One of the questions that often emerge regards whether businesses operating in a particular environment or community should be involved in helping the local communities address their local challenges. An evaluation of Ker’s article indicate that this firm sought to help the local communities in Kwale, Kenya, revive the planting of cotton as a way to improve their economic livelihood. Ker clearly highlights that ASX-listed Base Resources had limited resources and its investment in the local community could either fail, or could have significant depleted the resources of company, thus making it make either low profits or even losses. From the perspective of the efficiency theory, the sole purpose of businesses is to maximise profits as long as it does not violate the established rules, laws and regulations in the environment in which it operates (Cooke 2011). Whereas this is the case, Cooke (2011) argues that multinational corporations should adopt the principles of the social responsibility theory, which argues that for a firm to be perceived as socially responsible, it needs to go beyond maximising profits to ensuring that they improve the quality of lives of its stakeholders including employees, families and the local communities. With this in mind, this author affirms that through adopting such principles, firms would benefits in a number of ways including gaining a positive brand image on the global scene, thus enhancing its acceptability on the market. The importance of corporate governance and particularly corporate social responsibility is further emphasized by Jackson (2008) who argues that firms should engage in such activities as a way to promote the preservation of human rights of the communities in which they operate. In this case, Jackson (2008) reiterates that when firms act in a manner that promotes human fulfilment, they help emphasise the importance of human rights in their activities.
经常出现的问题之一是，在特定环境或社区中运营的企业是否应该参与帮助当地社区应对当地挑战。对克尔文章的评估表明，该公司试图帮助肯尼亚夸尔的当地社区恢复棉花种植，以此改善他们的经济生活。Ker明确强调，在ASX上市的基础资源有限，其在当地社区的投资可能会失败，或者可能会严重耗尽公司的资源，从而使其利润低下甚至亏损。从效率理论的角度来看，企业的目的是利润更大化，只要它不违反其经营环境中的既定规则、法律和法规（Cooke 2011）。鉴于这种情况，Cooke（2011）认为，跨国公司应采用社会责任理论的原则，该理论认为，企业要被视为具有社会责任感，就需要超越利润更大化，确保其改善包括员工在内的利益相关者的生活质量，家庭和当地社区。有鉴于此，本文作者确认，通过采用这些原则，企业将在许多方面受益，包括在全球舞台上获得积极的品牌形象，从而提高其在市场上的可接受性。Jackson（2008）进一步强调了公司治理，特别是公司社会责任的重要性，他认为，公司应参与此类活动，以此促进维护其经营所在社区的人权。在这种情况下，Jackson（2008）重申，当企业以促进人类实现的方式行事时，它们有助于在其活动中强调人权的重要性。
In addition to this, there is a need to observe that the Ker’s article on the approach that ASX-listed Base Resources is a pointer to the fact that firms, and particularly those with limited funds can enhance their corporate image on the globe scene through their social innovative ideas. In reference to Willis (2003), there is a growing demand for information on companies, their performance, practices and policies as well as their social investment activities in order to establish their impact not only on the environment but also on the local community. Note whereas large firms have significant social investment programs and their impact on the local communities and the environments is well documented, this could be a challenge to small firms that have limited finances. However, as Ker’s article on ASX-listed Base Resources’ activities in Kenya reveals, firms no longer need to wait to achieve massive financial growth to have a positive impact on the environment and the local community. On the contrary, they only need to engage different partners who have similar interests as their own to enhance their profiles on the independent global standards organizations such as Global Reporting Initiative, which helps firms and governments gain insights and communicate their impact on corporate governance, as well as social and environmental issues.
除此之外，需要注意的是，Ker关于ASX上市基础资源方法的文章指出了一个事实，即企业，尤其是那些资金有限的企业，可以通过其社会创新理念提升其在全球的企业形象。关于Willis（2003年），人们越来越需要关于公司、其业绩、做法和政策以及其社会投资活动的信息，以便确定其不仅对环境而且对当地社区的影响。注：大公司有重要的社会投资项目，其对当地社区和环境的影响有据可查，但这对资金有限的小公司来说可能是一个挑战。然而，正如克尔在关于澳大利亚证券交易所（ASX）上市的基础资源公司在肯尼亚的活动的文章中所揭示的那样，企业不再需要等待实现大规模的金融增长才能对环境和当地社区产生积极影响。相反，他们只需要与与自身利益相似的不同合作伙伴接触，以增强其在独立全球标准组织（如全球报告倡议）中的形象，这有助于企业和政府获得见解并传达其对公司治理的影响，以及社会和环境问题。
Whereas there are different arguments that could be put forth to promote aspects such as corporate social responsibility as a critical component of corporate governance, there have always arisen questions on its viability considering financial implication. Whereas this is the case, Ker’s article on the corporate social responsibility approach adopted by ASX-listed Base Resources indicates that firms ought not to shun engagement in corporate social responsibility activities for fear of the financial implications involved. According to Ker (2017), rather than engage in direct investment of its finances in improving the conditions of the local communities, ASX-listed Base Resources, through social innovation, focused on creating an enabling environment to economically empower the local communities. In this case, the company identified cotton farming as something that has been successfully done in Kwale and as such, through the use of the right approach, this could easily be achieved with minimal financial implications. Thus, Ker notes that ASX-listed Base Resources engaged other partners to provide finding, technical advice and the materials needed for interested members of the local communities to establish cotton farms. In most cases, most corporations assume that when corporate social responsibility is mentioned, then they have to engage in heavy financial investment in the local communities. For example, an evaluation of Kansas City Chefs reveals that this sports franchise has a corporate social responsibility model that focuses on heavy investment in the lives of the local communities (Thorne, Ferrell and Ferrell 2011). However, this should not always be the case. On the contrary, as ASX-listed Base Resources’ corporate social responsibility model indicates, firms, particularly those with limited funds, can facilitate the local communities’ access to social innovations that could empower their lives.
虽然可以提出不同的论点来促进公司社会责任等方面，将其作为公司治理的一个关键组成部分，但考虑到财务影响，总是会出现关于其可行性的问题。鉴于这种情况，Ker关于ASX上市基础资源公司采用的企业社会责任方法的文章指出，企业不应该因为担心涉及财务影响而回避参与企业社会责任活动。根据Ker（2017）的说法，ASX上市的基础资源不是直接投资于改善当地社区的条件，而是通过社会创新，专注于创造一个有利的环境，在经济上赋予当地社区权力。在这种情况下，该公司将棉花种植确定为在夸尔成功完成的一项工作，因此，通过使用正确的方法，可以轻松实现这一目标，且财务影响最小。因此，Ker指出，ASX列出的基地资源公司与其他合作伙伴合作，为当地社区感兴趣的成员提供建立棉花农场所需的调查结果、技术建议和材料。在大多数情况下，大多数公司认为，当提到公司的社会责任时，他们必须在当地社区进行大量的财政投资。例如，对堪萨斯城厨师的评估显示，这家体育特许经营公司有一个企业社会责任模式，该模式侧重于对当地社区生活的大量投资（Thorne、Ferrell和Ferrell，2011年）。然而，情况并不总是如此。相反，正如ASX列出的基础资源公司的企业社会责任模型所表明的那样，企业，特别是那些资金有限的企业，可以促进当地社区获得能够赋予其生活能力的社会创新。