This Experian Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report case study was informed by the 3Ps of sustainability along with legal, ethical, economic, and philanthropic CSR practices. Text network analysis yielded keywords, an overall theme, and 15 sub-themes. In its CSR report, Experian described and emphasised how its services can help consumers develop and protect their financial identity, which lead to greater choices, opportunities, and a sustainable quality life. At the same time, some of Experian's business practices suggest a misalignment with stated (...) strategic goals and practices. This research is unique in that it examines CSR reporting of an organisation in which its key stakeholders are both customers and the product at the same time, making them vital to the company's existence. Results suggest how legitimacy theory and lack of disclosing negative events are deployed to maintain credibility between the organisation and these essential stakeholders. (shrink)

No society works exactly like its constitution, and no organization functions exactly according to its official administrative guidelines. In the life of all societies and all bureaucratic organizations — East and West — there exist a whole variety of “informal structures” by which people accomplish their delegated tasks or through which they achieve their own personal goals. In the West, we speak of such informal structures in terms of “networks” or “connections.” Those who “know somebody” can go around the bureaucratic (...) queue or obtain free goods and services which others have to pay for. When the use of such connections becomes too blatant, we call it “nepotism” or “corruption.” When they take on an openly acknowledged market value we call it “bribery.”. (shrink)

Stalinism just does not go away. Fifty years after the Great Purges, 34 years since Stalin's death, the system that bears his name continues to haunt the political and academic Left in the West. As “real socialism,” it continues to oppress the peoples of the East. Years ago, we could console ourselves by “explaining” Stalinism as a “deviation” or “degeneration” from a once purer socialism. Yet this historical accident seems to possess an extraordinary viability. Stalinism has confronted threats to its (...) hegemony by sending in tanks in Budapest, Prague and Kabul. It has withstood the revelations of the Gulag, the debacle in Kampuchea, the military coup in Poland, and twenty-six years of Fidel. (shrink)