Browsing by Author "Chapardar, Hadi"

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    Iranian corporations and corporate social responsibility: an overview to adoption of CSR themes
    (2011) Chapardar, Hadi; Khanlari, Raveed
    Comparative studies have demonstrated that the themes for corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives are different among nations and geographic regions based on their cultural, political, legal, social, and economic contexts. In this research, which was conducted on 56 corporations from IMI100 (100 Iranian companies with highest annual sales, ranked by Industrial Management Institute or IMI), CSR themes in priority have been identified. Data collected from a semistructured questionnaire and some complementary interviews were analyzed against the results of a reference study over 100 companies from developed countries. The resulted themes, some of which may have several subthemes, were developed in three economic, environmental, and social categories. Beside these qualitative findings, two indices are constructed for indicating the “importance” of and “contribution” to each theme. The results and discussions are supposed to help business leaders, international companies inside Iran, governmental authorities, and researchers to improve CSR discussions and practices in the country where CSR undergoes a less structured platform.
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    Tackling sustainability tensions pragmatically: implications of paradoxical thinking.
    (2016) Chapardar, Hadi
    Business sustainability is fraught with tensions and tradeoffs that have received scant academic attention. We explore and discuss different types of real and cognitive sustainability tensions, particularly inter-temporal tension (ITT), and discuss why they surfaces. Arguably, the most challenging tension is the one that crosses both time and level; i.e. the tension between firm’s present and society’s future. Yet, firms can pragmatically weaken one type of tension and focus on other types. For instance, green businesses may resolve the tension between environmental and financial dimensions in the nature of their business and focus on ITTs in their daily practices. To investigate the tensions at firm level, we adopt paradoxical thinking but in a pragmatic approach. This informs us about the possibilities and consequences of addressing paradoxical tensions. We develop propositions and suggest four strategies to tackle the tensions: tradeoff, balancing, synthesis, and temporal slacking. By adopting these complementary strategies, firms can navigate through ITTs to achieve sustainability goals in their business practices. Evidences from development of recent electric vehicles help us clarify the theoretical arguments. The paper contributes to both domains of sustainability and organizational tensions. Potential paths for future research are discussed.