Governance Capabilities and Sustainability Concerning “Corporate-NGO” Collaboration: the Case of Lifebuoy Friendship Hospital in Bangladesh
Tóm tắt
This paper attempts to evaluate the governance capabilities of Lifebuoy Friendship Hospital (LFH), a corporate social responsibility project in Bangladesh, in terms of significant long-term social impact, operationally defined as sustainability for the present study. Drawing on the SCALERS model proposed by Bloom and Chatterji (2009), under their proposed seven “capabilities” which determine the extent to which a project is able to scale “wide” and “deep,” the paper assesses the prospect of “scaling up” the project to create significant long-term social impact. The study used focus group discussions and interviews to collect data in four villages of remote chars (island bars in the river beds) located in the Jamuna River at Gaibandha district in the northern part of Bangladesh. In total, four FGDs were conducted. Managers from the corporation (Unilever Bangladesh Limited) and the non-governmental organization (Friendship)—who were directly assigned to the project—were interviewed. Some of the key findings of the paper include the following: (i) LFH’s governance capabilities are limited; (ii) although the initiative provides vital healthcare services to some of the most vulnerable and desperately poor communities, management of the project in terms of stakeholder participation—has been marginal; and (iii) the extent to which the project is able to scale—“wide” and “deep” was found to be low. To the question—“What does the project ultimately result in?”—the result found was that—the project did not bring about any significant participation of the community, except being mere recipients of health care service; no significant effort toward income generation for long-term sustainability of LFH; commitment of Unilever Bangladesh Limited (UBL), in this case, was limited mainly to financial resources; entire dependence on a single source of fund (UBL in this case) was identified as another cause of vulnerability for this project. Some of the major lessons arising out of the study may have relevance for other studies. The study suggests issues that need to be considered for significant long-term social impact of other similar initiatives.
Tài liệu tham khảo
Alsop, R. J. (2004). The 18 immutable laws of corporate reputation: creating, protecting, and repairing your most valuable asset. New York: Free Press.
Andaleeb, S. S. (2001). Service quality perceptions and patient satisfaction: a study of hospitals in a developing country. Social Science & Medicine, 52, 1359–1370.
Ashley, S., Kar, K., Hossain, A., & Nandi, S. (2000). The chars livelihood assistance scoping study. Consultancy report, prepared for DFID, Bangladesh.
Ashman, D. (2001). Civil society collaboration with business: bringing empowerment back. World Development, 29(7), 1097–1113.
Austin, J. (2000). The collaborative challenge. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Bacq, S.,& Janssen, F. (2011).Structuring the field of social entrepreneurship: a transatlantic comparative approach. In O. Borch, A. Fayolle, P. Kyrö & E. Ljunggren(Eds.), Entrepreneurship research in Europe: Evolving concepts and processes(pp. 153-185). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar publishing.
Banik, B. K. (2016). Availability of and accessibility to primary healthcare services in char land areas. International Journal for Research in Social Science and Humanities Research, 2(1), 104–122.
Bendell, J., & Murphy, D. F. (2000). Planting the seeds of change: business-NGO relations on tropical deforestation. In J. Bendell (Ed.), Terms of endearment, business, NGOs and sustainable development (pp. 65–78). Sheffield: Greenleaf Publishing.
Berger, I., Cunningham, P., & Drumwright, M. (2004). Social alliances: company/nonprofit collaboration. California Management Review, 47(1), 58–90.
Bloom, P. N., & Chatterji, A. K. (2009). Scaling social entrepreneurial impact. California Management Review, 51, 114–133.
Bloom, P. N., & Smith, B. (2010). Identifying the drivers of social entrepreneurial impact: theoretical development and an exploratory empirical test of SCALERS. Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, 1(1), 126–145.
Brinkerhoff, J. M. (2002). Government-non-profit partnership: a defining framework. Public Administration and Development, 22(1), 19–30.
Brocklesby, M. A., & Hobley, M. (2003). The practice of design: developing the chars livelihoods programme in Bangladesh. Journal of International Development, 15(7), 893–909.
Burlingame, D., & Young, D. R. (1996). Corporate philanthropy at the crossroads. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Chars Livelihood Program. (2014). Improving health and nutrition. Bogra: Rural Development Academy.
Datar, S. M., Garvin, D. A., & Cullen, P. G. (2010). Rethinking the MBA: business education at a crossroads. Boston: Harvard Business Press.
Doh, J. P., & Teegen, H. (2002). Nongovernmental organizatiosns as institutional actors in international business: theory and implications. International Business Review, 11, 665–684.
