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School of Social Sciences

Academic Year: 2012-2013, Term Two


POSC 217 CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY IN THE GLOBAL ERA


Instructor Ann Florini
Title: Professor of Public Policy
Tel: 6828-0297
Email: annflorini@smu.edu.sg
Office: School of Social Sciences, Level 4, Room 057


PRE-REQUISITE/ CO-REQUISITE/ MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE COURSE(S)

There are no prerequisites for this course, although it is recommended that students have
taken the SMU core course on Business, Government, and Society.

This course is open to all students but is particularly intended for students interested in
public policy, political science, business, international relations, law and regulation, and
economics.


COURSE DESCRIPTION*

This course addresses a key question facing the world: what is the role for business in
solving the worlds problems? Singapore and other societies have long assumed that
governments exist to provide public goods and regulate business, while the private sector
exists to seek profits and civil societys purpose is to help the needy and speak out about the
public interest. But the distinctions among the three sectors have been blurring, as societies
everywhere try to manage wicked problems in a global economy dominated by corporate
actors. Old assumptions about appropriate public and private roles are giving way to new
systems of collaboration.

Among governments, notions of policy co-creation with business and society and reliance
on corporate self-regulation are replacing top-down approaches to rule-making. Societal
pressures are forcing businesses to re-think assumptions about their license to operate, as
consumers and investors increasingly hold the accountable for their effects on the
environment and on society. Now, even such business gurus as Michael Porter are calling
for a transformation of private sector practices to make them compatible with social and
environmental imperatives.

This is a world where corporations increasingly deliver essential services and meet basic
needs, exert heavy influence over public policy and find that their consumers and investors
increasingly hold them directly accountable for their effects on the environment and on
human rights.
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The course charts and analyses the growth of the corporate responsibility agenda and
explores the new interactions across business, government, and society. It
provides a holistic understanding of the drivers for change, the conceptual, legal and
practical hurdles to reconciling public and private sector responsibilities, the different roles
played by companies, governments, civil society, institutional investors and social
entrepreneurs in shaping current approaches, and a sense of what the future holds,
particularly in the emerging markets and developing countries of Asia.


COURSE GOALS*

This course aims to enable students to understand the current debates about the changing
nature of the social license to operate facing business and to think systematically about
how these issues are and should be addressed. The course will enable students to answer
key questions: What are the respective responsibilities of business and government in the
rapidly changing context of the 21
st
century? Who decides, and who should decide? How, in
practical terms, do business and government deal with the new pressures on business?
Should you be a social entrepreneur, creating new business models to solve the worlds
problems, or a social intrapreneur, changing corporate behemoths from the inside out?


Specific Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, students will be able to:
Analyse and evaluate arguments about the appropriate roles of business and
government
Advise businesses and governments on strategies for responsible business conduct,
drawing on the full array of instruments including philanthropy, codes of conduct,
non-financial disclosure, social intrapreneurship, and new business models


ASSIGNMENTS

Readings: Students are expected to have completed the relatively small number of
required readings prior to the beginning of each class session, and to be prepared to
refer to those readings in class discussion. In addition, students are expected to
incorporate the readings into all assignments, even if those readings have not been
discussed in class.

Case studies: Small groups of students will prepare presentations and 1500-word
written analyses of each of the case studies.

Debates: Small groups of students will prepare and lead in-class debates on
selected topics throughout the term

Paper: Each student will prepare an individual 2500-word analysis of a corporate
sustainability report, due in the final class session.


ASSESSMENT METHODS

This course does not have a mid-term or a final exam. Assessment will be based as follows:
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Quizzes: 30 % (Most class sessions will begin with short quizzes on the weeks
assigned readings, in lieu of mid-term or final exams.)

Case studies: 20%
o Presentation
o Written analyses

Debates: 20%

Analysis of corporate sustainability report, individual writing assignment: 30%


Academic Integrity

Students are expected to observe the highest standards of academic integrity. Any
incidence of misconduct like plagiarism will constitute grounds for failing the course. With
regard to participation in class discussions and other activities, students are expected to
participate vigorously, but politely, in keeping with appropriate standards of civil discourse.


CLASS SESSIONS

A session may include any combination of lecture, individual presentations, videos, and
class discussion (either in small groups or as a whole).
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WEEK ONE

Introduction to the course


WEEK TWO

The 21
st
century world and the changing roles of business and government

The evolution of the role of the state, why private sector actors have become critical players,
public goods theory, the concept of embedded liberalism, Asian models, and the evolving
social contract for business.

