[ecrea] Invitation to contribute to CSR Communication book

Invitation to contribute to CSR Communication book.

_Volume Title_: Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility: lessons 
from theory and practice

_Editors:_ Ralph Tench, Brian Jones and William Sun, Leeds Business 
School, Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK

_Publisher_: Emerald

_Background/Rationale___

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a business and academic issue 
that attracts significant interest and discussion across both 
practitioner (business) and academic contexts.  What is less explored is 
the role and impact that communicating messages about CSR play.  This 
edited collection of papers seeks to address this knowledge gap by 
helping to establish the communication of CSR as a field of study in its 
own right.

The remit of this book is therefore to better understand communicator's 
role in sharing experiences of corporately responsible behaviour through 
CSR as well as the issues of CSI (Corporate Social Irresponsibility) 
which are evident through violations, wrongdoings and poor business 
practices especially those that impact negatively on society and the 
broader environment. There is a need to academically benchmark the role 
of communication of CSR so as to better understand how business 
practices might manage and improve performance.

There are many significant questions on CSR that need to be addressed by 
both the academic and business communities. Why does CSR fail in 
practice? Exactly how, in theory as well as practice, does the practice 
of communication and public relations and CSR connect and operate? What 
is the nature of the relationship between the concepts?  Do we need to 
design and implement better communication and management approaches to 
ensure that corporations are responsible to shareholders and other 
stakeholders?  Indeed, there is a need for more discussion and debate on 
these matters so that answers, policy prescriptions and new informed 
practices might emerge and evolve.

There are three general categories of CSR communications:

(1) Internal CSR communication (i.e., CSR management issues within the 
corporation, such as leadership, corporate culture, CSR strategies, and 
managerial structures and mechanisms).

(2) External CSR communication (i.e., corporate communication with 
stakeholders directly or through agencies). There are many issues in 
here, for example, whether there should be one-way or two-way 
communication, whether corporations should communicate directly or in 
better ways through agencies or other third parties, what role the 
agencies and media should play in the communication processes, or 
whether corporations engage in propaganda for themselves or communicate 
in genuine and good faith, how the information issue can be addressed in 
a complex and dynamic business environment, etc.

In the above two areas, perhaps one of the major concerns is how the 
corporation should/could be responsible for its genuine and effective 
communications with its employees and external stakeholders.

(3) Intercultural CSR communication (i.e., corporate communication 
across cultures, particularly, across national cultural boundaries). 
There has been a major concern with the different understanding of CSR 
in different societal contexts with different traditions, cultures, 
values, ideologies and religions. This increases the difficulty of 
applying CSR into international business. Some key debates include 
whether we should have universal CSR principles or more adapted CSR, and 
how to deal with societal or conditional differences when promoting CSR.

The book will serve to advance debates in CSR and offer a collection of 
papers that will help define the field of CSR communication.

The above serves to act as an indicator as to how the book might be 
structured but the editors also see this as a way of eliciting:

(a.) Conceptual and thought pieces but also;

(b.) Chapters that offer a critical approach to the study of CSR and how 
it is communicated;

(c.) Case studies of corporate wrongdoing, misdemeanours, or 
irresponsible behaviour/practices and how communication plays a role;

(d.) Case study examples of corporations moving from "doing bad" to 
"doing good" i.e. linking into the theme of the Amsterdam conference 
http://www.csr-communication-conference.org/amsterdam

(e.) Cases of poor communication of CSR or that;

(f.) Equate CSR with PR/communications/greenwashing. This last point and 
the conference theme might allow us to devote a section of the book to 
the issue of communicating CSI.

These are examples of what might be included and are not prescriptive in 
any sense. Other topic areas related to the communication of CSR are and 
would be welcome.

The book seeks to develop critical analysis of CSR and communication. 
New research insights and theoretical perspectives and approaches are 
welcomed. Mixed research methods including case studies, literature 
reviews, theoretical analysis and empirical studies including 
qualitative and quantitative are encouraged. Chapters may be exploratory 
in nature. They should offer substantive analysis of issues, themes and 
topics. Where appropriate, broader based conceptual, reflective and 
analytical pieces may for illustrative purposes, be linked with, 
specific issues such as for example the global financial crisis. Key 
questions and issues addressed could be approached from a predominantly 
communication or a CSR perspective or a combination of both.

_Contact_

Please e-mail for a full brief to:

Dr Brian Jones, Leeds Business School, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK

Email: (b.t.jones /at/ leedsmet.ac.uk) <mailto:(b.t.jones /at/ leedsmet.ac.uk)>