- The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Editor Biographies
- Author Biographies
- The Corporate Social Responsibility Agenda
- A History of Corporate Social Responsibility: Concepts and Practices
- Corporate Social Responsibility Theories
- The Business Case for Corporate Social Responsibility
- Corporate Social Performance and Financial Performance: A Research Synthesis
- Principals and Agents: Further Thoughts on the Friedmanite Critique of Corporate Social Responsibility
- Rethinking Corporate Social Responsibility and the Role of the Firm—On the Denial of Politics
- Critical Theory and Corporate Social Responsibility : Can/Should We Get Beyond Cynical Reasoning?
- Much Ado about Nothing: A Conceptual Critique of Corporate Social Responsibility
- Top Managers as Drivers for Corporate Social Responsibility
- Socially Responsible Investment and Shareholder Activism
- Consumers as Drivers of Corporate Social Responsibility
- Corporate Social Responsibility, Government, and Civil Society
- Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility
- Stakeholder Theory: Managing Corporate Social Responsibility in a Multiple Actor Context
- Responsibility in the Supply Chain
- Corporate Social Responsibility: The Reporting and Assurance Dimension
- Globalization and Corporate Social Responsibility
- Corporate Social Responsibility and Theories of Global Governance: Strategic Contestation in Global Issue Arenas
- Corporate Social Responsibility in a Comparative Perspective
- Corporate Social Responsibility in Developing Countries
- Educating for Responsible Management
- Corporate Social Responsibility: Deep Roots, Flourishing Growth, Promising Future
- Senior Management Preferences and Corporate Social Responsibility
- The Transatlantic Paradox: How Outdated Concepts Confuse the American/European Debate about Corporate Governance
- Spirituality as a Firm Basis for Corporate Social Responsibility
- Future Perspectives of Corporate Social Responsibility : Where we are Coming from? Where are we Heading?
- Conclusion
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
This article refutes the underlying conceptual need for corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the first place. All told, these critiques offer some serious challenges to the CSR field, although the conclusions reached by each of the contributors differ as to their degree of optimism or pessimism regarding its potential. The conceptual critique of the CSR concept is structured as follows. First, this article introduces some distinctions for evaluating CSR as an academic concept. It then sketches a short history of CSR concept formation, and elaborates on definitions and operationalizations of the CSR concept. Finding that CSR is problematic both theoretically and empirically, it proceeds to explore what—if any—role remains for the notion of CSR in business and society research. It concludes that it would be prudent for the field to dispense with the notion of CSR altogether.
Keywords: corporate social responsibility, CSR field, academic concept, business, society research
J. (Hans) Van Oosterhout is a Professor of Corporate Governance and Responsibility at RSM Erasmus University. He holds an MA in Political Science from Leiden University, and a Ph.D. in Organization Theory from Erasmus University. His research interests pertain to the positive and normative theory of organizations and institutions, corporate governance, and the relationship between economic, legal, and political institutions in general.
Pursey P. M. A. R. Heugens is Professor of Organization Theory at RSM Erasmus University. He holds a Ph.D. in Management from RSM Erasmus University (2001). Research interests include Business Ethics and Positive and Normative Organization Theory. Pursey Heugens has published some 30 articles in journals like the Academy of Management Review, Strategic Organization, Organization Studies, Journal of Business Ethics, and Journal of Management Studies. He serves on the editorial board of six scholarly journals, and is a representative at large of the Academy of Management's Social Issues in Management Division.
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- The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Editor Biographies
- Author Biographies
- The Corporate Social Responsibility Agenda
- A History of Corporate Social Responsibility: Concepts and Practices
- Corporate Social Responsibility Theories
- The Business Case for Corporate Social Responsibility
- Corporate Social Performance and Financial Performance: A Research Synthesis
- Principals and Agents: Further Thoughts on the Friedmanite Critique of Corporate Social Responsibility
- Rethinking Corporate Social Responsibility and the Role of the Firm—On the Denial of Politics
- Critical Theory and Corporate Social Responsibility : Can/Should We Get Beyond Cynical Reasoning?
- Much Ado about Nothing: A Conceptual Critique of Corporate Social Responsibility
- Top Managers as Drivers for Corporate Social Responsibility
- Socially Responsible Investment and Shareholder Activism
- Consumers as Drivers of Corporate Social Responsibility
- Corporate Social Responsibility, Government, and Civil Society
- Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility
- Stakeholder Theory: Managing Corporate Social Responsibility in a Multiple Actor Context
- Responsibility in the Supply Chain
- Corporate Social Responsibility: The Reporting and Assurance Dimension
- Globalization and Corporate Social Responsibility
- Corporate Social Responsibility and Theories of Global Governance: Strategic Contestation in Global Issue Arenas
- Corporate Social Responsibility in a Comparative Perspective
- Corporate Social Responsibility in Developing Countries
- Educating for Responsible Management
- Corporate Social Responsibility: Deep Roots, Flourishing Growth, Promising Future
- Senior Management Preferences and Corporate Social Responsibility
- The Transatlantic Paradox: How Outdated Concepts Confuse the American/European Debate about Corporate Governance
- Spirituality as a Firm Basis for Corporate Social Responsibility
- Future Perspectives of Corporate Social Responsibility : Where we are Coming from? Where are we Heading?
- Conclusion
- Index
