The Sustainability Learning Forum

Managing Corporate Legitimacy and the UN Global Compact

Dr. Dorothée Baumann-Pauly, University of Zürich
Prof. Andreas Georg Scherer, University of Zurich

Corporations can no longer easily control their public image by means of public relations and marketing. Clearly defined corporate reporting requirements, rigorous third-party monitoring processes, and multiple media resources of watchdog organizations help to shed light on actual business practices. The increased transparency with regard to corporate conduct has also enabled a larger and more diverse group of corporate stakeholders to voice opinions and formulate demands. In particular, large brand name companies in sensitive consumer goods industries (like food or textiles) are now constantly under public scrutiny. For corporations, this situation creates new management challenges. To ensure the social acceptance of their business (corporate legitimacy), heterogeneous and often contradictory stakeholder demands need to be managed. more[...]

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The Strength of Loose Couplings – The UN Global Compact as a Multistakeholder Initiative

Prof. Andreas Rasche, Copenhagen Business School

Multistakeholder initiatives such as the UN Global Compact organize their participants in specific ways. Most importantly, they have to bridge global (universal) principles and local (contextualized) implementation practices. Some initiatives have responded to this need by creating a nested network structure – that is, local networks that are embedded into a wider global “network of networks.” The UN Global Compact, for instance, has more than 100 local networks, which are connected through regional hubs, the Annual Local Network Forum, and interactions with the Global Compact Office. Stakeholder dialogue and collective action are emerging both within and among such networks. more[...]

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Stakeholder Management – An Introduction

Klaus Lintemeier, Lintemeier Stakeholder Relations
Prof Lars Rademacher, MHMK Munich
Dr Ansgar Thiessen, Knobel Corporate Communications

The landscape of business and enterprise policy is subject to almost unparalleled change. An ever-increasing majority of corporate and institutional management boards find themselves operating in a networked world of interests and opportunities for influence. In addition to primary stakeholders such as shareholders, customers, suppliers, and employees, secondary and tertiary stakeholder groups are increasingly making regulatory, social, political, and ethical demands on businesses. more[...]

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Which Form of Dialogue Is Suitable for Which Purpose?

Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)

A broad distinction can be made between stakeholder dialogues that are geared toward consultation and those that focus more strongly on cooperation during implementation. In consultative stakeholder dialogues, actors contribute their expertise, viewpoints, and experience. Initiators of the stakeholder dialogue are usually responsible for the further use of recommendations and lessons learned. Consultative and cooperative forms of stakeholder dialogues subsume the following variants: more[...]

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Responsible Lobbying

Dr Stephanos Anastasiadis, Royal Holloway, University of London
Dr Sigrun M. Wagner, Royal Holloway, University of London

Lobbyists paying elected representatives to place questions in the UK parliament. Arms manufacturers giving South African officials BMWs in exchange for armaments contracts. Smoke-filled back rooms featuring stuffed brown envelopes. No wonder lobbying has a bad name. But these are not images of lobbying: They depict corruption, albeit in a policymaking setting. These actions are morally suspect and usually illegal. They also contravene the UN Global Compact: Principle 10 requires the combating of corruption. more[...]

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The Strength of Loose Couplings – The UN Global Compact as a Multistakeholder Initiative

Prof. Andreas Rasche, Copenhagen Business School

Multistakeholder initiatives such as the UN Global Compact organize their participants in specific ways. Most importantly, they have to bridge global (universal) principles and local (contextualized) implementation practices. Some initiatives have responded to this need by creating a nested network structure – that is, local networks that are embedded into a wider global “network of networks.” The UN Global Compact, for instance, has more than 100 local networks, which are connected through regional hubs, the Annual Local Network Forum, and interactions with the Global Compact Office. Stakeholder dialogue and collective action are emerging both within and among such networks. more[...]

The Author

Managing Corporate Legitimacy and the UN Global Compact

Prof. Andreas Georg Scherer, University of Zurich
Dr. Dorothée Baumann-Pauly, University of Zürich

In this article, we explain why managing legitimacy is vital for corporations and how business firms can employ strategies to maintain their legitimacy. We then discuss the organizational capacities that each legitimacy strategy implies and point out their inherent tensions. Based on the results of an empirical study, we show how two large corporations have handled these tensions and successfully introduced organizational prerequisites for managing legitimacy. In the final part of this article we elaborate on how participants of the UN Global Compact can use the initiative to strengthen their legitimacy. more[...]

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Keynote Roman Dashkov

Roman Dashkov, Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd.

more[...]

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Integrated Reporting

Growing expectations of stakeholders and legislators as well as the steady growth of global trade f ows have added signif cantly to the complexity of businesses. This comes along with the call for a more holistic reporting of companies’ f nancial and nonf nancial performance. This is the core idea behind integrated reporting: It wants to provided in a coherent way a clear link between economic drivers, f nancial information, and social and environmental impacts. While the concept is clear, the roadmap is still vague. The International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) shall help to overcome this. more[...]

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Unpacking the CSR-CFP Link

Prof Francesco Perrini, Università Bocconi
Prof Angeloantonio Russo, LUM University
Prof Antonio Tencati, Università degli Studi di Brescia
Clodia Vurro, Università Bocconi

The continuing financial crisis calls for different managerial paradigms and a broader definition of business success. The narrow and exclusive focus on short-term monetary results has led to counter-productive and negative consequences for business and society. All over the world, different approaches are emerging. Thanks to innovative corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices, a great number of firms have been working with stakeholders in order to support broad and shared value-creation processes that are able to benefit the different constituencies, including not only shareholders but also employees, customers, suppliers, the community in which the company operates, and others. more[...]

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When does it pay? Linking Carbon and Financial Performance

Prof Timo Busch, University of Hamburg

Why do firms have a management orientation toward sustainability? How should society reconcile the dilemma of maximizing satisfaction today without placing an undue burden upon ourselves in the future? In the strategy literature, a related question remains fiercely debated: Does it pay to address ecological and social issues? more[...]

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What Are the Benefits of Integrated Reporting?

Nicolette Behncke, PwC

Integrated reporting moves beyond a silo approach of information gathering and reporting toward a more comprehensive assessment and presentation of a company’s value and performance. This offers various benefits, such as giving organizations a more holistic view of information relevant to their strategies, business models, and abilities to create and sustain value in the short, medium, and long term. more[...]

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Integrated Reporting: Old Wine in New Bottles?

Christoph Dolderer, EnBW AG
Dr Lothar Rieth, EnBW AG

This contribution strives to answer the following questions: Why do we need to realign corporate reporting? Is it old wine in new bottles or does it contain revolutionary ideas about corporate reporting? What is the additional value of integrated reporting and what does EnBW’s path toward integrated reporting look like? more[...]

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Keynote Dr. Kurt Bock

Dr Kurt Bock, BASF

As a founding member of the UN Global Compact in 2000, we strongly support the role of the UN Global Compact as a peer-learning and dialogue platform. By combining high-level commitment with hands-on learning at the local level, the UN Global Compact has gathered experience with concrete best practices in the area of sustainability, and it has a unique competence in the field of facilitating multistakeholder dialogue and projects. more[...]

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Young and Old: The Best Connection

Dominique Alhäuser, Weidmüller Interface
Weidmüller Interface GmbH & Co. KG

Actively encouraging junior staff as well as the more experienced is sustainability in action for the family-owned company Weidmüller, and it is also a way to counteract the effects of demographic change. more[...]

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