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Review: Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Stakeholders,

Globalization, and Sustainable Value Creation

Article  in  Academy of Management Learning and Education · August 2015

DOI: 10.5465/amle.2015.0241

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Q Academy of Management Learning & Education, 2015, Vol. 14, No. 4, 1–3. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amle.2015.0241
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Books & Resource Reviews
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility:
Stakeholders, Globalization, and Sustain-
able Value Creation, 3rd edition, by David
Chandler and William B. Werther, Jr. Los
Angeles: SAGE Publications, Inc., 2014. 617
pages, soft cover.
Reviewed by Timothy J. Hargrave, Simon Fraser
University.
In Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility, 3rd ed.
(SCSR), David Chandler and William B. Werther, Jr.
advance the view that firms’ ability to create value for
a range of stakeholders over the medium and long
term requires that they embed corporate social re-
sponsibility (CSR) into their strategies and opera-
tions. Its focus on the integration of CSR into strategic
planning and implementation distinguishes SCSR
from competing business and society textbooks,
which tend to survey the field or focus on the man-
agement of the firm’s relationships with stakeholders
and society.
Chandler and Werther’s perspective on CSR is dis-
tinctive not only for its emphasis on strategy, but also
for its definition of “responsibility.” Like many others,
the authors see firms as having responsibilities to
a broad range of stakeholders. In contrast to many
others, however, they believe that CSR refers to the
reciprocal responsibility of stakeholders to hold firms
accountable for their actions. Chandler and Werther
argue that because firms are embedded within a cap-
italist system and in general are better at reacting to
change than initiating it, most firms’ managers will
tend to focus on creating shareholder value and bring
other stakeholders into the calculus only when “pro-
active, empowered, and caring” stakeholders demand
that they do so. As the authors state, stakeholders–and
particularly consumers–have “a responsibility … to
hold firms to account that is equal to the responsibility
of firms to act in a socially responsible manner” (p. 91;
italics in original). How can firms be responsive to
stakeholders if these stakeholders do not engage the
firm and express their interests?
Chandler and Werther’s view of CSR is rooted in
a broader vision of economic systems. In the Preface
to SCSR, they write that a CSR in which firms and
stakeholders are responsible to each other “offers
1
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a sustainable path between unbridled capitalism,
with its mixed consequences, and rigidly regulated
economies that are plagued with artificial and stifling
limitations” (p. xxxii). In response to the view that
society needs “alternatives to the corporation” (the
title of an excellent PDW at the 2014 annual Academy
of Management meeting (Adler & Davis, 2014), Chan-
dler and Werther offer an alternative view of the cor-
poration, one which has regained its social purpose.
In SCSR, there are numerous features that bring
the authors’ strategic perspective to life. Much of the
conceptual material in chapter 4 (on how to integrate
CSR into strategy) and chapter 5 (on implementing
CSR) is communicated effectively through original
figures. Moreover, the case studies presented in
chapter 6 (on organizational issues, such as corpo-
rate governance and executive pay), chapter 7 (on
issues which involve market stakeholders, such as
ethical sourcing), and chapter 8 (on issues pertain-
ing to the role of business in society, e.g., corporate
personhood, sustainability, the practice of religion
at work) cover an impressive range of topics and
are carefully designed to facilitate learning. Each
case is introduced with a concise summary of the
issue at stake and features discussion questions as
well as “pro/con debate” questions which crystal-
lize key issues. Each case also features a “CEO
perspective,” which succinctly provides a business
leader’s perspective on the issue at hand, as well as
links to relevant on-line resources, so that instruc-
tors and students alike can dig more deeply into
the cases.
The reprints from the authors’ daily email CSR
newsletter also are valuable. These are featured
throughout the text and serve as minicases that
will help instructors to keep their lessons timely
and fresh. SCSR also contains two useful glossa-
ries, one for CSR and another for strategy. The CSR
glossary is designed to introduce readers to numer-
ous terms they may have not heard before (e.g., “cash
mob”, “clicktivist” and “pinkwash”). Finally, the
materials that accompany SCSR are useful aids
for instructors conducting their courses. In partic-
ular, the overheads for each chapter are crisp and
clear compared to those accompanying many other
textbooks.
Some readers may be surprised by what SCSR is
not. Because the authors set out to present their
2 Academy of Management Learning & Education
strategic viewpoint on CSR rather than provide an
exhaustive coverage of key findings and debates,
they do not fully articulate and justify some of their
key premises. For example, the authors’ explanation
of how managers are to balance and prioritize
stakeholders’ interests is sparse. Their argument
that “stakeholders decrease in importance to the
firm the further they are removed from core opera-
tions” (p. 57) is barely explained and raises clear
ethical concerns.
Another, broader concern has to do with the au-
thors’ representation of the purpose of the firm. At
times, the authors seem to suggest an equality be-
tween the firm’s economic and societal objectives,
while at other times, they present the primary pur-
pose of the firm as earning a profit. One of the
