The Oxford-Achilles Working Group
on Corporate Social Responsibility

Developing knowledge about CSR

Case Studies & Research

The Oxford-Achilles Working Group on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an initiative to stimulate thinking, to promote and disseminate research, and to bring together researchers and practitioners.

The case studies and research on this page arise from collaborative work between the faculty at Saïd Business School, Achilles and other researchers and practitioners from the field of CSR research. As the collaboration develops, more research articles, case studies and notes will be added here.

The papers in this White Paper Series reflect the views of the authors, and are not necessarily shared by the Achilles Group.

CSR Consulting in the UK: An Industry Evolving

The increased interest of UK and global firms in social and environment responsibility has driven the growth of a new industry broadly defined as 'CSR consulting'. Following a 2003 study by researchers at the University of Nottingham, which identified CSR Consulting as a vibrant and expanding industry in the UK, we seek to build on existing knowledge by evaluating the nature of CSR Consultancy in depth through a series of semi-structured interviews with consultants from different kinds of organisations that have engaged in this area.

This White Paper is an edited version of a longer paper, available on request from the authors.

Corporate Social Responsibility in India

The purpose of this study is to characterize the CSR activities of Indian businesses and highlight the unique features of Indian CSR. In doing so, we identify good CSR practices in India, from which Indian firms can benefit in competitive global markets and from which Western firms might learn. This case study is based primarily on 50 semi-structured interviews with policymakers, business people, practitioners and researchers, which were conducted in India during the summer of 2008.

This White Paper is an edited version of a longer paper, available on request from the author.

Learning From Mattel: Social Responsibility And Product Safety

The phenomenon of product recalls is receiving increasing attention. Much of this work has taken a normative view of how organisations should manage the process, and there now exists a valuable body of best practice knowledge in this field. However, product recall events may also provide interesting insights into the corporate social responsibility. Our purpose here is to dissect one particular case, and illustrate how politics and economics frame an organisation's responsibilities.

This White Paper is an edited version of a longer paper, available on request from the authors.