Corporate responsibility and the movement of business

Abstract

The corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda has taken off since the 1980s, with both civil society and business actors involved in mobilising around it. This paper examines the reasons for civil society mobilisation on CSR issues, the types of organisations involved, and their different forms of activism and relations with business. It then identifies the ways in which big business is engaging with and shaping the CSR agenda, but questions whether this agenda can effectively contribute to development. The paper argues that the CSR agenda can deal with some of the worst symptoms of maldevelopment, such as poor working conditions, pollution, and poor factory–community relations, but that it does not deal with the key political and economic mechanisms through which transnational companies undermine the development prospects of poor countries. A final section considers how this agenda may evolve on the basis of recent developments in CSR activism and regulation.

Acknowledgements

Thanks are extended to Kate Ives, Désirée Abrahams, and Anita Tombez at UNRISD for research assistance and editorial support.

Notes

1 The term ‘civil regulation’ suggests a third arena of regulatory action, which is distinguished from ‘corporate self-regulation’ and legalistic forms of government and international regulation (Murphy and Bendell 1999).

2 In practice, many of the organisations mentioned as examples in this section engage simultaneously in several types of activism, combining, for example, watchdog activities with public education and advocacy; or critical research with collaborative forms of dialogue and training.

3 This list of CSOs does not include so-called business-interest NGOs that are more directly associated with corporate interests, whether ideologically, financially, or through their governance structures. Nor does it include research and academic organisations associated with institutions of higher education, which may also engage in a range of CSR-related activities. It should also be noted that some organisations that are often associated with NGOs or ‘civil society’ are, in fact, legally constituted as companies—SustainAbility and Covalence, for example.

4 Greenpeace is legally constituted as a company.

5 Global Framework Agreements, negotiated between an international trade union organisation and a TNC, establish a set of standards related to labour relations and working conditions that the TNC agrees to implement throughout its global structure.

6 Various reasons may account for this, including, for example, involvement in ethical trading activities, the desire to generate profits that can be used partly to support ‘good’ causes, and the need to acquire legal and financial safeguards associated with limited liability.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Peter Utting

where he coordinates an international research programme on corporate social responsibility and development