Stanford Social Innovation Review

More and more business leaders recognize that their company’s future is increasingly intertwined with the needs and demands of society. But many executives don’t understand how to manage that changing relationship. In this article, McKinsey & Company consultants provide a model for incorporating sociopolitical issues into the strategic decision-making process.

Which woman is more likely to attract unpleasant sexual attention: the office sweetheart or the ambitious upstart? A new study by social psychologist Jennifer Berdahl points to the upstart. From her findings, Berdahl concludes that “men aren’t harassing women to get into their pants, but to put them down....”

SSIR Academic Editor Jim Phills spoke with Nike’s Hannah Jones about the sportswear giant’s extensive corporate social responsibility programs.

Multinational corporations are in a quandary: Stakeholders are imposing higher standards than ever, but businesses are confused about what their global social responsibilities actually are.

Corporations that violate human rights not only inflict suffering, but also hurt their bottom line. The authors suggest five principles that corporations can follow to improve their human rights footprint.

From field to factory, Snyder reveals the real lives behind the making of a pair of jeans. 

Critics of microfinance institutions (MFIs) ask them to choose between helping the poor or making money for investors, but this is a false choice. MFIs can have their impact and profit, too, says the author, the CEO of the Grameen Foundation. He sketches a new vision of microfinance as a platform, not a product; one that relies on high volumes, not high margins, and that uses limits on private benefit, holistic performance standards, and third-party certification to help MFIs meet both their bottom lines.

Commercial microfinance institutions (MFIs) must calculate two bottom lines: alleviating poverty for clients and also generating profits for investors. To achieve the latter goal, some MFIs charge their impoverished clients exorbitant interest rates. The recent Banco Compartamos IPO in Mexico raises a red flag, demonstrating how easily well-intentioned MFIs and their investors can shift from microlending to microloan-sharking.

How companies can respect human rights.

Why the Soccer Ball Project—one of the world’s first multistakeholder efforts to stop abuses of labor rights—is failing to protect workers in Pakistan.

Breaking down the firewall between foundation
investments and programming.

A power imbalance undermines the social sector.

When a Canadian multinational laid off hundreds of
gold miners in South Africa, it went many extra
miles to help them get back on their feet.

Why nonprofits should get out of commercial ventures.
At the same time, the tax code needs to be changed
to help nonprofits get more charitable donations.

Minnesota Public Radio: social purpose capitalism.

As nice as it is to think that modern corporations can do well while also doing good, there are serious limitations that the market imposes on their CSR initiatives. In addition, the legal obligations of corporations to their shareholders further restrict CSR’s potential to help solve social and environmental problems. At some point, we should be asking ourselves whether or not we’ve been promoting a strategy more likely to lead to business as usual than to tackling the fundamental problems of our time. 

The Rainforest Action Network launched an intensive consumer boycott of several Mitsubishi companies, leading to significant changes in the way the Japanese giant and many of its partners do business. That engagement provides critical lessons for both activist NGOs and corporations.

Socially responsible brands that merge with multinationals may be abandoning their principles

THE NEW CAPITALISTS describes how grassroots “citizen investment” in companies is becoming a valuable engine for promoting socially conscious economic growth.

Corporate social responsibility is not always financially sustainable.