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Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Enterprise Research Guide

When to Use This Guide

Use this guide for researching the roles and obligations that corporations have in being good societal and environmental citizens. A goal of a social enterprise, or a social sector organization, goes beyond creating economic gain for owners and consumption benefits for customers; its fundamental mission is social improvement, concern with the promotion of good for society or the environment.

Finding General or Background Information on Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Enterprise

To get acquainted with the concepts, use general sources of business ethics information, like those below.

• Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society - R HF5387 .E53 2008 vol. 1-5
• The Blackwell Encyclopedic Dictionary of Business Ethics - R HF5387 .B55 1997
• Global Codes of Conduct: An Idea Whose Time Has Come - HF5387.G58 2000 or [electronic resource]

Subject Headings for Finding Information about Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Enterprise in the Book and Media Catalog

• Social responsibility of business
• Industries social aspects
• Corporations moral and ethical aspects
• Corporations corrupt practices
• Fund raising
• Charities
• Endowments
• Nonprofit organizations
• International business enterprises social aspects

Finding Articles About Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Enterprise in Research Databases

Business Source Complete
Search Business Source Complete for corporate social responsibility and social enterprise articles published in scholarly, trade, and general interest periodicals.

JSTOR
Contains a large collection of scholarly business journals with numerous articles on corporate social responsibility and social enterprise.

Wilson OmniFile Full Text Select
Search Wilson for articles published in academic and professional publications.

Congressional Quarterly Researcher (CQ Researcher)
Reports about issues widely discussed in the media, including corporate social responsibiity and philanthropy.

The Conference Board
The Conference Board (TCB) is a non-partisan, non-profit business network that attempts “to bring leaders together to find solutions to common problems and objectively examine major issues having an impact on business and society.” TCB has reports, studies and surveys on corporate governance and ethics.

Business Insights: Essentials (formerly Business and Company Resource Center)
To search for articles, go to Advanced Search and search for “corporate social responsibility” in “Subject ” (rather than searching by keywords).

Selected Web Sites

Center for Ethical Business Cultures
The Center for Ethical Business Cultures publishes white papers on corporate social responsibility.

CSRwire (Corporate Social Responsibility Wire) Directory
This site has a searchable directory of more than 1,700 organizations working on all aspects of corporate social responsibility in more than 90 countries.

CorporateRegister.com
CorporateRegister.com is a comprehensive directory of corporate non-financial reports, on topics such as the environment, social impact, sustainability or corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Business for Social Responsibility (BSR)
BSR is a global, non-profit organization providing information, tools, training and advisory services about corporate social responsibility. Follow the “Research” link to browse “Issue Briefs” (critical summaries) and in-depth reports on corporate social responsibility issues.

Social Returns
Much of the material contained on the Social Returns web site was developed for the Yale School of Management - The Goldman Sachs Foundation Partnership on Nonprofit Ventures. Social Returns gives its members (free registration) access to the latest research on nonprofit enterprises, how-to guides, publications and articles, case studies, profiles of business ventures, and more.

Center for Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship at Duke University School of Business
Use the "Knowledge& Resources" tab to access case studies and working papers, as well as an extensive, annotated list of publications, organizations, and initiatives concerned with social entrepreneurship.

Stanford Social Innovation Review
Stanford Social Innovation Review publishes "strategies, tools and ideas for non-profits, foundations and socially responsible business.” Note that full text of articles is available through ProQuest.

UN Principles for Responsible Investment
The Principles for Responsible Investment provide a framework incorporating environmental, social, and corporate governance issues into management of investment portfolios.

Page Last Updated: February 14 2013