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Hard soft law or soft hard law? A content analysis of CSR guidelines typologized along hybrid legal status

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  • Marta Cominetti

    (Universita della Svizzera Italiana)

  • Peter Seele

    (Universita della Svizzera Italiana)

Abstract

A CSR guideline is an instrument aimed at guiding companies towards the application of CSR to limit the impact that the company has on society. The main problem concerned with CSR guidelines is that their legal status is blurred and as a consequence, their level of enforceability is not clearly understandable. Therefore, this paper focuses on defining the legal status of CSR guidelines through a content analysis of a sample of 34 CSR guidelines.

Suggested Citation

  • Marta Cominetti & Peter Seele, 2016. "Hard soft law or soft hard law? A content analysis of CSR guidelines typologized along hybrid legal status," Sustainability Nexus Forum, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 127-140, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sumafo:v:24:y:2016:i:2:d:10.1007_s00550-016-0425-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s00550-016-0425-4
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Catherine Barnard & Simon Deakin & Richard Hobbs, 2004. "Reflexive law, corporate social responsibility and the evolution of labour standards: the case of working time," Working Papers wp294, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    2. Nakib Muhammad Nasrullah & Mia Mahmudur Rahim, 2014. "CSR in Private Enterprises in Developing Countries," CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance, Springer, edition 127, number 978-3-319-02350-2, May.
    3. Mia Mahmudur Rahim, 2013. "Legal Regulation of Corporate Social Responsibility," CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance, Springer, edition 127, number 978-3-642-40400-9, May.
    4. Nakib Muhammad Nasrullah & Mia Mahmudur Rahim, 2014. "Understanding of CSR and Its Standards," CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance, in: CSR in Private Enterprises in Developing Countries, edition 127, chapter 0, pages 11-40, Springer.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Roy, Partha P. & Rao, Sandeep & Zhu, Min, 2022. "Mandatory CSR expenditure and stock market liquidity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    2. Alina Badulescu & Daniel Badulescu & Tomina Saveanu & Roxana Hatos, 2018. "The Relationship between Firm Size and Age, and Its Social Responsibility Actions—Focus on a Developing Country (Romania)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-21, March.
    3. Tom Joerß & Payam Akbar & Robert Mai & Stefan Hoffmann, 2017. "Conceptualizing sustainability from a consumer perspective [Konzeptionalisierung der Nachhaltigkeit aus der Konsumentensicht]," Sustainability Nexus Forum, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 15-23, June.
    4. Clune, Conor & O’Dwyer, Brendan, 2020. "Organizing dissonance through institutional work: The embedding of social and environmental accountability in an investment field," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    5. Rea Wagner & Peter Seele, 2017. "Uncommitted Deliberation? Discussing Regulatory Gaps by Comparing GRI 3.1 to GRI 4.0 in a Political CSR Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 146(2), pages 333-351, December.
    6. Fornasari, Tommaso, 2020. "Il ruolo dei comitati di responsabilità sociale nella corporate governance [The Role of CSR Committees in Corporate Governance]," MPRA Paper 111192, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Cheng, Shi & Huang, Shan, 2024. "ESG combined score effects on stock performance of S&P 500-listed firms," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    8. Lucia Gatti & Babitha Vishwanath & Peter Seele & Bertil Cottier, 2019. "Are We Moving Beyond Voluntary CSR? Exploring Theoretical and Managerial Implications of Mandatory CSR Resulting from the New Indian Companies Act," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(4), pages 961-972, December.
    9. Andrzej Janowski, 2021. "CSR in Management Sciences: Is It “a Road to Nowhere”?," Economies, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-15, December.
    10. Léna Masson, 2020. "Steps towards a CSR binding paradigm: A review of Locke’s book The Promise and Limits of Private Power (2013)," Post-Print hal-03541373, HAL.
    11. Lucia Gatti & Peter Seele & Lars Rademacher, 2019. "Grey zone in – greenwash out. A review of greenwashing research and implications for the voluntary-mandatory transition of CSR," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 1-15, December.
    12. Yukuo Zhang & Teng Wang & Chunbao Wang & Changgao Cheng, 2023. "Quantitative Evaluation of China’s CSR Policies Based on the PMC-Index Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-19, April.
    13. Enying Zheng & Wenjie Liao & Yan Xing & Jiajia Zheng, 2023. "Institutionalizing corporate social responsibility disclosure: Historical webpages of the Fortune global 500 companies, 1997–2009," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 661-676, March.

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