Corporate Social Responsibility as Business Strategy

منو

" Corporate Social Responsibility as Business Strategy "
Rowe, James

Document Type	:	AL
Record Number	:	909717
Doc. No	:	LA5dq43315
Title & Author	:	Corporate Social Responsibility as Business Strategy [Article]\ Rowe, James
Date	:	2005
Title of Periodical	:	UC Santa Cruz
Abstract	:	I argue that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), particularly the corporate code of conduct, has been one of global business’ preferred strategies for quelling popular discontent with corporate power. By “business strategy” I mean organized responses, through organizations like the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), to the threat public regulation poses to business’s collective self-interest. Attention to CSR’s historical development reveals it has flourished as discourse and practice at times when corporations became subject to intense public scrutiny. In this essay I outline two periods of corporate crisis, and account for the role codes have played in quieting public concern over increasing corporate power: 1) When developing countries along with Western unions and social activists were calling for a ‘New International Economic Order’ that would more tightly regulate the activity of Transnational Corporations (1960-1976); and 2) When mass anti-globalization demonstrations and high profile corporate scandals are increasing the demand for regulation (1998-Present).