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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate how Chinese factories can attract and retain blue-collar workers. While higher wages are typically considered to be an effective HR instrument in this regard, this paper argues for the relevance of ethics in the HR domain. To this end, the paper develops and tests the concept of socially responsible blue-collar human resource management (SRBC-HRM).Design/methodology/approachIn a scenario-based experiment, 296 blue-collar employees from a Chinese garment factory responded to questionnaires measuring their job choice determinants regarding a fictitious employer. In the scenarios, pay level (average vs above average) and SRBC-HRM (good vs poor) were manipulated.FindingsThe results revealed significantly positive relationships between SRBC-HRM and Chinese blue-collar workers' job choice determinants (employer attractiveness, employer prestige and recommendation intentions), which were moderated by workers' perceived importance of employer prestige. However, there was no significant effect of above-average pay on the three job choice determinants. Moreover, average pay in combination with good SRBC-HRM had stronger effects on job choice determinants than above-average pay in combination with poor SRBC-HRM.Practical implicationsThe study highlights the economic relevance of the ethical treatment of employees in the manufacturing sector. In addition, the findings challenge the predominant managerial view that monetary rewards are the most important factor for instilling productive employee attitudes and intentions.Social implicationsPoor labor practices are still widespread in factories in emerging countries. By indicating that SRBC-HRM improves factories' bottom line, the study provides a powerful rationale for factory managers to improve working conditions.Originality/valueThe present paper introduces the concept of SRBC-HRM specifically tailored to the context of blue-collar workers in emerging countries, who have received little attention in the literature. In addition, the findings demonstrate the economic relevance of SRBC-HRM.

PurposeThe recent oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico as well as a multitude of other corporate scandals repeatedly draw attention to the importance of good corporate governance. This paper seeks to explain the possible reasons for violations of principles of good corporate governance in corporate practice.Design/methodology/approachThe paper opens with a brief illustration of the Deepwater Horizon case by relating BP's corporate governance rules to its actual decision making in the context of offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The insights gained through this analysis are used to identify a basic precondition for the realization of good corporate governance in corporate practice.FindingsThis paper finds a link connecting the conflicts in the relationship between short‐ and long‐term interests of corporations and good corporate governance. Occasionally, deficits in the institutional environment foster the pursuit of quick wins through violations of corporate governance rules. To resolve the tension between short‐ and long‐term objectives, good institutions are required that provide incentives for sustainable behavior without endangering corporations' short‐term competitiveness. This is the starting point for global governance efforts.Practical implicationsOn the basis of the analysis in the paper, new implications for business are derived with respect to the relationship between corporate and global governance.Originality/valueThe paper derives a theoretical framework that captures the relationship between corporate governance and global governance. This framework identifies an interplay between corporate and global governance that allows corporations to bring good corporate governance to life and thereby to invest in the conditions of their sustainable success.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a hot topic in management research. There is now widespread agreement that CSR is an important means for corporations to contribute to a fruitful interplay between business and society. Although CSR has an inherently normative foundation, the mainstream CSR discussion is rooted in an instrumental paradigm, within which scholars oft aim to uncover the business case for CSR, i.e. address the question whether and how CSR improves the corporate bottom line. In combination with the relative neglect of the normative foundation of CSR, the instrumentality of the debate results in the problematic tendency to reduce the notion of the social responsibility of business to single CSR activities that pay off for corporations. By implication, those CSR action fields for which the business case cannot be established in a straightforward fashion tend to receive little attention. Because in reality, many CSR action fields do not yield a readily discernible business case, the present debate is limited in its ability to provide guidance on how corporations can promote a fruitful interplay between business and society. In light of this, the present dissertation aims to contribute to the CSR discussion by developing instrumental approaches that explicitly enable CSR action fields without a readily discernible business case to be identified and addressed, both in theory and in practice. Collectively, the six papers collected in the present dissertation thesis indicate that for CSR to contribute to a fruitful interplay between business and society, it is important to approach CSR in a holistic fashion and conceptualize it as a management philosophy.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a hot topic in management research. There is now widespread agreement that CSR is an important means for corporations to contribute to a fruitful interplay between business and society. Although CSR has an inherently normative foundation, the mainstream CSR discussion is rooted in an instrumental paradigm, within which scholars oft aim to uncover the business case for CSR, i.e. address the question whether and how CSR improves the corporate bottom line. In combination with the relative neglect of the normative foundation of CSR, the instrumentality of the debate results in the problematic tendency to reduce the notion of the social responsibility of business to single CSR activities that pay off for corporations. By implication, those CSR action fields for which the business case cannot be established in a straightforward fashion tend to receive little attention. Because in reality, many CSR action fields do not yield a readily discernible business case, the present debate is limited in its ability to provide guidance on how corporations can promote a fruitful interplay between business and society. In light of this, the present dissertation aims to contribute to the CSR discussion by developing instrumental approaches that explicitly enable CSR action fields without a readily discernible business case to be identified and addressed, both in theory and in practice. Collectively, the six papers collected in the present dissertation thesis indicate that for CSR to contribute to a fruitful interplay between business and society, it is important to approach CSR in a holistic fashion and conceptualize it as a management philosophy.