Element contents
Series: Elements in Business Strategy
Corporate Social Responsibility
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2019
Summary
This Element offers a thought-provoking and critical examination of corporate social responsibility (CSR). CSR has entered the boardroom and become a mainstream management concept for businesses to address their ethical, social and environmental responsibilities towards society. CSR does not come without contestation, and firms engage in CSR for different reasons and exhibit different patterns of CSR activities. These activities range from sincere action with substantial social or environmental improvements to symbolic impression management and the creation of a CSR-façade that is little more than empty words. This Element illuminates and scrutinizes contemporary approaches to CSR and offers a fresh perspective for scholars, managers and decision-makers interested in the societal role of business firms beyond maximizing profitability. Christopher Wickert and David Risi take a step back from how CSR is currently understood and practiced, and stimulate readers to reflect on how to move CSR forward towards a more inclusive concept.
Keywords
- Type
- Element
- Information
- Series: Elements in Business StrategyOnline ISBN: 9781108775298Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication: 04 July 2019
References
Banerjee, B. (2008). Corporate social responsibility: the good, the bad and the ugly. Critical Sociology, 34, 51–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bansal, P., & Song, H.-C. (2017). Similar but not the same: Differentiating corporate responsibility from sustainability. Academy of Management Annals, 11, 105–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnett, M. L. (2007). Stakeholder influence capacity and the variability of financial returns to corporate social responsibility. Academy of Management Review, 32, 794–816.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barney, J. B. (1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Management, 17, 99–120.Google Scholar
Baumann-Pauly, D., Wickert, C., Spence, L., & Scherer, A. G. (2013). Organizing corporate social responsibility in small and large firms: Size matters. Journal of Business Ethics, 115(4), 693–705.Google Scholar
Berliner, D., & Prakash, A. (2015). ‘Bluewashing’ the firm? Voluntary regulations, program design, and member compliance with the United Nations Global Compact. Policy Studies Journal, 43(1), 115–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berrone, P., Cruz, C., Gomez-Mejia, L., & Larraza-Kintana, M. (2010). Socioemotional wealth and corporate responses to institutional pressures: Do family-controlled firms pollute less? Administrative Science Quarterly, 55, 82–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bitaraf, K. (2015). The evolution of CSR drivers. Unpublished working paper. Amsterdam: Vrije Universiteit.Google Scholar
Bondy, K., Moon, J., & Matten, D. (2012). An institution of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in multinational corporations (MNCs): Form and implications. Journal of Business Ethics, 111, 281–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowen, H. R. (1953). Social Responsibilities of the Businessman. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Bowen, F. (2014). After Greenwashing: Symbolic Corporate Environmentalism and Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Brammer, S., & Millington, A. (2008). Does it pay to be different? An analysis of the relationship between corporate social and financial performance. Strategic Management Journal, 29, 1325–43.Google Scholar
Bromley, P., & Powell, W. W. (2012). From smoke and mirrors to walking the talk: Decoupling in the contemporary world. Academy of Management Annals, 6(1), 483–530.Google Scholar
Campbell, J. L. (2007). Why would corporations behave in socially responsible ways? An institutional theory of corporate social responsibility. Academy of Management Review, 32, 946–67.Google Scholar
Carroll, A. B. (1991). The pyramid of corporate social responsibility: Toward the moral management of organizational stakeholders. Business Horizons, 34(4), 39–48.Google Scholar
Christensen, L., Morsing, M., & Thyssen, O. (2013). CSR as aspirational talk. Organization, 20, 372–93.Google Scholar
Christmann, P., & Taylor, G. (2006). Firm self-regulation through international certifiable standards: Determinants of symbolic versus substantive implementation. Journal of International Business Studies, 37, 863–78.Google Scholar
