Constructing public-private partnerships to undermine the public interest: critical discourse analysis of Working Together published by the International Alliance for Responsible Drinking

BACKGROUND

The global burden of alcohol harm has increased and is forecast to grow further without effective policy implementation. Public-private partnerships aiming to address global health, and other societal challenges, are a burgeoning feature of neoliberal governance. Rhetorically distancing themselves from tobacco, the major alcohol companies are committed to tackling 'harmful drinking' and have created a distinct type of public relations organization for this purpose. The activities of such organizations are increasingly recognized as an impediment to the implementation of policies to reduce alcohol harm, including in low- and middle-income countries where markets are expanding.

METHODS

The approach of critical discourse analysis is used to examine the discursive tactics and strategies used in Working Together; a 'toolkit' published by the key global level alcohol industry public relations organization, the International Alliance for Responsible Drinking (IARD). This study considers how it works discursively to set the terms of, and overcome skepticism about partnerships, to define aims and position various actors by constructing their roles. The construction of prospective partners provides insights into the alcohol industry itself.

RESULTS

The toolkit operates as an ideological resource for forming public-private partnerships across the world based on the accumulated know-how of the major companies through IARD. This allows the largest alcohol companies to exercise leadership of the industry, while remaining off-stage. The toolkit relies on a form of rhetorical work which creates distance from obvious corporate interests and the harms caused to population health and society. This is accomplished by working against evidence-informed population level approaches, and thus avoiding policies that will make any significant difference to overall alcohol harm. Unspecific "complexity" affords opportunity for preferred types of "actions", and "partnership" provides opportunity to gain credibility by association, further minimizing the likelihood of any material harm being reduced.

CONCLUSIONS

The toolkit is designed to not only legitimate the inclusion of alcohol industry actors as initiating 'partners', but also assigns them roles as managers of a set of carefully constructed relationships. This vision of public-private partnership reproduces the hegemonic narrative that has successfully blocked policy advances for decades and led to growing alcohol harm globally.

Corporate Social Responsibility in Family Firms: Status and Future Directions of a Research Field

This systematic literature review contributes to the increasing interest regarding corporate social responsibility (CSR) in family firms-a research field that has developed considerably in the last few years. It now provides the opportunity to take a holistic view on the relationship dynamics-i.e., drivers, activities, outcomes, and contextual influences-of family firms with CSR, thus enabling a more coherent organization of current research and a sounder understanding of the phenomenon. To conceptualize the research field, we analyzed 122 peer-reviewed articles published in highly ranked journals identifying the main issues examined. The results clearly show a lack of research regarding CSR outcomes in family firms. Although considered increasingly crucial in family firm research, a study investigating family outcomes (e.g., family community status, family emotional well-being), as opposed to firm outcomes, is missing. This literature review outlines the current state of research and contributes to the actual debate on CSR in family firms by discussing how family firms can use CSR activities as strategic management tools. Moreover, our analysis shows a black box indicating how CSR links different antecedents and outcomes. The black box is significant since firms generally need to know where to allocate their scarce resources to generate the best outcomes. We identify nine research questions based on these findings, which we hope will inspire future research.

Situating Food Industry Influence: Governance Norms and Economic Order Comment on "'Part of the Solution': Food Corporation Strategies for Regulatory Capture and Legitimacy"

Lacy-Nichols and Williams provide important new insights into the ongoing contest over policy space and consumer behavior. I attempt to situate these insights in relation to government mandates and governance norms and situate these norms and mandates in the prevailing economic order. This approach is necessary to understand how corporate practices persist and why governments are receptive to the approaches outlined in the analysis conducted by Lacy-Nichols and Williams. This approach can help explain why governments are often receptive to corporations positioning themselves as 'part of the solution'. Governments want strong economies and big food positions itself as contributor to this end. The point I attempt to articulate is that we often conceive of corporate power as power over, while I suggest that corporate power is rather power within and through a system that is oriented towards profits and economic growth.

"Part of the Solution": Food Corporation Strategies for Regulatory Capture and Legitimacy

BACKGROUND

For decades, the food industry has sought to deflect criticisms of its products and block public health legislation through a range of offensive and defensive strategies. More recently, food corporations have moved on to present themselves as "part of the solution" to the health problems their products cause. This strategic approach is characterised by appeasement, co-option and partnership, and involves incremental concessions and attempts to partner with health actors. This paper details how corporate practices have evolved and changed over the past two decades and gives some definition to what this new political economy signifies for the wider behaviours of corporations producing and selling harmful commodities.

METHODS

This paper draws on public health and political science literature to classify the food industry's "part of the solution" strategy into three broad components: regulatory responses and capture; relationship building; and market strategies. We detail the key characteristics and consequences of each component.

RESULTS

The three components of the food industry's "part of the solution" strategy all involve elements of appeasement and co-option. They also improve the political environment and resources of the food industry. Regulatory responses offer incremental concessions that seek to maintain corporate influence over governance processes and minimise the threat of regulations; relationship building fosters access to health and government stakeholders, and opportunities to acquire and maintain channels of direct influence; and market strategies to make products and portfolios healthier bolster the market share and revenue of food corporations while improving their public image.