book’s core ideas, that managers should conduct
strategic planning by defining profit-making
strategies and then revising them as necessary by
passing them through a CSR filter, could be read as
either a means of integrating stakeholders’ in-
terests or as just another form of instrumental CSR
which gives primacy to shareholders. The authors
resolve this tension by stating that CSR is both
a means to profit and an end in itself, driven by
their overarching premise that firms that practice
SCSR will survive and thrive in the long term. This
premise is presented without boundary conditions,
however, and is not supported by reference to the
relevant literature. It puts a faith in firm trans-
parency and stakeholder empowerment, which
surely is not warranted in all cases.
A related premise, which needs further examina-
tion, is that of stakeholder responsibility. As noted,
the authors propose a definition of CSR that places
responsibility not only on firms’ managers to re-
spond to a broad range of stakeholders, but also on
these stakeholders, especially customers, to de-
mand firm responsiveness to their interests and
concerns. Missing here is a discussion of why
stakeholders should engage firms directly rather
than (or as well as) working through their elected
officials to try to effect change. Customers often do
not have the time, expertise, or power to effectively
press firms for change or even “vote with their
pocketbooks;” rather, they elect governments to
pass and enforce laws that promote the public good.
Because the authors here do not examine the gov-
ernment’s role in shaping and intervening in mar-
kets (save in the Preface), the question remains: Why
is strategic CSR superior to the traditional approach
in which government plays the central role in
addressing social problems?
December
Finally, the “strategic” dimension of strategic
corporate social responsibility could be better
grounded in the strategy literature. Key concepts,
models, and perspectives, such as the resource-
based view of the firm, Five Forces analysis, and
SWOT analysis are presented in fairly cursory
ways that are commonsensical but not always very
precise, nor totally consonant with the literature.
For example, the authors define firm capabilities as
“actions that a firm can do, such as pay its bill, in
ways that add value to the production process”
(p. 138), whereas a more exact, yet broad, definition
drawn from a highly regarded strategy textbook
has firm capabilities described as “the organiza-
tional and managerial skills necessary to orches-
trate a diverse set of resources and to deploy them
strategically (Rothaermel, 2013: 87.) And whereas
strategy textbooks almost invariably explain the
resource-based view of the firm with the VRIO
framework, which states that the firm must have
resources and capabilities that are valuable, rare,
and costly to imitate, and be organized to capture
their value, Chandler and Werther state only that
the firm must be “so superior at performing [pro-
cesses] that it is difficult (or at least time consum-
ing) for other firms to match its performance in this
area” (p. 138). Although not an insurmountable ob-
stacle, this use of strategy shorthand will require
faculty to thoughtfully explain and integrate in-
formation from other sources into their content
discussions.
Of course, the very fact that throughout SCSR the
authors discuss strategy and seek to integrate it
with CSR is a highly distinctive and important fea-
ture that should be kept in mind. In this way, I found
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility to be both
more and less than a typical CSR textbook. Because
the content in the text does not include fundamental
debates related to business, government, and soci-
ety, instructors assigning SCSR will want to sup-
plement it with other readings (SCSR’s relatively
low price helps make this strategy feasible). On the
other hand, and more important, because of the au-
thors’ clear and pervasive focus on integrating
strategy with CSR, they are able to capture the
business–society zeitgeist. We live in an interesting
time, one in which shareholder value theory is being
challenged (see, e.g., Lynn Stout’s 2012 book, The
Shareholder Value Myth), marginalized stake-
holders are taking on the powerful (see, e.g., Paul
Hawken’s 2008 Blessed Unrest), and new business
models that integrate social and financial objec-
tives are emerging (see the rise of social enterprise
2015 Book & Resource Reviews
and benefit corporations; Howard, 2012). Rather than
comprehensively representing the CSR debate,
Chandler and Werther instead advance the debate
by providing guidance on how these business
models can be established and implemented. And
although they may fairly be accused of not fully
explaining why their vision of the world is desirable,
they nevertheless do have a vision that is worthy of
attention, and they present some useful thinking on
how to make it happen. It is in this vein, that I rec-
ommend this textbook to faculty members teaching
courses in business and society, social responsi-
bility, and sustainability—as well as to strategy
professors who see a new vision of the firm on their
horizons.
3
REFERENCES
Adler, P. S. (coordinator) & Davis, G. F. (chair). 2014. Alternatives
to the corporation. Professional development workshop at
the annual meeting of the Academy of Management, August 2,
2014, Philadelphia, PA.
Howard, H. 2012. Socially conscious companies have a new
yardstick. New York Times, November 8, 2012.
Hawken, P. 2008. Blessed unrest: How the largest social movement
in history is restoring grace, justice, and beauty to the world.
New York: Penguin Books.
Rothaermel, F. T. 2013. Strategic management: Concepts & cases.
New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Stout, L. 2012. The shareholder value myth: How putting share-
holders first harms investors, corporations, and the public.
San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
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