Corporate Social Responsibility and Alcohol: The Need and Potential for Partnership.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Alcohol: The Need and Potential for Partnership. By Grant, M., & O'Connor, J. (Eds.). (2005). New York: Routledge. [Hardback; ISBN# 0-415-94948-3]

These days the corporate companies are continually being held accountable for being active and contributing meaningfully to the communities in which they exist, besides achieving their financial worth and goals. This is known as corporate social responsibility (CSR). The issues involving CSR and alcohol are complex and are the focus of this book. The International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP), which is a not-for-profit international organization funded by 10 international alcohol beverage companies, has commissioned this book. Most of the contributions in the book are from presenters at the "Alcohol, Ethics, and Society" international conference held in Dublin in October 2002.

The first chapter in the book is an introduction by the editors that presents the background of the book and how it has been conceptualized. The second chapter defines CSR, its history and issues. The three major components of CSR have been identified as (1) the basic values, ethics, policies and practices of the company's business; (2) the voluntary contributions made by a company to community development; and (3) management of social and environmental issues by the company and its business partners involving the acquisition of raw products, staff welfare, product sale, use or disposal. The third chapter deals with the issue of product safety where a company's products have the potential to do harm. The chapter discusses the chemical industry, tobacco industry, breast-milk substitutes, automobile industry, and pharmacological industry. The fourth chapter focuses on different partnership perspectives for CSR in beverage alcohol industry Partnerships with government, intergovernmental organizations, private sector, non-governmental organizations, and the research community are discussed.

The fifth chapter talks about the role of partnerships in alcohol policy development. The chapter discusses the results of the survey done in 2002 covering 48 countries in which perspectives on various issues relating to alcohol policy were discussed (Babor & Xuan, 2004). It was interesting to note that the opinion regarding the role of the alcohol industry was equally divided with half of the nations viewing the alcohol industry as a viable partner and half did not. The chapter also discusses the issue of conflict of interest, which is of paramount importance with regard to the role of the alcohol industry. However, this section could have been expanded and some parallels regarding conflict of interest and tobacco industry also included (Bero, 2005).

The sixth chapter is titled, "Drinking education: Negatives or optimizing potential." This chapter discusses the pleasures of alcohol and how public health groups place the harms of alcohol foremost. It also discusses the trends of drinking in youth and educational programs for youth. The role of theory in designing such educational programs (Sharma, 2005) could have been stressed more in this chapter. The seventh chapter focuses on findings on issues pertaining to marketing and promotion of alcohol to youth. The findings of the World Health Organization's meeting held in May 2002 in Valencia, Spain on this topic are presented. The eighth chapter presents a perspective from New Zealand on governmental regulation, CSR, and rights and responsibilities of the individual.

The ninth chapter is about CSR and its role on alcohol policies. A case study of Coors Brewing Company has been presented in this chapter. The tenth chapter presents practice issues with regard to CSR within the beverage alcohol industry. A number of alcohol beverage companies have made efforts to promote responsible drinking and have formed what are known as social aspects organizations (SAO). There are over 30 social aspects organizations in North America, Europe, Australasia, and Africa. Issues of brand marketing, advertising, self-regulation by the industry and research are also discussed. The eleventh chapter discusses the issues of responsible drinking promotion programs. This is a very well written chapter that discusses contextual factors which have an impact on alcohol advertising, product innovations in marketing, internet sales, television, film, and music video advertisements, print media advertisements, and general principles of good alcohol advertising. The twelfth chapter is a brief account written by a person who has been involved with alcohol advertising for over 20 years and discusses various aspects of alcohol advertisements.

Chapter thirteen is about setting standards when it comes to marketing beverage alcohol. The chapter emphasizes the need for the alcohol industry to take responsibility with regard to advertising and marketing its products responsibly. Chapter fourteen discusses the issue of abusive drinking on college campuses. Binge drinking and drinking and driving are important problems on college campuses (Knight, Wechsler, Kuo, Seibring, Weitzman, & Schukit, 2002). In this context a three-way partnership between campus, community, and industry can prove to be very useful. Research-based strategies have been underscored in this regard, which is praiseworthy. Chapter fifteen is about alcohol education. The importance of behavior change with regard to harmful drinking behaviors has been underscored. Alcohol education programs for the general public and for "at-risk" populations have been presented. Interventions in school, university, community, and worksite settings have been discussed. Interventions that are targeted as opposed to being broad, having clear and measurable objectives, and those utilizing multiple approaches have been generally found to be more effective.

Chapter sixteen presents a framework for CSR. The framework was developed by the International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP) Board of Directors in 1998. The framework includes three sections, namely, understanding perceptions of alcohol and patterns of consumption, responsible promotional and advertising practices, and alcohol education and initiatives to promote sensible drinking. Three case studies, the first one pertaining to critical research needs, the second one pertaining to compliance, and the third one pertaining to partnerships are also presented in the chapter. The final, concluding chapter re-emphasizes the role of CSR and partnerships in addressing the issue of alcohol.

The book is a very good compilation of chapters that bring in issues of ethics, business and health. This would be a good book for graduate students and other scholars interested in understanding the issues related to CSR and partnerships between college campuses, communities, and the alcohol industry. The book would also be relevant for administrators in academic and community settings who are looking for collaborations with the alcohol industry.

References

Babor, T. & Xuan, Z. (2004). Alcohol policy research and grey literature. Nordisk Alcohol & Narkotikatidskrift, 21 (English Supplement), 125-127.

Bero, L. A. (2005). Tobacco industry manipulation of research. Public Health Reports, 120, 200-208.

Knight, J. R., Wechsler, H., Kuo, M., Seibring, M., Weitzman, E. R., & Schuckit, M. A. (2002). Alcohol abuse and dependence among U.S. college students. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 63, 263-270.

Sharma, M. (2005). Improving interventions for prevention and control of alcohol use in college students. [Editorial]. Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education, 49 (2), 3-6.

Manoj Sharma, University of Cincinnati