IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v73y2007i1p11-20.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social Standards: Toward an Active Ethical Involvement of Businesses in Developing Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Beschorner
  • Martin Müller

Abstract

As a consequence of the changing conditions of doing business, we can observe the emergence of an increasing number of industrial and company-specific codes of conduct, as well as social and environmental standards. This paper considers these initiatives as being self-regulating governance mechanisms, which are characterized by a process of voluntary adherence on the part of firms to certain mechanisms or principles that seek to promote a “good society.â€\x9D Two specific internationally established standards are discussed: Social Accountability 8000 (SA 8000) and AccountAbility 1000 (AA 1000). These institutionalized approaches are described and then contrasted in relation to a number of different factors, particularly the degree to which they foster “reflexivity,â€\x9D in terms of how businesses think about these issues, and “dialog,â€\x9D in terms of how businesses interact with stakeholders. Such questions are relevant to the ways in which these standards might be introduced and implemented, and which of these institutionalized approaches are the most promising for international businesses in developing countries. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2007

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Beschorner & Martin Müller, 2007. "Social Standards: Toward an Active Ethical Involvement of Businesses in Developing Countries," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 73(1), pages 11-20, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:73:y:2007:i:1:p:11-20
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-006-9193-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10551-006-9193-3
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-006-9193-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Niklas Egels-Zandén, 2014. "Revisiting Supplier Compliance with MNC Codes of Conduct: Recoupling Policy and Practice at Chinese Toy Suppliers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 119(1), pages 59-75, January.
    2. Javier Aguilera-Caracuel & Juan Aragón-Correa & Nuria Hurtado-Torres & Alan Rugman, 2012. "The Effects of Institutional Distance and Headquarters’ Financial Performance on the Generation of Environmental Standards in Multinational Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 105(4), pages 461-474, February.
    3. Nick Lin-Hi & Igor Blumberg, 2017. "The Power(lessness) of Industry Self-regulation to Promote Responsible Labor Standards: Insights from the Chinese Toy Industry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 143(4), pages 789-805, July.
    4. Vivek Soundararajan & Jill A. Brown, 2016. "Voluntary Governance Mechanisms in Global Supply Chains: Beyond CSR to a Stakeholder Utility Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(1), pages 83-102, March.
    5. Mark Christensen & Geoffrey Lamberton, 2022. "Accounting for Animal Welfare: Addressing Epistemic Vices During Live Sheep Export Voyages," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(1), pages 35-56, September.
    6. Martin Mueller & Virginia dos Santos & Stefan Seuring, 2009. "The Contribution of Environmental and Social Standards Towards Ensuring Legitimacy in Supply Chain Governance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 89(4), pages 509-523, November.
    7. Irene Marcuzzi & Matteo Podrecca & Marco Sartor & Guido Nassimbeni, 2023. "Out of social accountability: Reasons and alternative paths for SA8000 decertification," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(6), pages 3140-3158, November.
    8. Carole Jurkiewicz, 2012. "Developing a Multicultural Organizational Code of Ethics Rooted in the Moral Obligations of Citizenry," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 243-249, September.
    9. Anja Buerke & Tammo Straatmann & Nick Lin-Hi & Karsten Müller, 2017. "Consumer awareness and sustainability-focused value orientation as motivating factors of responsible consumer behavior," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 11(4), pages 959-991, October.
    10. Salla Laasonen & Martin Fougère & Arno Kourula, 2012. "Dominant Articulations in Academic Business and Society Discourse on NGO–Business Relations: A Critical Assessment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 109(4), pages 521-545, September.
    11. Tiffany Cheng-Han Leung & Robin Stanley Snell, 2021. "Strategies for Social and Environmental Disclosure: The Case of Multinational Gambling Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 168(3), pages 447-467, January.
    12. Niklas Egels-Zandén & Jeroen Merk, 2014. "Private Regulation and Trade Union Rights: Why Codes of Conduct Have Limited Impact on Trade Union Rights," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 123(3), pages 461-473, September.
    13. Sartor, Marco & Orzes, Guido & Di Mauro, Carmela & Ebrahimpour, Maling & Nassimbeni, Guido, 2016. "The SA8000 social certification standard: Literature review and theory-based research agenda," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 164-181.
    14. Enrico Fontana & Hyemi Shin & Chikako Oka & Jos Gamble, 2022. "Tensions in the strategic integration of corporate sustainability through global standards: Evidence from Japan and South Korea," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 875-891, March.
    15. Hans-Ulrich Küpper & Philipp Schreck, 2008. "Unternehmensethik in Praxis, Forschung und Lehre–Status quo und Perspektiven im deutschsprachigen Raum," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 60(58), pages 72-92, January.
    16. Heloïse Berkowitz & Marcelo Bucheli & Hervé Dumez, 2017. "Collectively Designing CSR Through Meta-Organizations: A Case Study of the Oil and Gas Industry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 143(4), pages 753-769, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:73:y:2007:i:1:p:11-20. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.