Our research

i One of the strategic objectives of the CSR Platform project (financed by the Sixth Research Framework Programme of the European Union) was to mobilise an international community of researchers in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in order to lay the foundations for achieving a structured, coherent and dynamic coordination of existing and future European research activities. The colloquiums were regular milestones for the project designed to gather a multi-stakeholder group of participants to cross-fertilise research agendas and create innovative forums for learning on the subject of CSR research.

Building on the three successful previous Colloquia, 4th Colloquium, hosted by Leon Kozminski Academy of Entrepreneurship and Management, was focused on "Corporate Responsibility and Competitiveness: Developing Human Capital for Sustainable Growth". It took place on 5-6 December 2005 at LKAEM campus in Warsaw with a special PhD day on 4 December 2005. It tackled questions faced by managers, policy-makers and others in attempting to achieve sustainable growth. In particular it explored how corporate responsibility issues can contribute to long-term competitiveness at the level of companies, industries, nation states and even regions. The Colloquium 2005 demonstrated for the first time the growing interest in providing a platform for further integration of CEE researchers on CSR into the mainstream of the European research community.

In total 209 participants from 27 countries took part to the colloquium. Representatives from 10 countries were present during PhD Day – in total 30 PhD’s students and 8 faculty members. 85 abstracts were submitted, among which 86% were from academics, 14% from practitioners. The broad scope of papers presented at the colloquium addressed some key aspects of shift from the case for and the merits of CSR to the growth enhancing impact of CSR at the “micro” level of companies, the “meso” level of industry sectors and supply chains and the “macro” level of economies and societies. The best papers of the colloquium were selected (in total 17 papers) and published in Corporate Governance – The international journal of business in society, Corporate Responsibility and Competitiveness: A special issue from the European Academy of Business in Society and the Leon Kozminski Academy of Entrepreneurship and Management, Volume 6, Number 4, 2006, guest editors: G. Lenssen, W. Gasparski, B. Rok, P. Lacy.

ii The RESPONSE project was the largest research effort to date in Europe to study systematically the concept and the application of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). It has been approved for €1.1 million funding by the Research Commission of the European Union. It is also the first and principal research effort initiated by academic partners of the European Academy of Business in Society (EABIS) – of which the Business Ethics Centre is a member, and supported by the business partners (IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Unilever and Shell). The project was led by INSEAD and the principle academic partners were: Copenhagen Business School, Bocconi University (Italy) and Leon Kozminski Academy (Poland).

The research program proposed by the RESPONSE consortium aims to study the nature of societal demands on business organizations’ decisions and actions from a business strategy perspective. Two overarching questions will be addressed. Firstly, what do companies understand as their responsibilities towards society, and how does that differ from the actual expectations of social actors? Secondly, how can companies cope with both rising societal demands on their activities and with a consequently wider gap between what they are prepared to contribute and what society expects from them?

• The consortium takes these research questions from two distinct levels of analysis, the business organization and the individual manager.

• On an organisational level, the research partners will utilize recent developments in organizational sociology, evolutionary economics and business strategy in order to focus on how the firm perceives and manages the different types of societal demands coming from a diverse group of actors (government and local authorities, social pressure groups, social rating agencies, employees and unions, supply chain partners, and so on).

• At the individual level of analysis, they will rely on recent advancements in cognitive and social psychology, in fields as diverse as the psychology of emotions, neurology, ethical decision-making and consciousness studies.

• In addition to leveraging on cutting edge knowledge from diverse areas of social science, the research objectives and methodology of the consortium have been designed to pursue academic contributions not only to the debate on corporate social responsibility, but also to at least some of the disciplines the program is building on. This includes fields like business strategy, business ethics and organizational behavior. At the same time, the RESPONSE consortium is conscious of the significant impact that the expected results might have for managerial practice, and public policy, and has designed a series of initiatives to disseminate the insights derived from the academic work to all the relevant audiences.

iii As a part of cooperation between UN and European Commission the project “Accelerating CSR practices in the new EU member states and candidate countries as a vehicle for harmonization, competitiveness, and social cohesion in the EU” was established in 2007 with Business Ethics Centre as a national expert team coordinator. More than two decades ago Central Eastern European and the Baltic States (CEE) embarked on a road towards a market economy. Despite tremendous achievements in adaptation to market economy, environmental and social concerns received little attention.  While Western European business community leaders are talking about “mainstreaming” CSR and incorporating the principles into core business strategies, in the new EU Member States and candidate countries knowledge on CSR varies: some business leaders are just becoming familiar with the term, while others have started a step-by-step approach to integrating CSR into their business practices.  The main objective of this Project was to accelerate the implementation of CSR practices in the new EU Member States and candidate countries, namely Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Slovak Republic and Turkey in order to add value of EU harmonization, competitiveness and social cohesion.

ivA unique study by the Bertelsmann Stiftung entitled “The CSR Navigator – Public Policies in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe” looks at how governments help companies meet their social responsibilities and involve them usefully in solving complex problems. The projects was focused on selected industrialised, emerging and developing countries, namely Brazil, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Mozambique, Poland, South Africa, Sweden, United Kingdom, USA and Viet Nam. The findings show a wide spectrum of various approaches that combine international CSR standards with local social-economic and developmental needs, depending on the countries situation. The project „Profiling CSR-Policies in Europe, America, Asia and Africa” was founded by GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit) and the Bertelsmann Foundation. The final report „CSR Navigator” was presented in 2007 in Berlin. The publication explains methodological background for CSR public policy analysis with detailed typology of various government activities.

