There is much written about management fashion and about corporate social responsibility (CSR), but nothing which combines the two. This volume provides unique insight into both CSR and the travels of management ideas. It gets to the detail of CSR in practice, its institutions and actors in different contexts, and shows how it can be better understood with the broader lens of 'CSR as a management idea'. Both those with interests in CSR and in management ideas will benefit from this collection.'
- Andrew Sturdy, University of Bristol, UKCSR (corporate social responsibility) has become a widely diffused concept in the business world. This book explores CSR as a management idea, that is, as a tool for organizational reform. It shows that CSR has much in common with other popular management ideas such as lean production, total-quality-management, just-in-time, business-process-reengineering and six sigma, but there are also significant differences.

The book demonstrates how CSR standards are set and spread in the business community, but also what happens when CSR reaches management and is implemented and used in daily operations. The results represent a significant contribution to the literature on CSR by generalizing the concept and its operationalization. Moreover, the book contributes to organizational literature by highlighting important differences between popular management ideas and how they affect organizations.

CSR as a Management Idea will prove invaluable to researchers and practitioners with an insight in the subject of CSR and business management. Students of more advanced courses in management and business ethics will also find plenty of innovative information from this important study.

Contributors: M. Ardenfors, T. Borglund, N. Egels-Zandén, M. Frostenson, S. Furusten, M. Jutterström, M. Kallifatides, P. Norberg, S. Walter, A. Werr