Corporate Social Responsibility in Europe

This book explores the current state of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in 24 European nations, examining the state of the development and practice of CSR and sustainability for organizations in these countries. The common denominator for all of the book's 25 chapters is a management perspective rather than an ethical discourse. The book therefore represents a comprehensive survey of initiatives and activities in the field of CSR and provides a wealth of complete cases and examples for different approaches to sustainable and responsible management practice. The book also reviews the relevant political and governmental guidelines and frameworks for organizations, both on a national and a European level. Europe has taken a leading role in the promotion and implementation of CSR. This book showcases how, through CSR, enterprises can significantly contribute to achieving the European Union's treaty objectives of sustainable development and a highly competitive social market economy.

Samuel O Idowu is a senior lecturer in Accounting and Corporate Social Responsibility at the London Guildhall Faculty of Business and Law, London Metropolitan University where he was course organizer for Accounting Joint degrees, Course Leader/Personal Academic Adviser (PAA) for students taking Accounting Major/Minor and Accounting Joint degrees and currently Course Leader for Accounting and Banking degree. Samuel is a Professor of CSR and Sustainability at Nanjing University of Finance & Economics, China. He is a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Chartered Secretaries & Administrators and a named freeman of the City of London.Samuel has published about fifty or so articles in both professional and academic journals and contributed chapters in edited books and is the Editor-in-Chief of two major global reference books by Springer - the Encyclopedia of Corporate Social Responsibility (ECSR) and the Dictionary of Corporate Social Responsibility (DCSR) and he is a Series Editor for Springer's books on CSR, Sustainability, Ethics and Governance. Samuel has been in academia for 27 years winning one of the Highly Commended Awards of Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence both in 2008 and 2014. In 2010, one of his edited books was placed in 18th position out of forty top Sustainability books by Cambridge University Programme for Sustainability Leadership. He has examined for the following professional bodies: the Chartered Institute of Bankers (CIB) and the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and has marked examination papers for the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). His teaching career started in November 1987 at Merton College, Morden, Surrey; he was a Lecturer/Senior Lecturer at North East Surrey College of Technology (Nescot) for thirteen years where he was the Course Leader for BA (Hons) Business Studies, ACCA and CIMA courses. He has also held visiting lectureship posts at Croydon College and Kingston University both in the county of Surrey, England. He was a senior lecturer at London Guildhall University prior to its merger with the University of North London; when London Metropolitan University was created in August 2002.Samuel has served as an external examiner to a number of UK Universities including the University of Sunderland, the University of Ulster, Belfast and Coleraine, Northern Ireland and Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford. He is currently an External Examiner at the University of Plymouth, The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland and Teesside University, Middlesbrough, UK. He was also the Treasurer and a Trustee of Age Concern, Hackney, East London from January 2008 to September 2011. He is a member of the Committee of the Corporate Governance Special Interest Group, of the British Academy of Management (BAM). Samuel is on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Management of Environmental Quality Journal, International Journal of Business Administration and Amfiteatru Economic Journal. He has been researching in the field of CSR since 1983 and has attended and presented papers at several national and international conferences and workshops on CSR and has made a number of keynote speeches at international conferences.

René Schmidpeter holds the Dr. Juergen Meyer Endowed Chair of International Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility at Cologne Business School (CBS). He is also a professor at the Nanjing University of Finance and Economics as well as academic head of the Centre for Humane Market Economy in Salzburg. He is a series editor for Springer's CSR, Sustainability, Ethics and Governance books, section editor of the Encyclopedia of Corporate Social Responsibility (ECSR) and editor of the Dictionary of Corporate Social Responsibility (DCSR). His research and teaching focuses on the management of Corporate Social Responsibility, international perspectives on CSR, Social Innovation and Sustainable Entrepreneurship as well as the relationship between business and society. He has published widely and is editor of the German management series on Corporate Social Responsibility at Springer Gabler. His latest international and national publications include:

Sustainable Entrepreneurship (2014), Springer, together with Ch. Weidinger and F. Fischler. Social Innovation (2013), Springer, together with Th. Osburg Corporate Social Responsibility (2012), Springer, together with A. Schneider Schmidpeter serves as an expert jury for the Sustainable Entrepreneurship Award (SEA) in Vienna and has been a member of many academic, economic and political steering committees as well as advisory boards. He has conducted research for the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the European Union, the Bavarian Ministry of Social Affairs, the Anglo-German Foundation, the Bertelsmann Foundation as well as the Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft (DFG). He works closely with chambers of commerce and businesses in Germany and Austria in order to further build up regional knowledge in the field of sustainability and CSR.

Matthias S. Fifka is Professor for Business Administration and Business Ethics at the University Erlangen-Nuernberg. He is also a visiting professor at the University of Dallas (USA), the Nanjing University of Finance and Economics and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China), the École Supérieure des Sciences Commerciales d'Angers (ESSCA) (France), and the Maastricht School of Management (Netherlands). He serves as external evaluator at the Maastricht School of Management, Netherlands, and the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. From 2011 until September 2013 he held the Dr. Juergen Meyer Endowed Chair for International Business Ethics and Sustainability at Cologne Business School (CBS). His research and teaching focuses on issues of strategic management - especially the strategic implementation of sustainability and corporate social responsibility -, business ethics, corporate governance, international management as well as the American political and economic system. He is and has been a member of several scientific commissions and boards, e.g., for the European Union, the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, and the German Association of Environmental Management (B.A.U.M. e.v.). Moreover, since 2008, he has been serving as the deputy director of the German American Institute in Nuernberg. He also advises different types of organizations on management and CSR issues.