Crane, A. (2013). Modern slavery as a management practice: Exploring the conditions and capabilities for human exploitation. Academy of Management Review, 38(1), 49–69.Google Scholar
Crane, A., Palazzo, G., Spence, L., & Matten, D. (2014). Contesting the value of ‘Creating Shared Value’. California Management Review, 56, 130–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delmas, M. & Burbano, V. (2011). The drivers of greenwashing. California Management Review, 54, 64–87.Google Scholar
Delmas, M., Etzion, D., & Nairn-Birch, N. (2013). Triangulating environmental performance: what do corporate social responsibility ratings really capture? Academy of Management Perspectives, 27, 255–67.Google Scholar
Devinney, T. M. (2009). Is the socially responsible corporation a myth? The good, the bad, and the ugly of corporate social responsibility. Academy of Management Perspectives, 23, 44–56.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, P. J., & Powell, W. W. (1983). The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48(2), 147–60.Google Scholar
Donaldson, T., & Preston, L. E. (1995). The stakeholder theory of the corporation: Concepts, evidence, and implications. Academy of Management Review, 20, 65–91.Google Scholar
Dowell, G., & Muthulingam, S. (2017). Will firms go green if it pays? The impact of disruption, cost, and external factors on the adoption of environmental initiatives. Strategic Management Journal, 38, 1287–304.Google Scholar
Dowling, G. R. (2014). The curious case of corporate tax avoidance: Is it socially irresponsible? Journal of Business Ethics, 124, 173–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flammer, C. (2013). Corporate social responsibility and shareholder reaction: The environmental awareness of investors. Academy of Management Journal, 56, 758–81.Google Scholar
Fleming, P., & Jones, B. (2013). The End of Corporate Social Responsibility: Crisis and Critique. London: SAGE.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flyverbom, M., Deibert, R., & Matten, D. (2019). The governance of digital technology, big data, and the internet: New roles and responsibilities for business. Business & Society, 58, 3–19.Google Scholar
Freeman, R. E., Harrison, JS., & Zyglidopoulos, S. (2018). Stakeholder Theory: Concepts and Strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Friedman, M. (1970). The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. New York Times Magazine, September 13.Google Scholar
George, G., Howard-Grenville, J., Joshi, A., & Tihanyi, L. (2016). Understanding and tackling societal grand challenges through management research. Academy of Management Journal, 59, 1880–95.Google Scholar
Haack, P., Schoeneborn, D., & Wickert, C. M. J. (2012). Talking the talk, moral entrapment, creeping commitment? Exploring narrative dynamics in corporate responsibility standardization. Organization Studies, 33(5–6), 815–45.Google Scholar
Habermas, J. (2001). The Postnational Constellation: Political Essays. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Halme, M., Rintamäki, J., Knudsen, JS., Lankoski, L., & Kuisma, M. (2018). When is there a sustainability case for CSR? Pathways to environmental and social performance improvements. Business & Society, 1–47. https://doi.org/10.1177/0007650318755648Google Scholar
Hawn, O., & Ioannou, I. (2016). Mind the gap: The interplay between external and internal actions in the case of corporate social responsibility. Strategic Management Journal, 37(13), 2569–88.Google Scholar
Hemingway, C. A., & Maclagan, P. W. (2004). Managers’ personal values as drivers of corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 50(1), 33–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jensen, M. C. (2002). Value maximization, stakeholder theory, and the corporate objective function. Business Ethics Quarterly, 12(2), 235–56.Google Scholar
Jones, T. M. (1995). Instrumental stakeholder theory: A synthesis of ethics and economics. Academy of Management Review, 20, 404–37.Google Scholar
Karpoff, J. M. (2014). The grey areas of firm behaviour: an economic perspective. Socio-Economic Review, 12, 167–76.Google Scholar
Kim, Y. H., & Davis, G. F. (2016). Challenges for global supply chain sustainability: Evidence from conflict minerals reports. Academy of Management Journal, 59(6), 1896–916.Google Scholar
King, A. A., & Lenox, M. J. (2000). Industry self-regulation without sanctions: the chemical industry’s responsible care program. Academy of Management Journal, 43(4), 698–716.Google Scholar