This session will include a debate led by a small group of students. Preparation for the
debate will require some on-line searching in addition to the assigned readings. The debate
team will meet with the professor in the week before the class session to plan the sessions.

Required reading:

Milton Friedman, The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Its Profits,
The New York Times Magazine, September 13, 1970 available at
http://www.colorado.edu/studentgroups/libertarians/issues/friedman-soc-resp-
business.html

SECRETARY-GENERAL PROPOSES GLOBAL COMPACT ON HUMAN RIGHTS,
LABOUR, ENVIRONMENT, IN ADDRESS TO WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM IN
DAVOS, available at
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/1999/19990201.sgsm6881.html

Michael Porter and Mark Kramer: The Big Idea: Creating Shared Value, Harvard
Business Review, Jan/Feb2011, Vol. 89 Issue 1/2, pp. 62-77

Rawi Abdelal and John Ruggie, The Principles of Embedded Liberalism: Social
Legitimacy and Global Capitalism, chapter seven in In New Perspectives on
Regulation, edited by David Moss, and John Cisternino, 151162 (read pp. 151 to the
top of 157, the rest is optional). Cambridge, MA: Tobin Project, 2009. Available at
http://www.tobinproject.org/sites/tobinproject.org/files/assets/New_Perspectives_Ch7
_Abdelal_Ruggie.pdf

DEBATE TOPIC: Friedman right or wrong?

For Further Reading:

Nelson, Jane. 2004. The Public Role of Private Enterprise: Risks, Opportunities, and
New Models of Engagement. Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative Working
Paper No. 1. Cambridge, MA: John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard
University. Available at: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-
rcbg/CSRI/publications/workingpaper_1_nelson.pdf

Just Good Business: A special report on corporate social responsibility. The
Economist. January 19th 2008.
http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.smu.edu.sg/docview/223995377/13AD8F97D0E1
7289520/2?accountid=28662

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Schwab, Klaus. Global Corporate Citizenship: Working with Governments and Civil
Society. Foreign Affairs, Jan/Feb2008, Vol. 87 Issue 1, p107-118.
http://search.ebscohost.com.libproxy.smu.edu.sg/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&A
N=28018931&site=ehost-live&scope=site


WEEK THREE

The Instruments of Corporate Social Responsibility: Philanthropy, Codes, Disclosure

Required Reading

Caroline Fiennes, Philanthropy Works When the Giver Can Gain Too, Ethical
Corporation May 2012, pp. 41-44.

David J. Vogel, Corporate Responsibility for Working Conditions in Developing
Countries, in The Market for Virtue: The Potential and Limits of Corporate Social
Responsibility, pp. 75-109.

Ann Florini, The Coming Democracy: New Rules for Running a New World, chapter
five, Business pp 89-117.

Archon Fung, Mary Graham, David Weill, and Elena Fagotta, Transparency Policies:
Two Possible Futures, available at
http://www.transparencypolicy.net/assets/two%20possible%20futures.pdf

Review relevant websites:

UN Global Compact, http://www.globalcompact.org/

OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises,
http://www.oecd.org/about/0,2337,en_2649_34889_1_1_1_1_1,00.html

TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) for Business Coalition,
http://teebforbusiness.org/

For further reading

Archon Fung, Mary Graham, David Weill, Full Disclosure: The Perils and Promise of
Transparency (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press).




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WEEK FOUR

Corporate Influence: Good or Evil?

ASSIGNMENT:

This session will include two debates, each of which will be led by small groups of students.
Preparation for the debates will require some on-line searching in addition to the assigned
readings. The debate teams will meet with the professor in the week before the class
session to plan the sessions.

