CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS.

                                             
Corporate Social Responsibility in African Nations
Deadline for Abstracts: 1st January, 2014
Editors:
Samuel O Idowu, London Metropolitan University, UK
Stephen Vertigans, Robert Gordon University, UK
Matthias S. Fifka, University Erlangen-Nuernberg, Germany
Description
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a topic of increasing importance in recent years – in business, politics, and academia alike. Issues relating to CSR are discussed, researched and propagated in all economies around the globe. In the context of this global development, Europe has taken a leading position when it comes to the promotion and implementation of CSR. Several stakeholder groups, non-governmental organisations, governments and international organisations have given credence to the importance of CSR globally.The communication issued by the European Union in October, 2011, for instance, clearly reflects the importance attributed to CSR on the political level: “Through CSR, enterprises can significantly contribute to the European Union’s treaty objectives of sustainable development and a highly competitive social market economy. CSR underpins the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy for smart,
sustainable and inclusive growth […].” Despite the initiative taken, there are strong indications that CSR differs considerably across the countries and continents of the world, as several studies have shown (KPMG, 2011; Fifka, 2013). Political and socio-economic factors clearly influence the development, understanding, and implementation of CSR. In Africa, especially political and economic conditions have not been beneficial for a rapid evolution of CSR, but some countries display an increasing interest for the topic, and several early studies have been conducted (Dawkins and Ngunjiri, 2008; Mitchell and Hill, 2009; Whaba, 2010). Thus, it is important to understand how African countries are faring in their perception, integration and practice of CSR. This is the motivation for us to consolidate in a single book how CSR is evolving and being practiced in African countries. We seek original contributions that describe and explain the facets of CSR in each country in Africa. The book will increase our knowledge and shed conceptual, theoretical and practical lights on CSR across Africa.
The submission should address the following issues for the respective country:
- historical development of CSR
- political handling and initiatives that promote CSR
- socio-economic factors that influence CSR (e.g., market structures, strength of civil society or unions, role of the government, media pressure, etc.)
- the practice of CSR by businesses, e.g.,
o understanding/focus areas
o strategic integration
o difference between SME and large businesses
o motives for pursuing CSR
o perceived barriers
o adherence to standards
- future prospective
Contributions
Contributors should be broadly familiar with various aspects of CSR in the country where they reside or come from. Each of the Chapters should be about 7,000 words.
Schedule
Main deadlines:
• 1st January 2014: Deadline for abstracts (max. 300 words)
• 31st January 2014: Notification of acceptance of contributions
• 1st June 2014: D e a d l i n e for full paper (max. 7,000 words)
• 1st August. 2014: Reviewers feedback
• 1st November 2014 Final revised contribution
All papers shall be peer-reviewed by contributors. The submission deadline for initial expressions of interest in the form of abstracts of approximately 300 words is Wednesday 1st January 2014. Abstracts should be sent as e-mail attachments to any of the three Editors: Samuel O Idowu, s.idowu@londonmet.ac.uk; Matthias S.Fifka, mail@matthias-fifka.de; Rene Schmidpeter, rene.schmidpeter@gmx.at; and
Stephen Vertigans s.vertigans@rgu.ac.uk
                          The book will be published by a major European publishing company.