Editorial
Article Type: Editorial From: Social Responsibility Journal, Volume 6, Issue 1
As we write this the problems in the world continue. So we are witnessing the continuing financial and economic crisis and some of its casualties, the spread of swine fever, problems associated with climate change and environmental degradation. All of these are related to social responsibility and therefore proper subjects for investigation and reporting in this journal so too are many other subjects that are represented in this issue. So in this issue we find investigations into the supply chain in various industries, critiques of standards, investigations in customer perception and buying behavior and investigations into firm’s behavior in various parts of the world. And also many other topics, reflecting as always the breadth of the subject and the diversity of interests of the people who are concerned with aspects of social responsibility.
This journal is the official journal of the Social Responsibility Research Network (SRRNet) (www.socialresponsibility.biz) a network of scholars interested in various aspects of social responsibility. Currently there are over 500 members of the network and this number is continuing to increase. Members hail from all over the world reflecting the commonality of concern for the subject matter that is truly global. Equally global is the range of authors who contribute to the journal and this issue is no exception: ten countries are represented in this issue. And this is typical of all issues of the journal.
Publishing the journal is one of the main activities that the network undertakes. The other main activity of the network is to organize an annual conference and as this issue is published preparation will be well advanced for the 9th International Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility that will take place in Zagreb, Croatia as a collaboration between the Network and the Zagreb School of Economics and Management. Plans are also firm for the conferences over the next few years, following our plan to host alternative conferences in Europe and elsewhere – and we hope to see you at one of these future conferences. The conferences are designed to act as a forum for the debate and analysis of contemporary issues in the broad area of CSR but we also focus upon a particular issue (without excluding general issues) at each conference. So in Zagreb we will focusing upon the question of governance and CSR, an important issue highlighted during the current economic crisis. And we can expect to see some of the contributions to the conference appearing in the journal in due course, just as we have already see papers from previous conferences appearing in issues of the journal – including this issue.
The Network is interdisciplinary and so too is the conference. This journal,just as the conference, is also interdisciplinary in its focus and international in its outlook – and this is reflected in the papers this volume. What is apparent however is the commonality of concern as different papers from different parts of the world address similar issues and concerns –reflecting the global nature of our concerns and our research. All papers have the commonality that they investigate an aspect of social responsibility –and one feature of social responsibility is that it is a very wide and very interdisciplinary field. With that we leave you to read the papers, hoping that this will inspire you to contribute to a future edition.
Güler Aras, David Crowther
