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 Suzanne Campin
School of Management, Faculty of Business, Gardens Point, QUT
Thesis Title: Brisbane Suburban Center Improvement Projects - A case study of the catalysts and barriers to corporate social responsibility at the neighbourhood level.
Current Thesis Abstract: Current projections for the South East Queensland region estimate a population of 3,709,000 people by 2026, an increase of around 1.05 million people, or almost 50,000 each year on average (Office of Urban Management, 2006). This growth together with trends towards smaller households will require an estimated 550,000 new dwellings and a demand for 425,000 new jobs in the region by 2026. Associated needs for infrastructure to cope with social, economic and environmental pressures within communities will increase reflecting this growth.
Despite these growth projections in Australia 's fastest growing region, funding for community infrastructure and programs is largely reliant on non-compulsory contributions by the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. There are no official and shared minimal levels of community services and infrastructure for the region other than in education and health. Based on the time between previous regional plans, it could be sixteen years before the need to invest in social infrastructure through a SEQ Regional Infrastructure Plan is readdressed.
As growth continues the demands on the public purse for infrastructure increase. As an alternative to public sector funding, public policy has turned to consider the responsibilities of the private sector in community initiatives based on the principle of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Increasing numbers of businesses in Australia are now involved in some form of giving. The Giving Australia report found that business contributions of money and volunteering doubled between the period 2000/1 and 2003/4.
One of the recent international models for investment in the public realm by local businesses is based on business property owners collectives within a local area. In the United Kingdom these are referred to as Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), in the United States of America and Canada they are called Business Improvement Areas, in South Africa and New Zealand as Commercial Improvement Districts (CIDs) and in Brisbane as Suburban Centre Improvement Projects (SCIPs). With circumstantial differences in each case, in general terms, this business collective model involves an initial voluntary grouping of local businesses agreeing to contribute financially to a plan for improvements to their area that will meet a set of objectives. The outcomes targeted through the agreed plan generally start with aesthetic priorities and move to encompass more community-benefit related objectives, where community includes those who work in the location (Williams, 2005).
This research will fill this gap by identifying the circumstances that are conducive and detrimental to this form of corporate social responsibility. Initially, through comparing the meaning and symbols behind businesses giving in case study SCIPs in Brisbane it will build a theory on why businesses engage in SCIPs. In this way this research will provide an evidence base to guide policy initiatives to support the growth of CSR at the neighbourhood level in Brisbane and more widely.
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