CSR and the Global Market

The market has become increasingly globalised, in the sense that product and services are bought and sold in a global context. As value chains span over border, often several borders, regulating it becomes more difficult and a single state is not enough to ensure responsible business practise. This shows a need for other actors to help promote CSR, in the form of companies or international organisations,. Thus CSR work is perhaps even more important in the globalised world of today.

However, some countries with developing economies are critical to international CSR standards, for example India. In this case CSR is considered a concept developed and defined by developed countries and not fit for developing countries. In the global market place developing countries generally have their main advantage based on the low costs of labour, and by implementing a CSR standard this advantage is believed to diminish due to the cost of CSR. Therefore a standard giving companies importing from developing countries incentives to choose suppliers that are compliant with the standard, could give developing countries a disadvantage, at least at first. If this would force business out of the developing countries, investments would decrease and the standard of life would likely decrease; what would be beneficial for workers on the surface, could lead to adverse effects.


The (economic) reasons for CSR work are often stated by a few assumptions:
• Customers favour product and services by responsible companies
• Investors favour investments in responsible companies
• Potential employees would rather work in a responsible company
• Engaging the stakeholders of the business leads to larger opportunities for innovation
• Reduction of risks in regard to environment, labour and society

However, according to Knox and Maklan these assumptions seem to be hard to measure and the results so far seem to be ambiguous at best. To get a clear idea on the relationship between CSR and beneficial results further research is needed, in doing so new ways to measure and explore this issues need to be developed.

[The Firm] [CSR] [Corporate Social Responsibility] Share on Facebook

CSR and the firm

An important issue in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) is what a company should do and what is the purpose of it. Some, like the widely recognised economist Milton Friedman, would argue that CSR is not what a company should do; a company should instead focus on maximising returns for the shareholders, and abide the law and general ethical principles in doing so. Thus instead leaving the work of forming standards to ensure a responsible behaviour to the government, and if this is done well there would be no room or need for CSR in the companies, rather what is best for the shareholders would be best for the society. This is well in line with classical economics going back to Adam Smith and the invisible hand regulating the market.

However, this view is disputed. The assumption made here is that an efficient market, including an efficient state apparatus, will make sure that business is conducted in a responsible way. Obviously, this is not the case in reality, thus there is an important role for CSR work to play in filling the void between the real market and the ideal market. In this context it seems CSR work has an important role to fill and it should be something important for companies in catering to the interests of the stakeholders in regards to the interaction with the market, society and externalities. Actual it could be assumed that CSR has developed from a liberal market view, where not enough regulations are present to ensure commitment to responsible business principles. In this context it is not surprising to see an increase in CSR activities of companies, some argues that companies have taken over some of the responsibilities of regulating the market, which was earlier an activity exclusively conducted by the state. Not only are many companies conducting CSR activities in their own organisation, but also in their extended value chain containing several tiers of suppliers.

[The Firm] [CSR] [Corporate Social Responsibility] Share on Facebook

Trial and Terror

The lives of the prisoners of war in Guantanamo has been out of focus in media lately. Now the first prisoner will finally get a trial in a civil court. Obama promised to close the Guantanamo prison when he was elected, but so far not much has happened. There seem to be little progress in the closing process, apparently there is trouble with the transfer of prisoners to other facilities and more surprisingly with the prisoners that are to be released.

Hopefully this will pave the way for more trials in civil courts, instead of the closed and criticised trials in military courts.

Previous post on the prisoners in Guantanamo


[Guantanamo] [USA] [Prisoners of War] Share on Facebook

Free Liu Xiaobo

Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2010 for his work for democracy and human rights in China. Hopefully, perhaps a naive hope, this will put some pressure on China to move towards democracy. At least it should bring some attention to the treatment of chinese groups and individuals promoting democracy and human rights. He is now imprisoned for inciting subversion of state power.

Free Liu Xiaobo

[Nobel Prize] [Liu Xiaobo] [China] [Democracy] [Human Rights] Share on Facebook

The Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate is likely to be announced soon in the middle of October. Who will win is as always unclear, but some nominees are known. One is rather unusual, but yet somewhat fitting, the Internet. It has been nominated as "a weapon of mass-construction". Although, it would be a decent laureate, I feel it is somewhat missing the point; the Internet is just a tool, the progress must be made by people.

Another nominee is Russian human rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina and Memorial, a  human rights group she works with. Gannushkina and Memorial mainly works for the right of migrant workers and has been a critic of the Kremlin. 

Liu Xiaobo is a third known nominee, he is branded as a dissident by the Chinese government and is currently in jail. He is an advocate of democracy and demanded reforms in the manifesto Charta -08. He was convicted behind closed doors for challenging the ruling powers. This is controversial for the Chinese government, and threats of damaged relations between Norway and China have been brought forward to the Norwegian commitee.

To me the second two nominees are excellent, championing the fight against corruption, democracy and human rights. In total there are roughly 200 nominees. Soon we will know who wins the prize, it may sound a bit tacky but in a sense we are all winners thanks to these remarkable individuals.

[Nobel Prize] [Peace] [Democracy] [Human Rights] Share on Facebook

Bush wants torture

Bush has now put in his veto against a law banning torture methods that has been used in interrogation of suspected terrorists in US prison camps. Examples of methods in use include drowning of prisoners as a part of interrogation. Bush claims this is a vital part of the war on terror and refuses to ban it.

Yet again Bush has shown no respect to human right and international conventions. Hopefully the next president will stop this. If McCaine wins, a pro-war republican, I am however not confident this will be stopped. But if a democrat wins this law is very likely to be imposed.

[Torture] [Terrorism] [Human rights] [Bush] [USA]

Share on Facebook

Prisoners of War?

The United States has repeatedly been exposed violating human rights for prisoners of war. It has happened in Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and in prisons in Egypt and Eastern Europe. How can the world's most powerful nation and one of the largest democracies do this repeatedly?

The prisoners in Guantanamo are not officially prisoners of war and therefore, according to the US, the Geneva Convention does not apply. Is it this easy to strip a person of his human rights? It is unbelievable that there is not more diplomatic pressure on the US government to stop the illtreatment of prisoners.


The prisoners in Guantanamo are not informed of where they are or why they are being hold captive. They are inprisoned under inhumane conditions and are subject to torture. This is carried out in a very elaborate way, and always outside of the US. The Guantanamo prison camp is not the only place this goes on, another exampless are the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Also several reports tells stories of suspected terrorists being arrested under suspicious circumstances and flown to prisons in Eastern Europe and Egypt to be tortured in a search for information.

The prisoners are held without being told what they are being accused of and without a trial or even a trial date. The only trials being held are closed military trials, which are not in line with democratic ideals.

My personal hope is that the next elected president will be a democrat with a willingness to clean up after the previous regime and hold them responsible for their actions.

A couple of links:
Tortured Logic
Life in a Guantanamo Cell

[Guantanamo] [Human Rights] [Prisoners of War] [Torture] [War on terror]