The main objective of this book is to provide an innovative set of concepts and tools regarding company management, internal and external stakeholders and social responsibilities, reflecting the necessities and opportunities generated by the digital transformation, the transition to a knowledge-based economy, and the COVID-19 crisis. The book, based on a holistic vision and contextual approach of business, contributes to the development of company management and stakeholder and social responsibility theories and practices, being structured in 12 chapters. The original company management vision, approaches, and tools are based on three pillars: a new "manager–relevant stakeholder" rather than "manager–subordinate" managerial paradigm; a new type of company social responsibility rather than corporate social responsibility; and a new concept of company-relevant stakeholder rather than that of salient stakeholders. The book contains two innovative managerial mechanisms: the managerial synapse and company-relevant stakeholders-based management system able to help companies and stakeholders face successfully the challenges of digital transformation and the COVID-19 crisis and to generate greater organization functionality and performance. The book will be of interest to company managers and management specialists, management academics, consultants and researchers, and MBA students interested in a style of management with social responsibility at the forefront.

Corporate social responsibility has grown into a global phenomenon that encompasses businesses, consumers, governments, and civil society, and many organizations have adopted its discourse. Yet corporate social responsibility remains an uncertain and poorly defined ambition, with few absolutes. First, the issues that organizations must address can easily be interpreted to include virtually everyone and everything. Second, with their unique, often particular characteristics, different stakeholder groups tend to focus only on specific issues that they believe are the most appropriate and relevant in organizations' corporate social responsibility programs. Thus, beliefs about what constitutes a socially responsible and sustainable organization depend on the perspective of the stakeholder. Third, in any organization, the beliefs of organizational members about their organization's social responsibilities vary according to their function and department, as well as their own managerial fields of knowledge. A Stakeholder Approach to Corporate Social Responsibility provides a comprehensive collection of cutting-edge theories and research that can lead to a more multifaceted understanding of corporate social responsibility in its various forms, the pressures and conflicts that result from these different understandings, and some potential solutions for reconciling them.

Corporate social responsibility has grown into a global phenomenon that encompasses businesses, consumers, governments, and civil society, and many organizations have adopted its discourse. Yet corporate social responsibility remains an uncertain and poorly defined ambition, with few absolutes. First, the issues that organizations must address can easily be interpreted to include virtually everyone and everything. Second, with their unique, often particular characteristics, different stakeholder groups tend to focus only on specific issues that they believe are the most appropriate and relevant in organizations' corporate social responsibility programs. Thus, beliefs about what constitutes a socially responsible and sustainable organization depend on the perspective of the stakeholder. Third, in any organization, the beliefs of organizational members about their organization's social responsibilities vary according to their function and department, as well as their own managerial fields of knowledge. A Stakeholder Approach to Corporate Social Responsibility provides a comprehensive collection of cutting-edge theories and research that can lead to a more multifaceted understanding of corporate social responsibility in its various forms, the pressures and conflicts that result from these different understandings, and some potential solutions for reconciling them.

This book shows how companies can maximize the value of their CR initiatives by fostering strong stakeholder relationships.

Most practitioners and decision makers look at corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a socially responsible management practice on top of what company leaders generally do: focus on the sustainable, long term financial profitability of their corporation. This book focuses on a political understanding of CSR: the author bridges politics with corporate social responsibility and in a creative and provocative manner. Braun seeks to explore why and how corporations are to be seen as political actors with important roles in our current societies. The first part discusses the social context, the various stakeholder approaches and it also endeavors – with the help of the historic/political parallel of the bourgeois revolutions in the 19th century – to define the corporate polity. The second part analyses the new kind of political operational logic from the viewpoint of the different areas of corporate operation; it gives an overview of the consequences for the individual areas of operation and indicates how corporate policy can be realized in the given field of operation. The third part of the book introduces the institutions necessary for the creation of the corporate polity.

The chapters in this volume cover a wide range of theoretical perspectives grounded in strategy, economics and sociology, employ various methodological approaches, and offer new arguments on the connections that exist between firms’ decisions relating to sustainability, CSR, and the governance of their stakeholder relations.