Investigating Directors’ Accountability in Promoting Corporate Social Responsibility

The role of corporate directors is often challenged as stakeholders demand greater transparency, ethical conduct, and social responsibility from businesses. Directors play a pivotal role in shaping and implementing strategies that align business goals with societal expectations. This has placed directors' accountability in promoting corporate social responsibility (CSR) at the forefront of academic and policy discussions. Directors hold a legal, ethical, and strategic responsibility in integrating CSR into core business practices, with their decisions impacting a company's long-term sustainability and stakeholder trust. Further exploration of the extent to which directors are held responsible for advancing CSR initiatives may reveal new mechanisms to ensure they fulfill this duty. Investigating Directors' Accountability in Promoting Corporate Social Responsibility explores the extent of directors' legal and ethical responsibilities in promoting CSR within their organizations. It examines the governance frameworks, accountability mechanisms, and consequences directors face when they fail to integrate CSR into corporate strategy and decision-making. This book covers topics such as risk mitigation, data analytics, and business markets, and is a useful resource for business owners, policymakers, academicians, researchers, and scientists.

DDr. Maja Pucelj , is Head of research and Director of Master program Digitalisation and human rights at EMUNI. She acts as an assistant professor, she graduated from the Faculty of Public Administration in Ljubljana and the Faculty of Management in Koper, with a master's degree from the Faculty of Government and European Studies at the New University and the European Faculty of Law. She completed her first doctorate degree at Alma Mater Europaea - ISH in the humanities and completed her second doctorate degree at the Faculty of Government and European Studies of the New University in the field of international studies with an emphasis on human rights. She began her career as a police officer, where she was a member of a special police unit, continuing her career path as a risk manager, head of the legal department in the field of leasing and banking, as a director of marketing in the economy and as an auditor in an audit company. Prior to joining EMUNI and FOŠ, she worked as an advisor to the Minister of Education, Science and Sport in the field of pre-school education, primary education, secondary and higher education, adult education, and the quality of education and as an undersecretary in the Service for the Implementation of Cohesion Policy at the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport. She teaches or co-teaches the following courses: Fundamentals of Law in Organizational Studies, Organizational Behaviour and Seminar for Doctoral Dissertation. In 2024 she received reward from Slovenian Ombudsman for the best PhD research in the field of human rights in Slovenia. In the same year she also finished International Post-doctoral programme in Globalisation and Human rights in Mediterranea International Centre for Human Rights Research. Her research interest focuses on human rights, law, social responsibility, digital ethics and gender equality.

Prof. dr. Rado Bohinc is a president at EMUNI University and a full professor of comparative business and European Union (EU) law and. He has been lecturing and researching since early 1990, also at many universities abroad, for ex. USA (UCLA – Fulbright, 1999, University of San Diego, 1999, 2019, New York State University, Potsdam, 1987, Cornell University, Ithaca 1987, Cleveland State University 1989 and recently in Europe (Germany 2017, Spain 2017, Italy 2015, 2018, Czech 2019, Norway 2017) Russia (2017, 2018), India 2017, 2018, Nepal 2017, 2018, South Korea, 2018, New Zealand, 2014 etc.). He also acted as a keynote speaker or as a speaker at numerous national and international scientific conferences and symposia. Dr. Bohinc’s pedagogical activity includes almost 30 years of university teaching at all three levels (graduate, master and PhD) at FDV UL and other universities, beginning as an assistant professor in 1988, continuing as an associate professor and since l. 2003 onward, as a full professor and senior researcher at University of Ljubljana, University of Maribor and University of Primorska. He has also lectured occasionally as visiting professor or guest lecturer at other national and foreign universities as explained above, mainly in the field of comparative business law and corporate governance and European Union law, institutions and policies, media law and intellectual property law. Dr. Rado Bohinc has been an active researcher ever since 1999: he has been so far the head of the 9 and the associate in 4 national basic and several international research projects. He is also a member of the Public and Private Sector Network Management research program and a member of the Law Research institute of the Scientific Research Center of Koper (see details in a separate chapter and all details in SICRIS). Dr. Rado Bohinc published more than 40 scientific monographs, 17 independent scientific essays or chapters in a monograph, and 52 peer-reviewed scientific articles (all official SICRIS data).

Mag. Anita Hrast is the co-founder and director of the IRDO Institute for the Development of Social Responsibility (since 2004) and a researcher, educator, and practitioner in social responsibility and sustainable development. With over 20 years of experience, she has held leadership roles ranging from co-founding the Ozara society and directing marketing agencies to producing the Radio Maribor show “7 Minutes for the Economy” and serving as a journalist and advertising director. She has been a senior lecturer at DOBA in Maribor since 2011―teaching courses on nonprofit organization management, social marketing, socially responsible entrepreneurship, and business ethics, while mentoring master’s students. Certified as an ECQA Social Responsibility Manager and a graduate of CSR School 2020 by CSR Hellas, she trains professionals in the field, advises businesses, organizes conferences and youth projects, and collaborates with international organizations like CSR Europe to promote sustainable development and social responsibility.