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After the ‘financial crisis’ and ‘Great Recession’, some have called for replacing standard economic theory by heterodox models based upon behavioural approaches. The Responsible Economy argues that there is nothing wrong with economic theory. Instead, the problem has been a ‘devil’s pact’ of simplistic pro-market economics combined with simplistic Keynesian monetary policy. This book revisits the fundamental theorems in economics that state the conditions for markets to achieve efficiency. It has long been known that there are limitations of markets in dealing with externalities, increasing returns to scale and monopoly. The role of information in the economy was developed in economic theory in the 1970s onwards and in a world of imperfect and asymmetric information, markets perform poorly. Managers of firms engage in short-termism, take on excessive risk and misstate their own and their firm’s performance. While finance theory makes clear that much of the activity in the financial services sector is of no economic value and represents wasteful ‘financial engineering’. In this real world, it is economically inefficient for firms to maximise shareholder value. On the macroeconomics side, monetary expansion cannot be an effective substitute for addressing real problems of infrastructure and education investment. This book maintains that markets work best if individuals and firms behave ethically and responsibly. Employment should be a long-term relationship; firms should pay living wages, produce good products at a fair price, and pay their share of taxes. Where these standards don’t hold, governments should not try to micromanage through regulation, but set up simple and straightforward policies.
We at Patagonia, like all business people, know that long-term income has to exceed long-term expense. To do otherwise is to go bankrupt, as Ernest Hemingway described,in the usual two ways: “Gradually, then suddenly.” Today we are using the equivalent resources of one and a half planets, yet we live on only one. All the indicators of earthly health are in decline: of water, air, arable land, fisheries and biodiversity. How do we reverse this decline in the quality of life (and attendant climate change) before it becomes sudden catastrophe? Most conversations addressing that question hone in on technological solutions. Each year we attend sustainability conferences where the talk centers on innovation as the way to lower resource use and waste. But at these conferences, among decent people doing their best, there is always an elephant in the room, concealed behind a curtain few are willing to draw to the side. The elephant is growth-based capitalism, and the assumption that a growth economy equals prosperity and a healthy society. Yet we know we must consume less, and far more slowly – as well as innovate as quickly and ingeniously as we can. What is a responsible economy? One that allows healthy communities, creates meaningful work, and takes from the earth only what it can replenish—one where all the indicators of health start to improve. What would make up this economy? What could a responsible economy look like? That’s the question we’ll explore with ourfriends and customers during the coming seasons.
This powerful book sets out arguments and an agenda of policy proposals for achieving a sustainable and prosperous, but non-growing economy, also known as a steady-state economy. The authors describe a plan for solving the major social and environmental problems which face us today on a finite planet with a rapidly growing population.
Following a brief examination of the main cause of the current economic downturn, namely the unequal distribution of wealth, the book individuates as a possible way to move forward out of the crisis that of pushing businesses to assume a more socially responsible conduct. But it is not up to the class of workers, disenfranchised by the process of globalization, to demand this more ethical conduct from businesses, it is up to another class: that of consumers. If they were to become more fully aware of their power to make a difference, with the adoption of various tools to help them exercise a more conscious consumption, they would be able to motivate companies in more ethical business practices, which would then lead to the substantiation of a Responsible Economy. A change of course in the conduct of businesses, as well as desirable for the redistribution of created wealth in the community, is entirely necessary due to the environmental and energetic unsustainability of the current neoliberal model, as based on an obsolete indicator such as GDP.
This open access book discusses the challenges and opportunities faced by companies in an age that increasingly values sustainability and demands corporate responsibility. Beginning with the historical development of corporate responsibility, this book moves from academic theory to practical application. It points to ways in which companies can successfully manage their transition to a more responsible, sustainable way of doing business, common mistakes to avoid and how the UN Sustainable Development Goals are integral to any sustainability transformation. Practical cases illustrate key points. Drawing on thirty years of sustainability research and extensive corporate experience, the author provides tools such as a Step-by-Step strategic guide on integrating sustainability in collaboration with stakeholders including employees, customers, suppliers and investors. The book is particularly relevant for SMEs and companies operating in emerging markets. From a broader perspective, the value of externalities, full cost pricing, alternative economic theories and circular economy are also addressed.