Kolk, A., Kourula, A., & Pisani, N. (2017). Multinational enterprises and the Sustainable Development Goals: what do we know and how to proceed? Transnational Corporations, 24(3), 9–32.Google Scholar
Kourula, A., Moon, J., Salles-Djelic, M. L., & Wickert, C. (2019). New roles of government in the governance of business conduct: Implications for management and organizational research. Organization Studies, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Lester, S. E., Costello, C., Rassweiler, A., Gaines, S. D., & Deacon, R. (2013). Encourage sustainability by giving credit for marine protected areas in seafood certification. PLoS Biology 11(12), e1001730.Google Scholar
Lyon, T. P., & Maxwell, J. W. (2011). Greenwash: Environmental disclosure under threat of audit. Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, 20(1), 3–41.Google Scholar
Lyon, T., & Montgomery, A. (2015). The means and end of greenwash. Organization & Environment, 28, 223–49.Google Scholar
Margolis, J. D., & Walsh, J. P. (2003). Misery loves companies: Rethinking social initiatives by business. Administrative Science Quarterly, 48, 268–305.Google Scholar
Marquis, C., & Toffel, M. (2012). When do firms greenwash? Corporate visibility, civil society scrutiny, and environmental disclosure. Working Paper: Harvard Business School.Google Scholar
Marquis, C., & Qian, C. (2014). Corporate social responsibility reporting in China: Symbol or substance? Organization Science, 25(1), 127–48.Google Scholar
Marquis, C., & Tilcsik, A. (2016) Institutional equivalence: How industry and community peers influence corporate philanthropy. Organization Science 27(5), 1325–41.Google Scholar
Marquis, C., Toffel, M., & Zhou, Y. (2016). Scrutiny, norms, and selective disclosure: A global study of greenwashing. Organization Science, 27(2), 483–504.Google Scholar
Matten, D., & Crane, A. (2005). Corporate citizenship: Toward an extended theoretical conceptualization. Academy of Management Review, 30(1), 166–79.Google Scholar
Matten, D., & Moon, J. (2008). ‘Implicit’ and ‘explicit’ CSR: A conceptual framework for a comparative understanding of corporate social responsibility. Academy of Management Review, 33(2), 404–24.Google Scholar
McWilliams, A., & Siegel, D. (2001). Corporate social responsibility: A theory of the firm perspective. Academy of Management Review, 26, 117–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, J., & Rowan, B. (1977). Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology, 83, 340–63.Google Scholar
Mitchell, R. K., Agle, B. R., & Wood, D. J. (1997). Toward a theory of stakeholder identification and salience: Defining the principle of who and what really counts. Academy of Management Review, 22, 853–86.Google Scholar
Muller, A., & Kolk, A. (2015). Responsible Tax as Corporate Social Responsibility: The Case of Multinational Enterprises and Effective Tax in India. Business & Society, 54, 435–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orlitzky, M., Schmidt, F. L., & Rynes, S. L. (2003). Corporate social and financial performance: A meta-analysis. Organization Studies, 24(3), 403–41.Google Scholar
Ormiston, M. E., & Wong, E. M. (2013). License to ill: The effects of corporate social responsibility and CEO moral identity on corporate social irresponsibility. Personnel Psychology, 66, 861–93.Google Scholar
Paine, L. S. (1994). Managing for organizational integrity. Harvard Business Review, 1994, 72(2), 106–17.Google Scholar
Palazzo, G., & Richter, U. (2005). CSR business as usual? The case of the tobacco industry. Journal of Business Ethics, 61, 387–401.Google Scholar
Porter, M. E., & Kramer, M. R. (2006). Strategy and society: The link between competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility. Harvard Business Review, 84(12), 78–92.Google Scholar
Porter, M. E., & Kramer, M. R. (2011). The big idea: Creating shared value. Harvard Business Review, 89(1–2), 62–67.Google Scholar
Reinecke, J., & Ansari, S. (2016). Taming wicked problems: The role of framing in the construction of corporate social responsibility. Journal of Management Studies, 53, 299–329.Google Scholar
Risi, D. (2013). Compliance and its effectiveness in preventing unethical behavior: Analysis of the Siemens Business Conduct Guidelines. In Brändli, Sandra, Schister, Roman, & Tamò, Aurelia (eds.): Multinationale Unternehmen und Institutionen im Wandel - Herausforderungen für Wirtschaft, Recht und Gesellschaft. Bern: Stämpfli, 291-310.Google Scholar
Risi, D. (2016). Longitudinal comparison between CSR implementation and CSR function’s resource access. Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings, 2016(1), 25–28, DOI:10.5465/AMBPP.2016.69.Google Scholar
