Doing Good, Doing Well

CSR Global Summit 2009 One might say that, in Malaysia, most people think being socially responsible for businesses means apportioning part of their profits towards some worthy cause. Those who have this view would have been confused if they attended the CSR Global Summit 2009, held in Singapore on 13th and 16th January 2009. Organized by Pinnacle Group... [Read more...]

From Social Accounting to CSR

A conversation with Prof Dr Mustaffa Mohamed Zain of UiTM Professor Dr Mustaffa Mohamed Zain is one of Malaysia’s academic pioneers in corporate social responsibility (CSR). Having had his interest piqued by his undergraduate studies in social and environmental accounting, Prof Mustaffa moved into research and study of corporate social responsibility... [Read more...]

Socially Responsible Banking?

By Daniel Chandranayagam As the year turns just fourteen days old, more and more people and businesses are turning to centuries old religious tenets for the regulation of their financing. Professor Bala Shanmugam of Monash University Malaysia was reported recently to have said, Islamic finance is also known as socially responsible banking because we... [Read more...]

Stop the CSR Spin

From the Exception Magazine, reproduced with kind permission. A recent corporate social responsibility (CSR) ranking reveals one of the many inherent flaws in this burgeoning practice. Fortune Magazine, along with the CSR consulting firms AccountAbility, Csrnetwork and Asset4, came to the conclusion that BP and Royal Dutch Shell were among the top... [Read more...]

CSR in an Economic Dip

The theme for the CSR Digest in the first quarter of 2009 is whether or not businesses should maintain or be more vigorous with their CSR efforts in an economic dip. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine many businesses de-prioritizing their corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives on the basis that their focus needs to be on the bottom line... [Read more...]

Philanthropy in 2009

The Raja Muda of Perak, Raja Nazrin Shah, recently was reported to have said that philanthropic groups are vital in helping Malaysia deal with hardships during the current global economic meltdown. However, there remains the question whether the funds or donations intended for philanthropic organizations actually reach them. The media often highlight... [Read more...]