Required Reading (for all students):

John Ruggie, Charles Kolb, Dara ORourke, Andrew Kuper, The Impact of
Corporations on Global Governance, Carnegie Council on Ethics and International
Affairs and the Centre on International Cooperation (2004). Available at
http://www.carnegiecouncil.org/publications/articles_papers_reports/5016.html

Oxfam International, Rigged Rules, Double Standards (2002) Available at:
http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/rigged-rules-and-double-standards-
trade-globalisation-and-the-fight-against-pov-112391

Suggested Reading

Benedicte Bull, Morten Bs, and Desmond McNeill, Private Sector Influence in the
Multilateral System: A Changing Structure of World Governance? Global Governance
10 (2004), 481498.
http://libproxy.smu.edu.sg/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=tr
ue&db=edsjaf&AN=edsjaf.10.2307.27800543&site=eds-live&scope=site

Debate topic One: Trade, TRIPS and the question of corporate influence

Helpful readings:
ActionAid, Under the influence: Exposing Undue Influence over policy-making at the
WTO (2006). Available at
http://www.actionaid.org.uk/doc_lib/174_6_under_the_influence_final.pdf

Peter Drahos and John Braithwaite Intellectual Property, Corporate Strategy,
Globalisation: TRIPS in Context, 20 (2002) Wisconsin International Law Journal 451-
480. Available at
http://www.heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/wisint20&div=23&?&collec
tion=journals

Debate Topic Two: Business influence on national government

Helpful readings:

Nelson, Jane. CSR and Public Policy: New Forms of Engagement between Business
and Government. CSR Initiative Working Paper No. 45, Harvard Kennedy School,
2008. Available at
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/mrcbg/CSRI/publications/workingpaper_45_nelson.pdf

Peterson, Kyle and Pfitzer, Marc. Lobbying for Good. Stanford Social Innovation
Review. Winter 2009. Available at
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http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.smu.edu.sg/docview/217165889/13AEE99C49F1
51960EB/26?accountid=28662

Ward, Halina. Public Sector Roles in Strengthening Corporate Social Responsibility:
Taking Stock. The World Bank Group. Washington DC: 2004. Available at:
http://pubs.iied.org/pubs/pdfs/16014IIED.pdf

Halina Ward, Tom Fox, Emma Wilson, Lyuba Zarsky, CSR and Developing Countries:
What scope for government action? Available at http://pubs.iied.org/pdfs/G02247.pdf

McKinsey & Company, How business interacts with government. McKinsey Global
Survey Results (2010). Available at:
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/How_business_interacts_with_government_McKins
ey_Global_Survey_results_2495




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WEEK FIVE

NGO advocacy

This session will include a debate led by a small group of students. Preparation for the
debate will require some on-line searching in addition to the assigned readings. The debate
team will meet with the professor in the week before the class session to plan the sessions.

Required Readings (for all students):

Malcolm Macintosh and Ruth Thomas, Corporate Citizenship and the Evolving
Relationship between Non-Governmental Organisations and Corporations, Britisn-
North American Committee (2002). Available at: www.cdhowe.org/pdf/bnac_45.pdf

Debra L. Spar and Lane T. La Mure, The Power of Activism: Assessing the Impact
of NGOs on Global Business, California Management Review vol. 45, no. 3 (Spring
2003), pp. 78-101.
http://search.ebscohost.com.libproxy.smu.edu.sg/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN
=9912638&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Steve Steckelow, How Web of Activists Gives Coke Problems in India, Wall Street
Journal June 7, 2005.
http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.smu.edu.sg/docview/398955847?accountid=286
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Debate topic: Greenpeace is good for global corporations

Special session on making public presentations. Special session on case study
analyses.
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WEEK SIX

Public-private partnerships

CASE STUDY ANALYSIS ASSIGNMENTS:
One group of students to present analysis of the TNT/WFP Partnership case study
One group of students to present analysis of the Mumbai case study.

Required Reading:

Roger Cowe, Business/NGO Partnerships -- Whats the Payback? Ethical Corporation
April 2004.
http://earthmind.net/ngo/docs/partnerships-payback.PDF

Glenn Prickett, Can corporate-NGO partnerships save the environment?
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=1180Posted February 7, 2003.