Risi, D. (2018). Time and business sustainability: Socially responsible investing in Swiss banks and insurance companies. Business & Society, 1–31, DOI:10.1177/0007650318777721.Google Scholar
Risi, D., & Wickert, C. (2017). Reconsidering the ‘symmetry’ between institutionalization and professionalization: The case of corporate social responsibility managers. Journal of Management Studies, 54(5), 613–46.Google Scholar
Scherer, A. G., & Palazzo, G. (2007). Toward a political conception of corporate responsibility: Business and society seen from a Habermasian perspective. Academy of Management Review, 32(4), 1096–120.Google Scholar
Scherer, A. G., & Palazzo, G. (2011). The new political role of business in a globalized world: A review of a new perspective on CSR and its implications for the firm, governance, and democracy. Journal of Management Studies, 48(4), 899–931.Google Scholar
Schrempf, J. (2014). A social connection approach to corporate responsibility: The case of the fast-food industry and obesity. Business & Society, 53(2), 300–32.Google Scholar
Scott, W. R. (2008). Approaching adulthood: The maturing of institutional theory. Theory and Society, 37, 427–42.Google Scholar
Shabana, K. M., Buchholtz, A. K., & Carroll, A. B. (2017). The institutionalization of corporate social responsibility reporting. Business & Society, 56(8), 1107–35.Google Scholar
Sharma, S., & Henriques, I. (2005). Stakeholder influence on sustainability practices in the Canadian forest products industry. Strategic Management Journal, 26(2), 159–80.Google Scholar
Strand, R. (2013). The chief officer of corporate social responsibility: A study of its presence in top management teams. Journal for Business Ethics, 112(4), 721–34.Google Scholar
Surroca, J., Tribó, J. A., & Zahra, S. (2013). Stakeholder pressure on MNEs and the transfer of socially irresponsible practices to subsidiaries. Academy of Management Journal, 56, 549–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tashman, P., Marano, V., & Kostova, T. (2019). Walking the walk or talking the talk? Corporate social responsibility decoupling in emerging market multinationals. Journal of International Business Studies, 50(2), 153–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, J. R., & Cooren, F. (1997). What makes communication ‘organizational’? How the many voices of a collectivity become the one voice of an organization. Journal of Pragmatics 27: 409–38.Google Scholar
Vogel, D. J. (2005). Is there a market for virtue? The business case for corporate social responsibility. California Management Review, 47(4), 19–45.Google Scholar
Vishwanathan, P., van Oosterhout, H. J., Heugens, P.P.M.A.R., Duran, P., & van Essen, M. (2019). Strategic CSR: a concept building meta-analysis. Journal of Management Studies.Google Scholar
Waddock, S. (2008). Building a new institutional infrastructure for corporate responsibility. Academy of Management Perspectives, 22, 87–108.Google Scholar
Wang, Q., Dou, J., & Jia, S. (2016). A meta-analytic review of corporate social responsibility and corporate financial performance: The moderating effect of contextual factors. Business & Society, 55(8), 1083–121.Google Scholar
Wickert, C. (2016). Managing ‘political’ corporate social responsibility in small- and medium-sized enterprises: A conceptual framework. Business & Society, 55(6), 792–824.Google Scholar
Wickert, C., Scherer, A. G., & Spence, L. J. (2016). Walking and talking corporate social responsibility: Implications of firm size and organizational cost. Journal of Management Studies, 53, 1169–96.Google Scholar
Wickert, C., & de Bakker, F. G. A. (2018). Pitching for social change: Towards a relational approach to selling and buying social issues. Academy of Management Discoveries, 4(1), 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Windsor, D. (2006). Corporate social responsibility: Three key approaches. Journal of Management Studies, 43(1), 93–114.Google Scholar
Wood, D. J. (1991). Corporate social performance revisited. Academy of Management Review, 16, 691–718.Google Scholar
Yoon, Y., Gürhan-Canli, Z., & Schwarz, N. (2006). The effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities on companies with bad reputations. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 16, 377–90.Google Scholar
Young, I. (2004). Responsibility and global labor justice. Journal of Political Philosophy, 12(4), 365–88.Google Scholar
Zadek, S. (2004). The path to corporate responsibility. Harvard Business Review, 82(12), 125–32.Google Scholar
- 37
- Cited by