v Business Ethics Centre is involved in different research initiatives on Corporate Social Responsibility in partnership with UNDP from 2001, co-organising the launch of Global Compact in Poland and taking part in the first Global Compact Learning Forum in 2002. The first case study on CSR practice from Poland was published in a special case studies series by UN headquarters. In the following years several cases were prepared in the frame of “Business Contributions to the Millennium Development Goals” as a part of Growing Inclusive Markets project. They were presented during the conference at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada in June 2008 and are now part of the global report published by UN “Creating Value for All. Strategies for Doing Business with the Poor” [more www.growinginclusivemarkets.org] We are involved now in a project, in partnership with UNDP in Poland, devoted to run a process of establishing The Polish Multi-stakeholder Forum on CSR, as a permanent dialogue between government, business sector and academia on the role of business in the society.

vi The dissertation offers an approach to corporate decision-making based on the doctrine of double effect. The key concept of the work is double effect. It refers to the fact that actions may produce side-effects, which may be a moral problem when they are harmful.

The aim of the study was to describe the decision-making methods made during transformation process with more than one outcome. After description the methods were classified and interpreted according to the ethical decision-making model. Multiple case study illustrates the usefulness of the principle of double effect in corporate decision-making, and shows how the proposed model can help researchers to reconstruct and interpret decision-making methods or managers act responsible, make better decisions.

(Doctoral thesis elaborated under the supervision of Prof. Wojciech Gasparski, Ph.D.)

vii As a set of corporate governance rules and standards governing relations between listed companies and their market environment, the Code of Best Practice is an important instrument that strengthens the competitiveness of the market in the international dimension.

The importance of a set of corporate governance rules depends on an effective application in the form of best practice guidelines serving as a benchmark for corporate behavior of listed companies. Very legal articles are insufficient for the smooth functioning of public companies in way in accordance with expectations of stakeholders, therefore in mid-nineties of the 20th century in Europe as well as the United States, and in all developed countries it was possible to notice the high pressure for improving applicable regulations by implementing code/principles of good practice of the corporate control, constituting the ethical, cultural and economic model a kind of. The author of this work is examining among others what theoretical and axiological values and principles of good practice of the Polish corporate governance are based compared with other codes of principles of good practice carried out on world stock exchange markets.

(Doctoral thesis elaborated under the supervision of Prof. Wojciech Gasparski, Ph.D.)

viii The research concerns the Corporate Social Responsibility as a complex group of norms and values that appeared in management some time ago and determinates in many cases the organizations every day acting. The Polish and Finish case relates especially to a distinctive values and norms that can differentiate between these two institutional contexts (Poland and Finland). This, in consequence, shows the difference between Finish and Polish institutions and organizations, especially between companies. The norms and values are investigated inside of the company accordingly to social and legal norms in each country. Moreover one company with the same inside culture will be investigated in different countries (different institutional contexts). The assimilation of norms and values including CSR from more developed into developing countries and societies is one of the most interesting aspects of globalization processes. Furthermore, it is a significant process for enterprises that extends its influence to different markets and develops its production units into different geographical locations. The matter of the corporation culture is significant in case of operating on different markets.

(Doctoral thesis elaborated under the supervision of Prof. Wojciech Gasparski, Ph.D.)

ix The concept of corporate social responsibility assumes the realization of long-term aim of an enterprise simultaneously with the proper creation of relations with its main stakeholders as well as acting according to law and socially accepted ethical norms. In Poland, the concept of corporate social responsibility is still on its initial level of implementation. In many enterprises social responsibility has become a synonym of effective public relations politics in place of real activities complying with rights and needs of stakeholders. Taking into consideration the ambiguity of actions of some companies, it is indispensable to: define the transparency rules of the business activity, present the tools and management practices, and define the norms appointing standards of the measurement of level and effectiveness of the corporate social responsibility. The aim of this thesis is to: define determinants of corporate social responsibility and analyze the level and understanding of corporate social responsibility idea among Polish companies. An intentional final effect is the creation of universal tool for verification of social responsibility of a company.

(Doctoral thesis elaborated under the supervision of Prof. Wojciech Gasparski, Ph.D.)

x The dissertation elaborates the problem of revealing confidential information by employees about misconducts which might jeopardize life or health of its workers, customers or business partners, might lead natural environment destruction, or considers financial malpractices. English word for such kind of action is whistleblowing. It is the first doctoral thesis in Poland devoted to the topic of whistleblowing. The author systematizes subject terminology through analyzing different definitions of whistleblowing as well as different systems of revealing the truth that function worldwide. He also presents a project of safe deposition of confidential information designed for Polish companies. Analysis of 1007 questionnaires, conducted for the purpose of the dissertation, was aimed at discovering whether Poles are prone to reveal confidential information and what possible translation of the term whistleblowing into Polish language is most liked. The research proved that 74% of adult Poles expressed their readiness to reveal information about noticed misconducts. Polish translation of whistleblowing was by the majority chosen as “informator w dobrej wierze”. The dissertation includes ethical analysis of whistleblowing, the role of media, as well as relationship between whistleblowing and organizational structure. (Suppervisor: Prof. Wojciech W. Gasparski, Ph.D.)