15 Minutes with Thomas Vander Ark
SSIR Managing Editor Eric Nee spoke with the X Prize Foundation’s president, Thomas Vander Ark, about how prizes can stimulate social innovation.
Business - Articles
Innovative ways to enhance corporate social responsibility (more)
Podcast
Hannah Jones - Corporate Social Responsibility and Innovation
Nike has traveled the full range of the corporate social responsibility movement, from the campaigning days when it was a poster child for all things to do with poor working conditions through the era of multistakeholder partnerships. It has now moved into the next phase where corporate responsibility becomes part of the business model. Speaking at the Stanford 2007 Responsible Supply Chains Conference, Nike's VP for corporate responsibility, Hannah Jones, looks at the future of corporate responsibility as the focus shifts upstream.
Podcast
The Future of Philanthropy - Skoll World Forum 2007
As the boundary between the for-profit and nonprofit worlds continues to blur, how may philanthropy evolve to assist social change? In this panel discussion, academics and practitioners consider how public—and private—sector support may be combined in new ways in the future to fund progressive domestic and global social enterprises.
Podcast
Making Supply Chains Socially Responsible - Measuring Corporate Social Responsibility
Companies around the world are trying to figure out how to evaluate their performance—as well as that of their suppliers—on a host of corporate social responsibility (CSR) dimensions in areas such as diversity, community development, and environmental issues. How can CSR influence business initiatives and the value of CSR efforts be measured? In this panel discussion, Stanford 2007 Responsible Supply Chains Conference panelists share lessons and resources.
Podcast
Lawrence Jackson - Environmental Sustainability for Cheap
For Wal-Mart, social responsibility includes keeping products affordable to the millions of low- and middle-income consumers who form the bulk of its customer base. In this University podcast, Lawrence Jackson, former Wal-Mart president, brings the perspectives of someone who grew up in inner city Washington, D.C., to ask a Stanford audience at the 2007 Responsible Supply Chains Conference whether pushing for social and environmental responsibility in business is a racially and economically segregated movement.
Butter Your Way to the Top
Flattery, not good governance, reaps corporate directorships – especially for white males.
Podcast
Amory Lovins - Energy Efficiency in Transportation - Part One
"The United States can break its dependency on oil by 2040." So says Amory Lovins, who discusses in this audio lecture the strategy outlined in his book, Winning the Oil Endgame, through which the country can eliminate its use of oil and have a much stronger economy. Most significantly, this plan does not rely on big government programs, but leans primarily on the for-profit business sector to lead the way.
15 Minutes with Hannah Jones
SSIR Academic Editor Jim Phills spoke with Nike’s Hannah Jones about the sportswear giant’s extensive corporate social responsibility programs.
Private Equity, Public Good
Many businesses serving lower income communities languish because they can't raise enough money to fund their growth. To meet their needs, a new breed of private equity investment—development investment capital—has emerged. Although this style of investing is still in its infancy, it is already showing promise.
Harnessing Purity and Pragmatism
As the wall between the nonprofit and corporate worlds crumbles, many social change organizations are asking themselves: Do we stick to our activist guns, or do we cross the divide and work with business? Research suggests that social movements need both kinds of organizations to make the changes they seek.