European Management Journal (2011) 29, 514– 515
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/emj
BOOK REVIEW
Corporate Social Strategy: Stakeholder Engagement and
Competitive Advantage, Bryan W. Husted, David Bruce
Allen. Cambridge University Press, New York (2011).
Through incentives like Prahalad and Hamel’s edi-
torship of the Strategic Management Journal special
summer issue of 1994 ‘‘Strategy: the search for new
paradigms’’, research in strategy has opened the
way for works on the cutting edge of contemporary
challenges. How to bind strategic management and
ethics? How to embed social action in corporate strat-
egy, shifting it from voluntary engagement to a core
competitive advantage?
Bryan W. Husted and David Bruce Allen take a stand
and promote Corporate Social Strategy (CSS) as the
successful integration of a firm’s ‘‘social’’ strategy
and its business strategy into the general objectives
of the firm, or its corporate strategy. The authors ad-
dress the core question of how to successfully engage
in corporate social action for value creation and great-
er competitive advantage. All over the world, firms,
and particularly Top Management of multinational
enterprises (MNEs), are increasingly called upon to re-
spond to social needs while still creating value. This
book encourages Corporate Social Strategy as the
way to achieve this. It substantially documents the
state of the art and builds on the strengths and weak-
nesses of traditional views of Corporate Social Respon-
sibility (CSR) and the more systemic view of strategic
behavior brought by the resource-based view (RBV)
to elaborate a framework for the effective integration
of social demands into the business strategy.
This book gives interesting insights both for aca-
demics and practitioners. Instead of addressing the
usual questions on CSR and sustainability, this book
begins by formulating new ones, taking the inquiry
one step further while keeping in mind that scenarios
for the future of corporate social strategy and strat-
egy itself are uncertain. What are the keys for engag-
ing into successful ways of creating value and gaining
competitive advantage through Corporate Social
Strategy? What if what is true for MNEs is not applica-
ble to other kinds of firms? How can engaging in social
action help us to win, not only now, but in the future?
doi:10.1016/j.emj.2011.05.005
The 13 chapters of this book are divided into three
parts, which respectively consider the fundamentals
of Corporate Social Strategy (chapters 2–5), the pro-
cess of developing it (chapters 6–9) and its imple-
mentation (chapters 10–12).
Part 1 outlines the contours where CSS can evolve,
first of all by acknowledging that it poses indeed an
additional challenge to the firm. As such, chapter 2
considers the fact that CSS is in itself often accused
of being ethically questionable. The authors assume
the instrumentality and subordination of social action
as essential to the efficacy of social strategy: engag-
ing in the social activities which best serve the firm
and based on its unique capabilities and environment
will result, according to the authors, in more signifi-
cant contributions from a social perspective. Chapter
3 shows how the debate around CSS actually chal-
lenges the view of the firm itself and its purpose, or
in a word, its ethos. Chapter 4 proposes a seven-step
model that helps firms build social strategies which
will positively impact obligations to shareholders
and stakeholders. Chapter 5 builds on empirical re-
search conducted in Mexico and Spain and on Burke
and Longsdon’s model of their 1996 article ‘‘How cor-
porate Social Responsibility pays off’’, to discuss the
five dimensions of successful value creation: central-
ity (or alignment with the firm’s core business mis-
sion), appropriability (with the specificities of the
firm’s environment), proactivity (or the ability to
anticipate social trends), voluntarism (or liberty in
carrying out social initiatives) and visibility (or the im-
pact of reputation on value creation).
Part 2 focuses on the process of developing CSS. By
considering the specific dynamics of different com-
petitive environments, they propose three generic so-
cial strategies in chapter 6: differentiation, cost
leadership and strategic integration. In chapter 7,
they suggest means for effectively integrating stake-
holder participation into the formulation of CSS,
while insightfully pointing out the equivocate nature
of ‘‘stakeholder’’ and ‘‘nonmarket strategy’’ terms
particularly in relation to CSS. The importance of
resources and capabilities is stressed in chapter 8
drawing on two case studies and the connection with
Book Review
organizational identity is established in chapter 9, and
how can CSS shape it, orienting specific firms’ ethos in
a social direction.
Finally, part 3 considers several organizational
challenges imposed by the implementation of CSS.
Many questions are yet to be answered in regards to
governance and decision-making (chapter 10), to
implementing CSS in MNEs with the global/local prob-
lematic (chapter 11), and to measurement and evalu-
ation tools for CSS at different levels which are still
scattered and primitive. As the authors themselves
admit, many questions are yet to be addressed in this
field.
Chapter 13 includes authors’ conclusive remarks on
the possible future of CSS, particularly through the
opening of strategic thinking to markets usually left
to CSR and the non-profit sector, as well as creating
new markets altogether where CSS will flourish. Pric-
ing and trading of ‘‘good’’ – and not only goods – will
lead financial markets to value, and thus hopefully
protect good. These ‘‘new markets for virtue’’ would
be a way of creating direct incentives for firms to en-
gage in social action. Other aspects, such as possible
evolution of legislation, accountability and the fight
against corruption are also mentioned.
CSS is presented as a tool that reconceptualizes the
role of the firm in society, and goes beyond the
‘‘greenwashing effect’’ often denounced of CSR.
The authors believe CSS has the potential for ‘‘crea-
tive instruction’’ through which influent MNEs could
become models leading the social revolution, and this
book is their banner. By focusing mainly on MNEs, this
book knowingly leaves out other areas and actors of
515
the global economy, particularly at the local level.
Still, it offers a high quality analysis of the potential
of CSS in MNEs, by giving an overall exploration of dif-
ferent aspects. The reader is guided through a struc-
tured theoretical discussion of a contemporary
issue, key to the economy, key to strategy, and key
to society. However, the ‘‘manifesto’’ tone the
authors sometimes adopt gives the sensation that
the reader is perhaps guided a little too much, and
that space for actual discussion is not so easy to find.
The authors assume this position from the introduc-
tion, committed to their cause, but deliver in-depth
conclusions which maintain independence. The
strengths of this deeply documented work are three-
fold: (1) a solid anchoring of their views in CSR, stake-
holder and mainstream strategic theory, (2) a variety
of empirical evidence and case studies conducted
over the years by the authors on which they support
their views, and (3) while being profound ‘‘believers’’
in CSS, they keep an eye on potential weaknesses and
threats, difficulties and challenges that this idea will
face both today and tomorrow. Future research and
certainly continuous debate in the business arena is
to be expected around the interconnection of strat-
egy and business ethics, but perhaps a first step would
be, like the authors seem to suggest, to believe in it?
Mar Pérezts
ESCP Europe – Secretariat PhD,
79, Avenue de la Republique,
75543 Paris Cedex 11, France
Tel.: +33 1 49 23 20 00; fax: +33 1 43 55 99 63.
E-mail address: mar.perezts@gmail.com