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AbstractThe concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is closely intertwined with increased engagement with stakeholders and integration of their concerns into core business processes. In this respect, stakeholders' viewpoint of CSR is deemed to be essential in shaping pertinent policies, plans and programs. However, current literature indicates an emphasis on the managerialist perspective whereas insights of non‐business social constituents are considerably underrepresented. This is where this paper seeks to contribute by attempting to examine the non‐governmental organizations' perceptions of socially responsible business conduct. Findings suggest that NGOs perceptions reflect two dominant views, a progressive viewpoint where socially responsible behavior offers win‐win opportunities and a narrow perspective where wider responsibility is an unfruitful business practice. Nevertheless, different types of NGOs attributed similar importance on a number of socially responsible practices. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

ABSTRACT
Social capital has been recognized as one of the most influential concepts in social and political sciences. It is assumed that it has significant influence on several issues such as health status, educational achievement and environmental attitudes. In the present article we attempt to investigate the influence of social capital on the tendency of European citizens to contribute money for the environment using data from EVS 1999/2000. Firstly, an estimation of individual social capital is calculated for European citizens with the use of Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Secondly, the relation between individual social capital and willingness to pay (WTP) is examined. Thirdly, further evidence is provided by introducing in the analysis the influence of other factors such as income, age, gender and educational level. In addition, the influence of contextual factors on WTP is explored. Through the results of the study it is observed that most European citizens are willing to pay for the environment and their decision is influenced significantly from elements of social capital. Furthermore, on a contextual level only some of the factors investigated explain the tendency to contribute money for the environment.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to inform the business management literature that focuses on the perceptions of business professionals towards the multidimensional and highly complex concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR).Design/methodology/approach– This study is based on a sample of 118 Greek business executives/middle managers having different functional positions. A questionnaire based on the works of Quazi and O'Brien (2000) and Welfordet al. (2007) was designed and used for data collection.Findings– Key findings denote occupational health and safety, benign environmental management as well as responsible production methods as the top CSR priorities. Two different CSR viewpoints emerged from the factor analysis reflecting a pragmatic and a more socially responsive interpretation of corporate responsibility. Cluster analysis confirmed such contrasting perspectives allowing the partition of data in distinctive groups according to the relative inclination on either of the identified viewpoints. Similarity measures obtained from cluster analysis also verified the different CSR positions.Originality/value– The paper explores CSR perceptions, as predictor factors of CSR performance, in three different groups of Greek business professionals. It contributes to the literature of CSR perspectives from South-East European countries where there is a distinct lack of empirical studies on managerial attitudes.

Measuring sustainability is an integral part of decision-making processes in order to promote sustainable development. The present paper focuses on sustainability indicators as these are measured on local level and explores two main issues: firstly, the subjective measurement of indicators focusing especially on social dimensions of sustainability, secondly, the incorporation of local perceptions in sustainability assessments. These two issues are explored in the Asopos River basin in Greece, an area where significant environmental degradation has been observed in the past decades and is also under financial pressure due to the ongoing national recession. A large-scale research study was conducted measuring environmental, economic and social indicators while, at a second stage, a model was developed, estimating new indicators that incorporate local communities' perceptions on what they considered as important for their area. The results of the study reveal that the most important indicators for the sustainable development of the area, according to locals' perceptions, are environmental quality as well as quality of life. By contrast, trust in local and central institutions and also local enterprises were not considered as important by locals. These results illustrate the importance of combining global and national scale assessment with locally focused social measurements of sustainability in order to better understand what is important for local communities prior to embarking on public policy planning.