A blueprint for creating sustainable businesses, emphasizing the power and potential of cooperative models "[An] important take on achieving a cleaner and safer world. . . . [Scanlan] envisions a future where green policies go hand-in-hand with worker empowerment, and provides a detailed blueprint for how to get there. . . . Her book offers essential hope that we can yet save ourselves . . . from ourselves."--Bill Lueders, The Progressive, "Favorite Books of 2021" Drawing on both her extensive experience founding and directing social enterprises and her interviews with sustainability leaders, Melissa Scanlan provides a legal blueprint for creating alternate corporate business models that mitigate climate change, pay living wages, and act as responsible community members, including Certified B Corps and benefit corporations. With an emphasis on cooperatives, this book reveals the power and potential of cooperating as a unifying concept around which to design social enterprise achieving triple bottom-line results: for society, the environment, and finance.
The book examines the issue of corporate social responsibility from a public policy perspective, considering the implications of corporations' involvement in global economic governance.
This book is a manifesto for responsible marketing. Taking a critical look at marketing practices of the last 50 years, it explains why they have led to an ethical stalemate and sometimes even a business impasse. Exposed to such practices, consumers have grown tired of meaningless offers coupled with the destruction of value as prices are driven down. As a result, today’s marketing professionals find themselves in the firing line of a combat focused on greater social responsibility and environmental sustainability. Thanks to new ways of understanding consumers and branding, this book suggests how such a challenge can be met. Through the presentation of experiences, studies and concrete cases, the reader gains a tangible, fresh perspective on marketing: a new global, responsible, creative and collaborative model that helps respect sustainable consumption. Implicative Marketing presents a paradigm shift, one that will be of considerable interest not just to academics and their students, but also to marketing practitioners.
Reimagining our global economy so it becomes more sustainable and prosperous for all Our global economic system is broken. But we can replace the current picture of global upheaval, unsustainability, and uncertainty with one of an economy that works for all people, and the planet. First, we must eliminate rising income inequality within societies where productivity and wage growth has slowed. Second, we must reduce the dampening effect of monopoly market power wielded by large corporations on innovation and productivity gains. And finally, the short-sighted exploitation of natural resources that is corroding the environment and affecting the lives of many for the worse must end. The debate over the causes of the broken economy—laissez-faire government, poorly managed globalization, the rise of technology in favor of the few, or yet another reason—is wide open. Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy that Works for Progress, People and Planet argues convincingly that if we don't start with recognizing the true shape of our problems, our current system will continue to fail us. To help us see our challenges more clearly, Schwab—the Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum—looks for the real causes of our system's shortcomings, and for solutions in best practices from around the world in places as diverse as China, Denmark, Ethiopia, Germany, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Singapore. And in doing so, Schwab finds emerging examples of new ways of doing things that provide grounds for hope, including: Individual agency: how countries and policies can make a difference against large external forces A clearly defined social contract: agreement on shared values and goals allows government, business, and individuals to produce the most optimal outcomes Planning for future generations: short-sighted presentism harms our shared future, and that of those yet to be born Better measures of economic success: move beyond a myopic focus on GDP to more complete, human-scaled measures of societal flourishing By accurately describing our real situation, Stakeholder Capitalism is able to pinpoint achievable ways to deal with our problems. Chapter by chapter, Professor Schwab shows us that there are ways for everyone at all levels of society to reshape the broken pieces of the global economy and—country by country, company by company, and citizen by citizen—glue them back together in a way that benefits us all.
"This textbook provides an innovative, internationally oriented approach to the teaching of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and business ethics. Drawing on case studies involving companies and countries around the world, the textbook explores the social, ethical, and business dynamics underlying CSR in such areas as global warming, genetically modified organisms (GMO) in food production, free trade and fair trade, anti-sweatshop and living-wage movements, organic foods and textiles, ethical marketing practices and codes, corporate speech and lobbying, and social enterprise. The book is designed to encourage students and instructors to challenge their own assumptions and prejudices by stimulating a class debate based on each case study"--Provided by publisher.