The Possible Impact of the Concept of Enlightened Shareholder Value on Corporate Social Responsibility and the Scope for Reform

Enlightened shareholder value (ESV) is the idea that companies should aim for shareholder wealth with a long-run orientation that pursues sustainable growth and profits based on responsible consideration of all the relevant stakeholder interests. The concept of ESV has been mainly incorporated in corporate governance in the UK through section 172 of the Companies Act 2006. This section requires directors to have regard to stakeholder interests when making corporate decisions. What is of great interest, with the possibility of wide effects, is whether the concept of ESV links to the notion of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The two concepts promote similar outlooks because in both of them the idea of value is based on long-term sustainability, and the importance of considering stakeholder interests in achieving that goal is recognised.
The thesis considers the following questions: Is the concept of ESV capable of promoting or assisting CSR? If it is, can it do so in a better way? If it is not capable of doing so, how could it be reformed in order to do so? The research also involves assessing whether implementing an ESV approach has had or would have any impact on the CSR practices of multinational corporations when operating in developing nations.
The thesis is structured as follows: Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the research; Chapter 2 is a discussion on theories of corporate governance and CSR; Chapter 3 is an analysis of section 172; Chapter 4 provides a theoretical analysis of the possible impact of ESV on CSR in a domestic context and presents the findings of the empirical study on corporate rhetoric; Chapters 5 and 6 deal with the methodology and findings of a case study conducted to assess the impact of ESV on CSR in an international context; and Chapter 7 provides an assessment and some reflections.