CR innovations

From compliance to new responsible business opportunities – Emerging business models in chemicals industry
(Anttonen, Markku & Apajalahti, Eeva-Lotta)

Does open innovation strengthen corporate responsibility?
(Arnold, Marlen)

An Innovative Model to Promote CSR among SMEs Operating in Industrial Clusters: Evidence from an EU Project
(Battaglia, Massimo; Iraldo, Fabio; Frey, Marco & Bianchi, Lara)

Exploration of the link between corporate responsibility and service orientation in the IT industry
(Castiaux, Annick)

CSR and Innovation: Exploring the Fit
(De Chiara, Alessandra & Colurcio, Maria)

Does corporate responsibility matter in the global competition of the forest-based industry?
(Li, N. & Toppinen, A.)

Case Study of the Development of CSR Practices in Danfoss Group
(Ma, Rufei; Toh, ImnLin; Christensen, Per & Lehmann, Martin)

Corporate Responsible Innovation: towards a business (re-)design methodology
(Nieuwkamp, B.E.M. & Fisscher, O.A.M.)

Financing Clean Technology: TAG, a concept for evaluating market potentials
(Tunberg, Maria & Mark-Herbert, Cecilia & Neames, Charles)

From compliance to new responsible business opportunities – Emerging business models in chemicals industry
(Anttonen, Markku & Apajalahti, Eeva-Lotta)

Companies have already widely accepted the concept of CR in its broad sense. This can be seen in increasing number of CR reports and different standards that are directed to and adapted by companies. Alongside this CR reality the theory as well as the practical business development is evolving to concern the questions of CR Innovation. The growing research and business concepts concentrating on e.g. emerging markets and base-of-the pyramid (BOP) innovation shows this. We argue that there is both need and space for research on how to develop CR Innovation in mature markets, such as chemicals and their industrial usage that can have both significant environmental and societal effects.

In this paper we present some evidence of the expansion of corporate responsibility towards CR Innovation and the new business opportunities this change has created for companies within the chemicals industry. We describe some elements of change from the burden of irresponsible past through Responsible Care towards providing more responsible solutions for the customers. As an example we describe the chemical management services as potential device for more sustainable chemicals industry and to generate new type of innovative business models. As a particular case the BASF Success - business unit is introduced. Unit offers a variety of chemicals safety related services that also enable to study the customers' eco-efficiency and social responsibility issues. With this example we want to open discussion to further study of this kind of approaches to CR implementation.

Key words: CR Innovation, Business models, chemical industry, chemical management services

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Does open innovation strengthen corporate responsibility?
(Arnold, Marlen)

Meanwhile within a multiplicity of companies corporate responsibility can be identified. However, there is a gap between wording and acting sustainably or responsibly. Nowadays, stakeholder integration is a main trend for companies to be or act sustainably or responsibly. It can also be stated that open innovation methods, such as stakeholder dialogues, (open) innovation workshops, ideas competition, web-communities and tool-kits can enable companies to find new and sustainable solutions and activities to act sustainably and responsibly. That's why the possibility to enlarge the knowledge base and to open perspectives in ad-hoc or continuous communication with consumers and stakeholders is a great advantage of open innovation methods. This can initiate corporate responsible learning as well as responsible consumption. Yet, the question raises: does open innovation really lead to or strengthen corporate responsibility?

All open innovation methods have a different dialogue orientation and a different level of participation and therefore diverse possibilities to support corporate responsibility; and companies can pick up new ideas to develop sustainable products or services by means of open innovation methods. Irrespective of these facts do companies really diffuse open innovations?

This study emphasises the strengths and weaknesses of selected open innovation methods to strengthen corporate responsibility on the basis of an empirical analysis of 6 German-based companies. Using content analysis the study analyses the special conditions for the realisation of sustainable and responsible solutions and activities generated by open innovation methods. In addition, the limits of open innovation methods will be stressed.

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An Innovative Model to Promote CSR among SMEs Operating in Industrial Clusters: Evidence from an EU Project
(Battaglia, Massimo; Iraldo, Fabio; Frey, Marco & Bianchi, Lara)

This paper presents the findings of the COOPERATE Project, an idea developed in the frame of the Mainstreaming CSR among SMEs EU – program. The aim of this study is to progress understanding the opportunities to formalize CSR practices in SMEs in clustered systems. Often small size companies have to compete with a global market; for this reason, the cooperation between SMEs, and from these to the stakeholders and intermediary institutions might be facilitated by a collective answer to the new market requests. The local cooperation and the social capital, priority element to facilitate the trust between all the involved actors, can play a key role in the formalization of the CSR policies and practices, also for small companies. In the project we proceed identifying and understanding the role of the “intermediary institutions” (such as trade unions, Local Authorities, business consortia) in the clusters. In a second moment we also identify what type of instruments are needed by the SMEs to improve the application and the formalization of CSR policies.

