CSR in Private Enterprises in Developing Countries: Evidences from the Ready-Made Garments Industry in Bangladesh

229 Pages·2014·1.5 MB·English

by  Nakib Muhammad Nasrullah, Mia Mahmudur Rahim (auth.)

CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance
Series Editors: Samuel O. Idowu · René Schmidpeter
Nakib Muhammad Nasrullah
Mia Mahmudur Rahim
CSR in Private
Enterprises in
Developing
Countries
Evidences from the Ready-Made
Garments Industry in Bangladesh
CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance
Series Editors
Samuel O. Idowu, London Metropolitan University,
Calcutta House, London, United Kingdom
Rene´ Schmidpeter, Ingolstadt, Germany
For furthervolumes:
http://www.springer.com/series/11565
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Nakib Muhammad Nasrullah (cid:129)
Mia Mahmudur Rahim
CSR in Private Enterprises in
Developing Countries
Evidences from the Ready-Made Garments
Industry in Bangladesh
NakibMuhammadNasrullah MiaMahmudurRahim
FacultyofLaw SchoolofAccountancy
UniversityofDhaka QueenslandUniversityofTechnology
Eastwood Brisbane
NewSouthWales Queensland
Australia Australia
ISSN2196-7075 ISSN2196-7083(electronic)
ISBN978-3-319-02349-6 ISBN978-3-319-02350-2(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-02350-2
SpringerChamHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon
©SpringerInternationalPublishingSwitzerland2014
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Preface
ThisbookexaminesandevaluateshowCorporateSocialResponsibility(CSR)asa
business agenda is growingandbecomingrecognisedintheprivateenterprisesof
developing countries taking the readymade garments (RMG) industry of
Bangladeshasacasestudy.
In Bangladesh, CSR is growing in importance in corporate businesses in
response to global trends. This book finds that the overall application of CSR in
private enterprises in this country is emerging and progressing in an incoherent
manner. This is due to certain challenges and constraints, notably the absence of
multi-playeractivities,lackofadequatepublicsectorinterventions,andanabsence
ofanationalconsensusonCSRoruniformCSRguidelines.
ThepositionissomewhatdifferentintheprivateenterprisesoftheBangladesh’s
(RMG)industry.Thissectoristhelargestsourceofthiscountry’sexportearnings.
Thepracticesoflabourandenvironment-relatedCSRintheformofsocialcompli-
ance requirements from the international buyers are growing steadily in this
industry.Alsothereisatrendofthedevelopmentofthemulti-playeractivism for
thepromotionofcompliancewiththeserequirementsinit.Butchangesseemonly
to be occurring in the large contracting enterprises and the enterprises of Export
ProcessingZones(EPZ).Ahugenumberofsmallandmediumscaleenterprisesand
non-contracting enterprises remain non-participants in this trend. The reasons for
this include insufficient co-ordination among stakeholders,resource constraintsin
factories, the absence of concrete guidelines from government and associations,
lack of awareness among workers about their rights, and the absence of firm
commitmentsfrominternationalbuyers.
Eastwood,NSW,Australia NakibMuhammadNasrullah
Brisbane,QLD,Australia MiaMahmudurRahim
v
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Acknowledgements
We could never have come to this book without the kind and generous help and
cooperationwefromoursupervisors,colleaguesandfriends.
OurspecialthankstoProfessorM.RafiqulIslam,whoreviewedtheinitialdraft
of this book with interest and utmost care. We extend our thanks to AusAid for
providing the Australian Leadership Award; this award helped to pursue a 2 year
longresearchforthisbookatMacquarieUniversity,Australia.
Itisimpossibletosayexactlyhowmuchwearegratefultoourfamilymembers.
This book would never have been possible without their patient and continued
support.
vii
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Contents
1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 CSRandPrivateEnterprises. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 CSRandPrivateEnterprisesinBangladesh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Methodology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.4 Scope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.5 Framework. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2 UnderstandingofCSRandItsStandards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1 ConceptofCSRandItsFundamentals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1.1 DefinitionsofCSR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1.2 ExplainingtheDifferentDimensionsofCSR. . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2 DevelopmentofCSRStandards:InstitutionalApproaches. . . . . . 21
2.2.1 VoluntaryorSelfRegulationasaBasisforthe
DevelopmentofCSRStandards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.2.2 DifferentFormsofVoluntaryCodesofCSR. . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.3 Conclusion. . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. . 39
3 TrendsinCSRPracticesinDevelopedandDeveloping
Countries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.1 TrendsinCSRPracticesinDevelopedCountries. . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.1.1 CSRinDevelopedCountriesinEurope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.1.2 CSRintheUS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.1.3 CSRinJapan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.2 TrendsinCSRPracticesinDevelopingCountries. . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.2.1 CSRintheMiddleEast. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3.2.2 CSRinLatinAmerica. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.2.3 CSRinAfrica. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.2.4 CSRinAsia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
3.3 Conclusion. . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. . 72
ix