This book is an outcome of a study on corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices and their contextual determinants in Bangladesh, with a focus on the Bangladeshi pharmaceutical industry. The author argues that businesses in Bangladesh need to collaborate with the government to close the existing gap of distrust and lack of confidence. The stunning development in Bangladesh’s pharmaceutical sector has been largely attributed to multi- national corporations, but CSR practices, local policy support and international regulatory concessions were also vital to the industry’s growth.
CSR issues are largely country-specific and divergent in nature, and the author identifies a list of Bangladesh-specific CSR issues including workplace health and safety, consumer rights, employment standards, the regulatory regime, democratic polity, and corruption. The author suggests a more comprehensive definition of CSR as ‘a corporation’s responsible behaviour that covers economic, legal, ethical, philanthropic and environmental issues of business and society’. Despite the absence of a standard marketplace, it is possible to use CSR in developing countries, in a localized form.
Nazmul Amin Majumdar is a researcher and career civil servant. His earlier books include Civil Service Ethics and Good Governance (College Gate Publishing, Dhaka) and Cases in Business and Management (Tilde University Press, Melbourne, Australia). He received his Ph.D. in Business and Economics and M.A. in Public Policy and Management from Monash University, Australia, and obtained an Advanced Certificate in Business Administration (ACBA) from IBA, Dhaka University. He lectured in the Department of Management, Monash University from 2007 to 2010. As a researcher he has published and presented his work in journals and conferences such as the European Journal of Management, The Corporate Citizen, Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science, Academy of International Business (AIB), and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management. Prior to embarking on an academic and civil service career, he was a manager at the multi-national British American Tobacco Company, Bangladesh. His current research focuses on corporate governance problems and reforms, evaluation of company strategy and business models, business ethics, and corporate social responsibility in the context of emerging economies.
