COLLISIONS AND CONFUSION - BUSINESS, CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY, AND THE PROFIT MOTIVE

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Introduction

Like their counterparts in developed markets, state-owned and privately-owned businesses in South Asia have become enthusiastic supporters of corporate social responsibility (CSR), a term to explain the commitment of business to simultaneously do good to society while doing well for owners and shareholders. Over time, CSR has become the means for big business to contribute to positive societal outcomes – by contributing to charity, planting trees, staff volunteering, and raising money for pressing social causes like education and healthcare. In India, CSR contributions are mandated by law (Manchiraju & Rajgopal, 2017) but the charity giving under the name of responsible business conceals more than it reveals (Rajgopal & Tantri ,2023). The simple fact is that while businesses have expanded their financial contributions to charity, less attention is being paid to how they are performing under more rigorous regulatory and investor requirements with respect to ESG and financial performance (Pizzetti, Gatti, & Steele 2021; Johnson, Theis, Vitalis, & Young, 2020). Here, compliance with environmental, social, governance (ESG) standards stand out because even a superficial glance at company balance sheets reveal that Big Business may be talking the right talk but evidence to support their commitment to protecting the environment, promoting diversity and inclusion, and paying taxes seems to be falling short (Wu Zhang and Xie, 2020).  

The ESG edition of the South Asian Journal of Business Studies will examine the growing disconnect between corporate purpose (which is aligned with responsible business practices) and actual practice, where huge gaps and weaknesses remain. 

List of Topic Areas

Specifically, the call for papers requests researchers and practitioners to take the following broad themes and topics into account while preparing their submissions: 

• Defining corporate purpose and social responsibility 
• The alignment between corporate strategy and transparent ESG performance 
• The role of company Board of Directors in oversight of ESG 
• Are standard setters, regulators, and stock exchanges setting the right incentives and regulatory framework?  
• How are companies reporting and managing their carbon emissions? Are there best practice examples from South Asia? 
• The role of trade unions and activists’ investors in shaping better ESG compliance by large, listed corporations. 
• Supply chains are a source of vulnerability and reputation risk for companies. Are there case studies which prove or disprove the proposition that abuses remain hidden, and companies cannot be held accountable. 
• How are South Asian companies strengthening gender diversity at all levels of the modern corporation?  
• Is there an understanding or a link between paying direct and indirect taxes and better corporate responsibility? 
• What insights can the Indian Companies Act 2013 provide about how and where companies allocate their ESG investments? Are there broader implications for the trade-offs between voluntary and mandatory ESG investments? 
• Can Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) provide new evidence or additional insights to the association of ESG and firm values? 
• Can investments in ESG performing firms provide sufficient returns for investors? Or do these firms underperform for investors? 
• What are the direct or indirect effects of ESG on financial reporting outcomes including GAAP profitability, earnings management, or audit quality? 
• Do companies’ investments in ESG have larger implications for macro-economic activities such as GDPs, productivity, or labor employment?. 
• Are ESG investments valuable to customers? Do customers change buying patterns in response to companies’ ESG investments? 

Submissions Information

We invite submissions from academics and practitioners for the special issue. Submissions will be considered as they are received and we will work toward an expedited review process, when possible, conditional on the quality of the submission. 

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available here.

Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see here.

Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to ““Please select the issue you are submitting to”. 

Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.

Key Deadlines

Submissions close: 10th January 2025

Guest Editors

Vasuki Shastry, (ESG expert, Senior Advisor, Gatehouse Advisory Partners, London)  
Joseph A. Micale, PhD CPA (Martin Tuchman School of Management NJIT, Newark NJ) 

References

Johnson, J.A., Theis, J., Vitalis, A. and D. Young. 2020. The Influence of Firms’ Emissions Management Strategy Disclosures on Investors’ Valuation Judgments. Contemporary Accounting Research 37(2), 642-664. 
Manchiraju, H. and S. Rajgopal 2017. Does Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Create Shareholder Value? Evidence from the Indian Companies Act 2013. Journal of Accounting Research 55(5), 1257-1300. 
Pizzetti, M., Gatti, L. and P. Steele. 2021. Firms Talk, Suppliers Walk: Analyzing the Locus of Greenwashing in the Blame Game and Introducing ‘Vicarious Greenwashing’. Journal of Business Ethics 170, 21-38. 
Rajgopal, S. and P. Tantri. 2023. Does a Government Mandate Crowd Out Voluntary Corporate Social Responsibility? Evidence from India. Journal of Accounting Research 61(1), 415-447. 
Wu, Y., Zhang, K. and J. Xie. 2020. Bad Greenwashing, Good Greenwashing: Corporate Social Responsibility and Information Transparency. Management Science 66(7), 3095-3112.