Throughout the paper, we focus on the analysis of three industrial clusters in Tuscany (Italy): for each context, a strategy to understand the difficulties and testify the opportunities to formalize the CSR is proposed and implemented, using many different CSR instruments. In this way, we are able to describe the building of an innovative model to spread the CSR - related tools in the SMEs, with a cluster approach. Finally, the paper suggests some new research questions for future studies, in particular with reference to the effects on competitiveness for SMEs implementing formalized CSR practices.

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Exploration of the link between corporate responsibility and service orientation in the IT industry
(Castiaux, Annick)

Abstract

The IT industry is involved for a decennial in a profound evolution. The continuous erosion of the economic value of hardware and software products, the progression of open source competitors, the increasing importance of virtual and immaterial assets fo their business, and the increasing power of customers has led well established IT firms as IBM, HP, etc. to position themselves as service companies. The goal of this paper is to study this (r)evolution considering it with its links with corporate responsibility. Are the corporate responsibility actions of such firms aligned with their publicized evolution? Do they consider the service dimension when they build their corporate responsibility policy? Reversely, do corporate responsibility considerations influence and accelerate the evolution towards a service business model? To answer those questions, we consider 5 established IT firms (IBM, HP, Intel, Dell and Sun). We study their recent corporate responsibility reports and analyse the references to service in those reports. The context in which those references are proposed is considered in order to be able to answer the previous questions. Our analysis show a strong connection between both initiatives, the service orientation of those firms making them consider responsible attitudes as service innovations, while their responsibility policies reinforce their service business model. This strong coherence is for us a a factor of success of this business evolution and can also support the market adhesion to the new image of those firms.

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CSR and Innovation: Exploring the Fit
(De Chiara, Alessandra & Colurcio, Maria)

Aim of the work
CSR and innovation have rarely been discussed in combination in the literature, at least not explicitly, although CSR is increasingly becoming a part of company discussions worldwide in the quest for greater value and competitiveness (Fontrodona, 2006).

Evidence suggests that “though innovative effort appears to be widespread, this does not translate directly into improved firm performance and, ultimately, greater profitability” (Hoffman et al., 1998). Furthermore, expectations have evolved, while customers and society have become extremely sensitive to the perceived ethical behaviour of organizations. The adoption of CSR's models lead companies to innovate their offering, using recycled materials, or to innovate technologies to reduce noxious inputs in the environment and to use resources in an efficient way.

The work aims to explorate the fit between CSR and innovation in SMEs in order to achieve a conceptual understanding of this relationship and to identify specific patterns of development.

Theoretical backbone
In the debate about innovation and CSR literature seems scant on an explicit level (Mittsun, 2007; Mac Gregor and Fontrodona, 2008). However we referred to two main streams of studies:
1. Studies on Sustainable Development (Carpenter and White, 2004; Perrini, 2005; Sawhney, Wolcott, and
Arroniz, 2006; Hamel, 2006; Vila and MacGregor, 2007).
2. Studies that conceptualize a virtuous circle CSR-Innovation (Mac Gregor and Fontrodona, 2008).

Methodology
We carried out an explorative research trough a field study in order to investigate the relationship between CSR and Innovation in excellent Italian companies. We investigated in depth 3 Italian firms which gained best performance in the development of sustainable and responsible innovation. We used the multiple case study method (Yin, 1994).

Main findings
We defined best practice in the patterns of the development of integration between CSR and Innovation. We argued that today the real challenge to face competition can not be based on distributing more and more new products and services but on ensuring that new products and services are more socially responsible and sustainable throughout their life cycle, from conception to disposal (Sustainable Development) such as reduction of the consumption of environmental, raw material and natural resources (as water, energy, etc..); a more long life cycle of products and […]

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Does corporate responsibility matter in the global competition of the forest-based industry?
(Li, N. & Toppinen, A.)

Abstract

The growing public interest in and global consciousness of environmental and social issues has intensified pressures on forest industry companies in their efforts to effectively balance potentially conflicting stakeholder demands. In this paper we conceptually analyze corporate responsibility (CR) in the forest-based industry by theoretically differentiating between three approaches driving CR: the "profit-maximizing" corporate responsibility conjecture, the "corporate social impact" hypothesis, and the "trade-off" hypothesis. A survey of existing studies is used as a means to assess the current adoption of CR in the forest-based industry and to form a basis for evaluating the wider importance of CR in business, as well as to formulate hypotheses for future research. In conclusion, companies covered in previous research in this study appear to have adopted CR activities mainly with profit-maximizing conjecture. When the continued growth of ethical markets presents both a threat and an opportunity for forest companies, a business case of CR could only be made by embracing CR principles with radical changes in the fundamental values, policy principles and operational procedures through continuing organizational learning.