Drumwright, M. E., & Duchicela, M. (2010). Scaling social impact through branding social causes. In P. N. Bloom & E. Skloot (Eds.), Scaling social impact: New thinking (pp. 189–206). New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Edwards, M., Hulme, D., & Wallace, T. (1999). NGOs in a global future: marrying local delivery to worldwide leverage. Public Administration and Development, 19(2), 117–136.
Eisler, R. (1996). Creating partnership futures. Futures, 286(7), 563–566.
Elkington, J., & Fennell, S. (2000). Partners for sustainability. In J. Bendell (Ed.), Terms of endearment, business, NGOs and sustainable development (pp. 150–162). Sheffield: Greenleaf Publishing.
Fabig, H., & Boele, R. (1999). The changing nature of NGO activity in a globalizing world: pushing the corporate responsibility agenda. IDS Bulletin, 30, 58–67.
Ford, I. D. (Ed.). (1997).Understanding business markets (2nd Ed.). London: Dryden.
Fowler, P., & Heap, S. (2000). Bridging troubled water: the marine stewardship council.In J. Bendell (Ed.), Terms of endearment, business, NGOs and sustainable development(pp. 135-149). Sheffield: Greenleaf publishing.
Googins, B., & Rochlin, S. (2000). Creating the partnership society: understanding the rhetoric and reality of cross sectoral partnerships. Business and Society Review, 105(1), 127–144.
Hakansson, H., & Snehota, I. (Eds.). (1995). Developing business relationships. New York: Basic Books.
Hamil, S. (1999). Corporate community involvement: a case for regulatory reform. Business Ethics: A European Review, 8(1), 14–25.
Hansen, E. G., Sextl, M., & Reichwald, R. (2010). Managing stakeholder collaboration through a community-enabled balanced scorecard: the case of Merck Ltd, Thailand. Business Strategy and the Environment, 19(6), 387–399.
Harris, E. (2010). Six steps to successfully scale impact in the nonprofit sector. The Evaluation Exchange, 15(1), 4–6.
Idemudia, U., & Ite, U. E. (2006). Corporate–community relations in Nigeria’s oil industry: challenges and imperatives. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 13(4), 194–206.
Idemudia, U. (2008). Conceptualising the CSR and development debate: bridging existing analytical gaps. Journal of Corporate Citizenship, 29, 91–110.
IRIN. (2009). Rural Halth Care in the Spotlight. http://www.irinnews.org/report/84495/bangladesh-rural-health-care-spotlight. Retrieved on 12.11.12.
Iyer, E. (2003). Theory of alliances: partnership and partner characteristics. Journal of Nonprofit and Public Sector Marketing, 11(1), 41–57.
Jenkins, B., Ishikawa, E., Geaneotes, A., & Paul, J. (2010). Scaling up inclusive business: advancing the knowledge and action agenda. Washington, DC: IFC and the CSR Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Kanter, R. M. (1989). When giants learn to dance. London: Simon and Schuster Ltd..
Karnani, A. (2007). Doing well by doing good—case study: “Fair & Lovely” whitening cream. Strategic Management Journal, 28(13), 1351–1357.
Karnani, A. (2010). Failure of the libertarian approach to reducing poverty. Asian Business and Management, 9(1), 5–21.
Kemp, D. (2003). Discovering participatory development through corporate-NGO collaboration: a mining industry case study. Brisbane: Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining, University of Queensland.
Khan, M. M. H., Grübner, O., & Krämer, A. (2012). Frequently used healthcare services in urban slums of Dhaka and adjacent rural areas and their determinants. Journal of Public Health, 34(2), 261–271.
Korten, D. (1987). Third generation NGO strategies: a key to people-centered development. World Development, 15(Suppl.), 145-159.
Korten, D. (1990). Getting to the 21st century: Voluntary action and the global agenda. West Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press.
Lamming, R. (1993). Beyond partnership—strategies for innovation and lean supply. London: Prentice Hall.
Leisinger, K. M. (2007). Corporate philanthropy: The “top of the pyramid”. Business and Society Review, 112(3), 315–342.
Lewin, D., & Sabater, J. M. (1996). Corporate philanthropy and business performance. In D. F. Burlingame & D. R. Young (Eds.), Corporate philanthropy at the crossroads (pp. 105–126). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Millar, C. C. J. M., Choi, C. J., & Chen, S. (2004). Global strategic partnerships between MNEs and NGOs: Drivers of change and ethical issues. Business and Society Review, 109(4), 395–414.
Milne, G. R., Iyer, E. S., & Gooding-Williams, S. (1996). Environmental organization alliance relationships within and across nonprofit, business, and government sectors. Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, 15(2), 203–215.
