While attention to the social and environmental impacts of international business is not new, the past years have seen renewed interest due to pressing global problems such as climate change, poverty and HIV/Aids, in which firms are called upon to play a positive role, and thus contribute to more sustainable development. This applies most notably to multinational enterprises (MNEs), given their global influence and activities in which they are confronted with a range of issues, stakeholders and institutional contexts, in both home and host countries.

For MNEs, this is part of a balancing act of what can be called corporate social responsibility (CSR), in which they consider their various responsibilities: economic, legal, ethical, environmental and social. In the European context, the term triple P, or People, Planet, Profit, has also been coined to likewise point to the need for managers to focus concurrently on the social, environmental and economic dimensions of corporate activity, in order to help shape the (sustainable) future of societies worldwide. It is sometimes suggested that MNEs’ CSR activities are becoming increasingly strategic, in the sense that they affect the core business of the firm and its growth, profitability and survival. In other words, CSR is moving from public affairs to a core strategic activity. However, even if true, this is likely to be applicable only under certain conditions, depending on issue, stakeholder, country, industry and firm specific factors.

The international dimension of these questions is extremely relevant, but has not yet been addressed systematically in international business research. Corporate social responsibility and sustainable development provide fertile areas in which both existing international business theories can be tested, and from which new insights into the dynamics of the interaction between MNEs and their national and international contexts can be induced.

This includes for example, the exact workings of the interactions between Ownership or Firm-Specific Advantages, and Locational or Country-Specific Advantages, and whether or under what conditions CSR (components) may create competitive (dis)advantages at different locations. This special issue aims to publish papers on CSR and sustainable development that are embedded in international business literature, and aim to contribute to our field as indicated above.

Editors welcome innovative papers, both conceptual and empirical, both qualitative and quantitative, on CSR topics in relation to, for example:

• Degree and spread of internationalisation/regionalisation
• Headquarter-subsidiary relationships and subsidiary roles
• Competitive advantage, growth and development
• Firm performance
• Foreign direct investment
  
• Convergence/divergence
  
• Supply chain management, offshoring/outsourcing
  
• Networks and alliances • Mergers and acquisitions
  
• Marketing in consumer and business-to-business markets
  
• Issue management, reputation and brands
  
• Codes of conduct and labelling programmes
  
• Business-government relationships
  
• The provision of global public goods
  
• International stakeholder management
  

Submission guidelines

All paper submissions should conform to International Business Review’s standard guidelines for authors, details of which can be found at the IBR website: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ibusrev

Deadline: Manuscripts must be received by 1 June 2008

Papers for this special issue can only be submitted electronically via online submission site at http://ees.elsevier.com/ibr/ and select this “Special Issue: Sustainable Development” as the article type.

Questions about the special issue can be directed at the guest editors via e-mail: Ans Kolk, University of Amsterdam Business School, akolk@uva.nl  or Rob van Tulder, Erasmus University Rotterdam, rtulder@rsm.nl   ­

On Thursday 24th January, the wiki-platform for the revision of AccountAbility’s non-financial AA1000 Assurance Standard (AA1000AS) opened for editing and the first draft of the new edition of the AA1000 Assurance Standard (AS) was uploaded onto its wiki-platform. This starts the collaborative drafting process of the second edition which follows an extensive period of research and a series of consultations in more than a dozen countries.

AA1000AS is used by over 200 companies annually to assure their sustainability and corporate responsibility reports; it provides the basis for leading sustainability report awards programs and rating systems; and is compatible with the most used sustainability reporting frameworks. ­ Sustainability Reporting and Assurance Standards, like AA1000AS, are responding to increased demand for credible, fair and balanced information on organisations’ management and understanding of non-financial issues, information that is needed to make informed decisions about who to invest in, who to do business with, who to work for, and whose products to buy.

AccountAbility has chosen to use a collaborative wiki drafting process in order to address the key issues prevalent with all standards development processes - namely transparency and accessibility. The wiki-platform will increase the transparency of the process - as it allows users to see who has contributed what and when - but it will also guarantee the accessibility and participation from all interested parties. This online approach will reduce costs associated with participation e.g. travelling, and will ensure the process is open to thousands of individuals and organisations.

To sign-up to the wiki-process and to help set the practice benchmark for non-financial assurance for the next 4-6 years, please visit accountability.opendemocracy.net. 

There will be three periods of 60 – 90 days each for public participation where all users are able to add their comments and suggestions. The first one will run from January 24 – April 4, 2008.

­Issue 28 of the Journal of Corporate Citizenship is a special themed issue "Is Corporate Citizenship Making a Difference?", guest-edited by Ralph Hamann, Environmental Evaluation Unit, University of Cape Town/Unisa Centre for Corporate Citizenship, South Africa. All but one of the articles in this special edition were chosen from the Unisa Centre for Corporate Citizenship 2nd international symposium, which had as its theme the same question.

Corporate citizenship protagonists - whether academics or practitioners - are increasingly being challenged with regard to the relevance of corporate citizenship as a driver for global change. This special edition of directly addresses this challenge, focused on the theme 'Is corporate citizenship making a difference'?

A limited number of individual copies of are available for purchase at the price of GBP25.00/USD50.00/EUR35.00. Postage worldwide is gratis.

For more information please click here.

The Palgrave Macmillan Access All Areas campaign offers unrestricted online access to all Palgrave Macmillan journals until February 15th. A list of more than 60 journals, but also to a selection of our reference and books content is available to the public.

To access the journals please visit the Palgrave website http://www.palgrave-journals.com/accessallareas/index.html   ­