cultures is closely related. While research has shown that the perspective on what constitutes good CSER differs from region to region, the implications for management have hardly been addressed. What do these variations mean for the CSER efforts of multinational companies? Is it possible to take a global approach to CSER or is extensive local adaption necessary for successful implementation? Or is even a transnational model of CSER management the solution?