The World Guide to CSR is the first book to provide comparable national profiles that describe the evolution and practice of Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility (CSR) for 58 countries and 5 global regions. Each regional and national profile includes key information about the relevant CSR history, country-specific issues, trends, research and leading organisations.

The purpose of the book is to give CSR professionals (including managers, consultants, academics and NGOs focusing on the social, environmental and ethical responsibilities of business) a quick reference guide to CSR in different regional and national contexts. The need for the book is premised on the fact that CSR professionals and researchers more often than not have a multinational remit and are required to benchmark performance internationally, but find that country-specific CSR information is ad hoc, limited or non-existent. Even where national CSR research exists, it is often hidden in academic journals that practitioners cannot access or do not have the time or inclination to read.

The book is an edited volume, with expert contributors from around the world, all of whom have been screened and selected on the basis of their qualifications and experience in CSR. Each regional/country profile includes the following subsections:

• CSR in context
• Priority issues
• Trends
• Legislation and codes
• Organisations
• Case studies
• Educational institutions
• References

This unique resource will be an essential acquisition for all organisations who need to benchmark their CSR strategies throughout different regions and cultures and want the best possible intelligence on the key issues and concerns relating to corporate social responsibility in all of the markets in which they operate.

… wherever you are in the world, the World Guide to CSR will prime you on what is most important to know about CSR. … The impressive list of contributors to this volume, 87 in all, are the crème de la crème of CSR knowledge and include leading academics, business people and practitioners from all over the global village. The country profiles are of a exceedingly high quality … The profiles are superbly edited to give consistency of scope and depth, country by country. … Why is this book useful? It serves as a start-point for any study of CSR anywhere in the world, as each profile contains an impressive list of links and references. It is a learning aid because the local case studies provide outlines of the key CSR activities by key corporates – the leading edge of CSR around the world. It serves as a guide for those wanting to develop their own CSR programs.
Elaine Cohen, CSRwire, 17 August 2010 Read the full review

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This book offers a very useful, quick to access, reference guide for the differing approaches to corporate social responsibility (CSR) found around the world. The consistent formatting of the book lends itself to easy readability, with easily accessible quick “takeaway lessons” by country. However, this can also be a shortcoming as one could argue this runs the risk of feeding the reader (who is likely to be a practitioner looking for a quick solution) with an oversimplifications of CSR in the form of overly high level generalizations. CSR is inherently complex, and inherently cultural. This book takes a step in the right direction in acknowledging there are many differing approaches to CSR, and it does so in an interesting way that will hopefully help to encourage industry to engage with and be a bit more sensitive to the differing needs of stakeholders across the planet. It will perhaps help to support Wayne Visser’s call at the conclusion of his foreword to “make sure that business lives up to its potential as a force for good in the world.”
Journal of Consumer Policy 33.4 (2010)

The World Guide to CSR represents an ambitious but needed project to fill a gap in the literature. Its emphasis on CSR context, issues, trends, legislation and codes, organisations and case studies creates an excellent template for reporting on country- and region-specific CSR programmes. I cannot think of better professional leadership than Wayne Visser and CSR International for this exciting project. I strongly and enthusiastically endorse this initiative.
Archie B. Carroll, Director, Nonprofit Management & Community Service Program & Robert W. Scherer Professor Emeritus, Terry College of Business, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.

Finally a book that showcases the diversity and commonalities of CSR globally. It is the best and most systematic map of CSR and an essential read for everyone who thinks about and decides on CSR in a global context. A must-have.
Dirk Matten, Hewlett-Packard Chair in Corporate Social Responsibility, Professor of Strategy, Schulich School of Business, Toronto

At last, a book that tells us what corporate responsibility really is and how it transforms modern-day business into something worthwhile. A terrific guidebook that takes us across all corners of the world where business is done.
Charlotte Wolff, Group Corporate Responsibility Manager, ArcelorMittal

I am delighted to find a book that offers a global view of the world of CSR, yet from so many different viewpoints, and all of them produced by CSR experts in their own countries. This is going to be around for a long time and it will grow in value as we learn to use it more.
Michael Kelly, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, KPMG Europe LLP

New times create new needs. And new needs require new solutions. The 21st-century business of business is still business. But as the world grows smaller and global challenges grow bigger the rules of how to stay in business are changing. CSR is an important first step towards a renewed version of capitalism. The World Guide to CSR provides us with a long-awaited global context for the current transition towards sustainable business actions in a wide array of countries worldwide.
Tania Ellis, international speaker, advisor and author of The New Pioneers

As a London-based CSR/Sustainability consultant, I am often called on to advise on international best practice and how companies can demonstrate leadership in a global marketplace. Dr Visser’s The World Guide to CSR was an invaluable resource for recent Middle East projects, where the team wanted to also demonstrate a strong awareness of local and regional trends. Very insightful, the book supported us in showing how the concept of CSR measured against Islamic principles, such as Zakat.
Sophie Hughes, Head of Sustainability, Fleishman-Hillard London