Zadek, Simon. 2006. The Logic of Collaborative Governance: Corporate Responsibility,
Accountability, and the Social Contract. Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative,
Working Paper No. 17. Cambridge, MA: John F. Kennedy School of Government,
Harvard University. http://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-
rcbg/CSRI/publications/workingpaper_17_zadek.pdf

J. Austin, Strategic Collaboration between Nonprofits and Businesses:, Nonprofit and
Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 29:1, Supplement 2000, 69-97
http://nvs.sagepub.com.libproxy.smu.edu.sg/content/29/suppl_1/69.full.pdf+html

World Economic Forum, Partnering to Strengthen Public Governance: The Leadership
Challenge for CEOs and Boards, 2008. Available at
http://www.bsr.org/reports/BSR_Davos08_Leadership-Challenge.pdf

CASE: When the Music Changes, So Does the Dance: The TNT/WFP Partnership,
Moving the World Five Years On, Gatignon Aline and Van Wassenhove Luk, INSEAD
case

CASE: Financing Slum Rehabilitation in Mumbai: A Nonprofit Caught in the Middle
and Financing Slum Rehabilitation in Mumbai: A Non-Profit Caught in the Middle:
Epilogue




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WEEK SEVEN

Social Entrepreneurship versus Social Intrapreneurship Part One

Required reading:

UNDP, Creating Value for all: Strategies for Doing Business with the Poor (2008).
Available at:
http://www.undp.org.bd/info/HQ%20Publications/Report_growing_inclusive_markets.
pdf
David Grayson, Innovating from Within, available at
http://www.som.cranfield.ac.uk/som/dinamic-
content/news/documents/manfocus29/Innovating-from-within-low-res.pdf

CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENTS:

Case-study presentations and 1500-word written briefs.

Group 1: Aneel Karnani and Moses Lee, Vision Correction in the Developing World case 1-
428-820, August 18, 2009

Group 2: Ted London and Maulin Vakil, Hindustan Lever at the Base of the Pyramid: Growth
for the 21st Century case 1-428-604 06 November 2006

Group 3: Raed Elaydi and Charles Harrison, Credit Cards for the Poor: HSBC in Sri Lanka,
case 1-428-888 January 28, 2010

Further Reading

Oxfam International, Oxfam Poverty Footprint: Understanding business contribution
to Development (November 2009), Briefings for Business series paper no. 4.
Available at: http://www.oxfam.org/en/policy/poverty-footprint

UNRISD, Structural Change, Social Policy and Politics (2010) Chapter 9, pp. 247
272. Available at:
http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BCCF9/search/BBA20D83E347DBAFC1257782
00440AA7?OpenDocument

Rhys Jenkins, Globalization, Corporate Social Responsibility and poverty,
International Affairs 81: 3 (2005) 525 540
http://search.ebscohost.com.libproxy.smu.edu.sg/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h
&AN=17077879&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Dhanarajan. S and Fowler, P (2008) Business and the Millennium Development
Goals, Briefings for Business Series, Oxfam GB
http://www.oxfam.org.nz/resources/onlinereports/Business%20MDGs.pdf


Week Eight: BREAK WEEK



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WEEK NINE

Social Entrepreneurship versus Social Intrapreneurship Part Two

Simanis, E. and Hart, S., The BOP Protocol: Towards a Next Generation BOP
strategy (2008)
http://www.bop-protocol.org/docs/BoPProtocol2ndEdition2008.pdf

Aneel Karnani, The Mirage of Marketing to the Bottom of the Pyramid (California
Management Review, Vol 49, number 4, 2007, pp 90-111).
http://search.ebscohost.com.libproxy.smu.edu.sg/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN
=25995889&site=ehost-live&scope=site

CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENTS
Imran Chowdhury and Thierry Sibieude, World Toilet Organization: Leveraging
Resources for Social Impact, 2012, oikos case collection

Ali Farhoomand and Shiu Kau Wong, The Aquaculture Industry in the Philippines:
Creating Social Values at Marina Gana Vida Harvard Business Review case study
June 21, 2012, Prod. #: HKU980-PDF-ENG

For further exploration:

www.nextbillion.net

http://www.bus.umich.edu/FacultyResearch/ResearchCenters/ProgramsPartnerships
/IT-Champions/default.htm#XMAP

C. K. Prahalad, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty
Through Profits (Wharton School Publishing, 2005)

Elkington, J., and Hartigan, P., The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social
Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World (Harvard Business Press,
2008)






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WEEK TEN

Business, the Resource Crisis, and Environmental Sustainability Part One

Risk and reward in the sustainability sphere

CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENTS:
One group of students will present the Tata case study. Another group will present the
Epson China case. A third group will present the Monsanto case. The presenters will be
expected to incorporate the assigned readings into their analyses of the case studies.