Keywords: corporate responsibility, forest-based industry, organizational learning, single- and double-loop learning, socially responsible investment, forest certification, sustainable forest management.

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Case Study of the Development of CSR Practices in Danfoss Group
(Ma, Rufei; Toh, ImnLin; Christensen, Per & Lehmann, Martin)

Abstract

This paper focuses on the CSR practice within Danfoss Group, a leading global manufacturing company based in Denmark. Its mechanism in CSR policy making and its learning capacity in reaction to changes that may be caused by major events (climate change and current financial crisis) and its global expansion to other countries (globalization), are central in our discussion.

Based on the premises of Institutional (e.g Scott, 2001), Organizational Change (Pettigrew & Whipp, 1991) and Stakeholder (e.g. Carroll 2003) theories, a case study investigation was carried out. Information was gathered from the available reports and the accessible online materials, through face-to-face interviews and questionnaire surveys with those at management level and also to general employees.

The CSR waves and modes (Chappel & Moon, 2005) are identified to illustrate the progression of CSR in Danfoss Group, whilst gaining insights as to how it reacts to major events and the changes it goes through as well as its learning process. We could then identify the most significant theme of events (climate change, economics, or any other) which played the major role in shaping the development of CSR to what it currently is within Danfoss Group.

Keywords: CSR, Climate, Change, Financial Crisis, Globalization, Competitive Advantage

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Corporate Responsible Innovation: towards a business (re-)design methodology
(Nieuwkamp, B.E.M. & Fisscher, O.A.M.)

In this paper a conceptual framework and a methodology will be presented for a design and implementation strategy of Corporate Responsible Innovation (CRI).

A strategic choice for corporate social responsible behavior implies that the issue of responsibility becomes an integral part of the corporation's business concept. The same applies to a strategic focus on innovation. In many organizations responsibility and innovation become more and more intertwined. Responsibility is facilitated by creativity and innovation. At the same time, processes of innovation are supported and legitimated by the involvement of societal stakeholders.

Organizations are operating in an extended network of stakeholders. It is Chesbrough (2003) who, in the context of innovation, makes a plea for openness towards external partners (knowledge institutes, suppliers, customers and occasionally even competitors). Authors like Freeman (1983) and Mitchell (1997) elaborate on the need for and opportunities of openness and transparency towards business partners and other stakeholders from a societal responsibility perspective. Openness and transparency in a societal network of stakeholders become main characteristics of actual and future business concepts.

Creating such an open space for creativity and social accountability requires a multi-level perspective and a multi-stakeholder perspective and, as such, it requires organization. In our aim to conceptualize 'organizing for CRI', as a process of both design and development, we will adopt a system approach based on sociotechnical theory (De Sitter, 1998), the viable system model (Beer, 1990, 1995) and social network theory (Granovetter, 1985; Burt, 2005; Brass, Galaskiewicz, Greve & Tsai, 2004).

Next to our contribution to a theoretical framework we will offer a methodology for modeling CRI processes with practical guidelines for management and stakeholders to operate in a network that can be characterized by openness in innovation as well as in responsibility.

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Financing Clean Technology: TAG, a concept for evaluating market potentials
(Tunberg, Maria & Mark-Herbert, Cecilia & Neames, Charles)

In today's debate regarding environmental and economical concerns, such as climate change and high unemployment rates, developing the clean technology sector is often indicated as a way forward. In line with this debate, investors are showing an interest in investing capital into clean technology firms. However, the challenges of evaluating new evolving technologies are particularly pronounced for clean technology firms, setting hurdles for the expected growth of the sector. This study investigates how TAG, a Technology Approval Group, may overcome the identified hurdles and attract necessary capital allowing clean technology firms to develop.

According to the study, challenges facing the investors include high levels of risk, and small investment sums required. Additional characteristics that affect the funding process are the market size, the communication platforms, and the political climate. TAG is a communication tool providing a basis for information flow. This information enables banks and customers that traditionally would not invest that early in an innovation to feel confident in injecting venture capital into developing clean technology firms.

TAG has been successfully implemented in the water sector in UK, and the consultancy behind the concept is currently in the process of extending it to include other clean technology sectors and geographical markets. The identified risks with using a tool like TAG are associated with ethical questions, such as selection of experts, handling dependencies and the challenge, even for experts, of forecasting technological development.

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