Moon J, & Muthuri, J. N. (2006). An evaluation of corporate community investment in the UK: current developments, future challenges. London: Charities Aid Foundation (CAF).
Murphy, D. F., & Coleman, G. (2000). Thinking partners: business, NGOs and the partnership concept. In J. Bendell (Ed.), Terms for endearment (pp. 65–78). Sheffield: Greenleaf Publishing.
Muthuri, J., Chapple, W., & Moon, J. (2009). An integrated approach to implementing “community Participation” in corporate community involvement: lessons from Magadi soda company in Kenya. Journal of Business Ethics, 85, 431.
Muthuri, J. N. (2008). Participation and accountability in corporate community involvement programmes: a research agenda. Community Development Journal, 43(2), 177–193.
Nelson, J. (2007). The operation of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in a world of corporate and other code of conduct (corporate social responsibility initiative, working paper no. 34). Cambridge, MA: John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
Nelson, J., & Zadek, S. (2000). Partnership alchemy: New social partnerships in Europe. Copenhagen, Denmark: The Copenhagen Centre.
Newell, P. (2005). Citizenship, accountability and community: the limits of the CSR agenda. International Affairs, 81(2), 541–557.
Parker, B., & Selsky, J. (2004). Interface dynamics in cause based partnerships: an exploration of emergent culture. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 33(3), 458–488.
Pearson, M. L. (1999). Bangladesh: health briefing paper, overview of Bangladesh's health care system. London: Department for International Development health systems resource Centre (DFID HSRC).
Prahalad, C. K., & Hammond, A. (2002). Serving the world’s poor, profitably. Harvard Business Review, 80(9), 48–57.
Prahalad, C. K. (2010). The fortune at the bottom of the pyramid: Eradicating poverty through profits. Revised and updated 5th anniversary edition, New Jersey: Wharton School Publishing.
Rahman, M., Islam, M. M., Islam, M. R., Sadhya, G., & Latif, M. A. (2011). Disease pattern and health seeking behaviour in rural Bangladesh. Faridpur Medical College Journal, 5(1), 32–37.
Rondinelli, D. A., & London, T. (2003). How corporations and environmental groups cooperate: assessing cross-sector alliances and collaborations. Academy of Management Executive, 17(1), 61–76.
Seitanidi, M. M., & Ryan, A. (2007). A critical review of forms of corporate community involvement: from philanthropy to partnerships. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 12(3), 247–266.
Selsky, J. W., & Parker, B. (2005). Cross-sector partnerships to address social issues: challenges to theory and practice. Journal of Management, 31(6), 849–873.
Sharma, S., Vrendenburg, H., & Westley, F. (1994). Strategic bridging: a role for multinational corporation in third world development. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 30(4), 458–476.
Sharmin, S., Khan, N. A., & Belal, A. (2014). Corporate community involvement in Bangladesh: an empirical study. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 21(1), 41–51.
Stafford, E. (1998). Toward an understanding of the antecedents of environmentalist-business co-operative relations. In R. C. Goodstein & S. B. MacKenzie (Eds.), American marketing association summer educators' conference proceedings (pp. 56–63). Chicago: American Marketing Association.
Thompson, P. M. (2000). Bangladesh Charlands: a review of assets and change. Dhaka: DFID-Bangladesh.
Van Doorslaer, E., O’Donnell, O., Rannan-Eliya, R. P., Somanathan, A., Adhikari, S. R., Garg, C. C., et al. (2007). Catastrophic payments for health care in Asia. Health Economics, 16, 1159–1184.
Vavy, A. (2005). Community development toolkit: an introduction to the M&E aspects of World Bank/ICMM’s CD toolkit. London: International Council on Mining and Metals.
Waddell, S. (1999). The evolving strategic benefits for business in collaboration with nonprofits in civil society: a strategic resources, capabilities and competencies perspective. Unpublished manuscript.
Waddell, S. (2000). New institutions for the practice of corporate citizenship: historical, intersectoral, and developmental perspectives. Business and Society Review, 105(1), 107–126.
Waddock, S. A., & Smith, N. (2000). Relationships: the real challenge of corporate global citizenship. Business & Society Review, 105(1), 47–62.
Werner, W. J. (2009). Corporate social responsibility initiatives addressing social exclusion in Bangladesh. Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition, 27(4), 545–562.
Witzer, J. M., & Paul, R. (2011). Scaling social impact: when everybody contributes, everybody wins. Innovations, 6(2), 143–156.
Zammit, A. (2004). Development at risk: rethinking UN-business partnerships. South Centre and UNRISD joint publication, Geneva: UNRISD.