Required Readings:

Volans, The Biosphere Economy, available at http://www.volans.com/wp-
content/uploads/2010/03/The-Biosphere-Economy1.pdf

Amory Lovins, Hunter Lovins, and Paul Hawkins, A Road Map for Natural
Capitalism, Harvard Business Review, 2007, Vol. 85 Issue 7/8, p172-183

Case studies:
1. Tata: Leadership with Trust. Oana Branzei, 2010
2. Epson China, available at http://pdf.wri.org/bell/case_1-56973-512-
3_full_version_english.pdf
3. Monsanto, parts A and B, available at http://pdf.wri.org/bell/case_1-56973-475-
5_full_version_a_english.pdf and at http://pdf.wri.org/bell/case_1-56973-480-
1_full_version_b_english.pdf

Further Readings

Ma, Jun, Cheung, Ray, et al. October 2010. Greening Supply Chains in China:
Practical Lessons from China-based Suppliers in Achieving Environmental
Performance. WRI Working Paper. World Resources Institute, Washington, DC,
available at
http://pdf.wri.org/working_papers/greening_supply_chains_in_china_en.pdf

Dana Krechowica and Shally Venugopal, Analyzing Environmental Trends: Taking
the Pulse of Asias Financial Community, World Resources Institute Working Paper,
June 2010, available at
http://pdf.wri.org/working_papers/analyzing_environmental_trends.pdf

The Procter and Gamble Company, Disposable and Reusable Diapers A Life-Cycle
Analysis, available at http://pdf.wri.org/bell/case_1-56973-167-
5_full_version_english.pdf (note - this brief case study is useful as an introduction to
life cycle analysis).



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WEEK ELEVEN

Business, the Resource Crisis, and Environmental Sustainability Part Two: disclosure
and/or codes of conduct as the solutions?

Required reading

International Finance Corporation and World Resources Institute, Emerging Risk:
Impacts of Key Environmental Trends in Emerging Asia, available at
http://pdf.wri.org/emerging_risks_emerging_asia.pdf, 1-29 (read 1-7, skim 8-29).

Video: Whats the Price of Nature? Pavan Sukhdev TED talk,
www.ted.com/talks/pavan_sukhdev_what_s_the_price_of_nature.html


DEBATE: Palm Oil and the Environment RSPO versus Nestle/GAR

Suggested reading:
Toby Webb, Transforming Business Models Slowly, Ethical Corporation June 2012,
pp. 24-29.

Partnership: Nestle, Golden Agri Resources, and the Forest Trust Ethical
Corporation, May 2012, p. 8.


WEEK TWELVE

Business and Human Rights

Required Reading

Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of human
rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, John Ruggie,
GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
PROTECT, RESPECT AND REMEDY FRAMEWORK. Available at
http://www.reports-and-materials.org/Ruggie-UN-draft-Guiding-Principles-22-Nov-
2010.pdf

John Ruggie, Clarifying the Concepts of Sphere of Influence and Complicity:
Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the Issue of
Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and other Business Enterprises, UN
Doc. A/HRC/8/16, 5-25 (May 15, 2008).
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/topic,459d17822,466942422,484d1fe12,0.html

Debate: corporations and the responsibility to protect human rights

Suggested Reading
Beth Stephens, The Amorality of Profit: Transnational Corporations and
Human Rights 20 BERKELEY J. INTL L. 45, 54-59 (2002).
http://libproxy.smu.edu.sg/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.as
px?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=6625193&site=eds-live&scope=site
www.business-humanrights.org

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Larry Cat Backer, On the Evolution of the United Nations 'Protect-Respect-Remedy'
Project: The State, the Corporation and Human Rights in a Global Governance
Context (June 3, 2010). Santa Clara Journal of International Law, Vol. 9, No.1, 2010.
Available at:
http://www.heinonline.org.libproxy.smu.edu.sg/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/scjil9
&id=83&collection=journals&index=journals/scjil


WEEK THIRTEEN

Course wrap-up

Note: the individual writing assignment, an assessment of a corporate sustainability report, is
due at the beginning of class.

Suggested Reading:
Mandy Cormack and David Grayson, Focus on corporate impact and improve
business performance, Ethical Corporation June 2012, pp. 40-43.

Toby Webb, Sustainable Living Gets Top Billing, Ethical Corporation May 2102 pp.
38-40.


WEEK FOURTEEN: Review week (no formal class session)


WEEK FIFTEEN: NO FINAL EXAM