CONCLUSION

Rather being a signal of lost position and power, the food industry's repositioning as "part of the solution" has created a highly profitable political economy of 'healthy' food production, alongside continued production of unhealthy commodities, a strategy in which it is also less burdensome and conflictual for corporations to exercise political power and influence.

Is a CSR Policy an Equally Effective Vaccine Against Workplace Mobbing and Psychosocial Stressors?

In this study, the problem question was raised whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) is/can be an effective tool against workplace mobbing and psychosocial stressors in organizations. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to determine the prevalence of workplace mobbing in Lithuanian and Polish organizations in order to compare in which organizations the manifestation of the phenomenon is the strongest and analyzing psychosocial stressors in parallel. To achieve the purpose, 823 employees of three types of organizations were surveyed. The respondents belonged to organizations that implement the principles of corporate social responsibility, organizations that intend to become socially responsible and organizations that do not implement corporate social responsibility and do not seek to become socially responsible. The empirical study was conducted using the questionnaire "Mobbing as a Psychosocial Stressor in the Organizations Accessing and Implementing Corporate Social Responsibility-MOB-CSR". This questionnaire is valid and reliable; the correlation relationships between subscales show interconnectedness and statistically reliable relationships. The research results were calculated using the chi-squared test and the linear regression model. Statistically reliable relationships were found between the prevalence of workplace mobbing, psychosocial work stressors and corporate social responsibility. The results of the study show that along with the weakening of variables of corporate social responsibility, the probability of workplace mobbing is increasing but CSR in itself does not ensure the prevention of workplace mobbing in the case of Lithuanian and Polish organizations. If the findings of the study are considered by the managers of organizations, this can affect both employees' quality of life towards improvement and more transparent/purposeful implementation of corporate social responsibility, i.e., responding to the true meaning of CSR.

Survey data on employees' perception of the impact of community development initiatives on the corporate image of oil and gas firms in Nigeria

Several sources of today׳s pressure on managers in strategic decision-making are directly associated with social issues rather than traditional strategic management issues. It is believed that firms that invest in community development are more likely to operate in harmony in the society of their operations, as such reduce interference from their host community, thus leading to enhanced corporate image. Therefore, it becomes pertinent to present data to show the existence or otherwise of a relationship between community development initiatives and the firm׳s corporate image. This data is gotten from 336 respondents from four top oil and gas firms quoted in the Nigerian stock exchange. Responses wee gathered from the employees’ of the firms, as it is believed they have first hand information on the firm׳s corporate social responsibility policies. The data is purely descriptive and was gotten through quantitative methods, specifically through a survey questionnaire. The questionnaire had two sections; section A contained background questions, while section B consisted of questions that were specific to community development initiatives and corporate image. The Cronbach alpha internal consistency of the questionnaire revealed a reliability coefficient of 0.732, thus revealing a high consistency level. The field data set is made widely accessible to enable critical investigation into the subject.

Corporate social responsibility to improve access to medicines: the case of Brazil

BACKGROUND

Access to medicines and the development of a strong national pharmaceutical industry are two longstanding pillars of health policy in Brazil. This is reflected in a clear emphasis by Brazil's Federal Government on improving access to medicine in national health plans and industrial policies aimed at promoting domestic pharmaceutical development. This research proposes that such policies may act as incentives for companies to pursue a strategic Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) agenda. CSR that supports Governmental priorities could help companies to benefit significantly from the Governmental industrial policy. We sought to determine whether CSR activities of Brazilian pharmaceutical firms are currently aligned with the Federal Government's health prioritization. To do so we examined key Brazilian health related policies since 2004, including the specific priorities of Brazil's 2012-2015 Health Plan, and compared these with CSR initiatives that are reported on the websites of select pharmaceutical firms in Brazil.

RESULTS

Brazil's national health plans and industrial policies demonstrated that the Federal Government has followed diverse approaches for improving access to medicines, including strengthening health care infrastructure, increasing transparency, and supporting product development partnerships. Case studies of six pharmaceutical firms, representing both public and private companies of varying size, support the perspective that CSR is a priority for firms. However, while many programs target issues such as health infrastructure, health care training, and drug donation, more programs focus on areas other than health and do not seem to be connected to Governmental prioritization.

CONCLUSION

This research suggests that there are loose connections between Governmental priorities and pharmaceutical firm CSR. However, there remains a significant opportunity for greater alignment, which could improve access to medicines in the country and foster a stronger relationship between the Government and industry.

A quantitative model to assess Social Responsibility in Environmental Science and Technology

The awareness of the impact of human activities in society and environment is known as "Social Responsibility" (SR). It has been a topic of growing interest in many enterprises since the fifties of the past Century, and its implementation/assessment is nowadays supported by international standards. There is a tendency to amplify its scope of application to other areas of the human activities, such as Research, Development and Innovation (R + D + I). In this paper, a model of quantitative assessment of Social Responsibility in Environmental Science and Technology (SR EST) is described in detail. This model is based on well established written standards as the EFQM Excellence model and the ISO 26000:2010 Guidance on SR. The definition of five hierarchies of indicators, the transformation of qualitative information into quantitative data and the dual procedure of self-evaluation and external evaluation are the milestones of the proposed model, which can be applied to Environmental Research Centres and institutions. In addition, a simplified model that facilitates its implementation is presented in the article.