The Meaning of Shared Value: Routledge Frontiers of Political Economy

1. Introduction
2. The starting point: Creating Shared Value, the Big Idea, and following debate
2.1. The self-styled ‘Big Idea’: Creating Shared Value
2.2. The opponents’ position and the main criticisms to CSV
2.3. The defenders of CSV
2.4. The middle position: cautious enthusiasm and constructive criticism
2.5. What about our perspective?
3. A critical exegesis of the meaning of value
3.1. What essentially is value?
3.2. The beginnings: the concept of value in Economics
3.3. The creation of the false dichotomy
3.3.1. The concept of value in Financial and Strategic Management
3.3.2. A walk around a ‘socially sensitive’ stream: stakeholder theory and CSR literature
3.4 Value creation vs value capture: the distributional question
4. The disputed naïveté of CSV and its roots in a primordial contrast
4.1. A naive or rather an optimist concept?
4.2. Philosophical roots of Optimism and Pessimism
4.3. Towards a rationally founded Optimism
5. Concluding reflections

Paolo Ricci is a Full Professor of Business Administration and Public Accountability at the University of Naples Federico II, Italy. He coordinated several international research projects and he is a member of numerous editorial committees. Paolo was also member of the economic policy Staff of the Italian President of the Council of Ministers (2020–2021). His research studies and publications primarily focus on corporate social responsibility, accountability and social reporting, mainly in the public sector.
Patrick O’Sullivan is Full Professor at Grenoble Ecole de Management, France. He served as Director of Studies (2006–2009) and Head of Department of People Organisations and Society (2009–2012). His research interests include Critical Scientific Methodology, Business Ethics, Transport Policy issues and System Timetabling/Planning, a field in which he has some consultancy experience.
Floriana Fusco is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Sannio, Italy. She is a member of the scientific committee of Mecosan journal and a member of several national and international academic societies. Her main research fields include social responsibility and sustainability reporting, coproduction and co-creation of value, third mission and entrepreneurial universities.