- Authors:
- Subtitle:
- A Study of Its Presence in Top Management Teams
- DOI:
- 10.1007/s10551-012-1568-z
- Abstract:
- I present a review of the top management teams (TMTs) of the largest public corporations in the U.S. and Scandinavia (one thousand in total) to identify corporations that have a TMT position with ‘‘corporate social responsibility’’ (CSR) or a ‘‘CSR synonym’’ like sustainability or citizenship explicitly included in the position title. Through this I present three key findings. First, I establish that a number of CSR TMT positions exist and I list all identified corporations and associated position titles. Second, I show that Scandinavian corporations are significantly more likely than U.S. corporations to have such CSR TMT positions. This finding serves as evidence that the U.S. may have been surpassed by a subset of Europe, i.e., Scandinavia, in at least one relevant measure of explicit CSR, whereby this study may serve witness to a noteworthy juncture post Matten and Moon’s (Academy of Management Review, 33(2):404–424, 2008) ‘‘Implicit & Explicit CSR’’ article. And third, I show that corporations with a CSR TMT position are three times more likely to be included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) than corporations with none. A range of further research opportunities stemming from these findings include exploring whether explicit attention to CSR by the corporation is indicative of a longer term trend that has to do with attention to responsible business and whether a move away from the expression ‘CSR’ toward the expression ‘sustainability’ is underway and what this may entail.
- Type:
- Journal article
- Language:
- English
- Published in:
- Journal of Business Ethics, 2013, Vol 112, Issue 4, p. 721-734
- Keywords:
- Chief Officer of CSR; Chief Sustainability Officer; C-Suite; Top management team; Scandinavia; U.S.; Explicit CSR
- Main Research Area:
- Social science
- Publication Status:
- Published
- Review type:
- Peer Review
- Submission year:
- 2012
- Scientific Level:
- Scientific
- ID:
- 239049819