Systemic Corporate Social Responsibility

Beal, B. D. & Neesham, C. 2016. Systemic corporate social responsibility: Micro-to-macro transitions, collective outcomes, and self-regulation. Social Responsibility Journal, 12(2): 209-227. [journal, project]

Abstract:

We call attention to the need to revitalize the systemic nature of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and offer some suggestions about how this might be accomplished. We introduce the concept of systemic CSR and associate it with micro-to-macro transitions, the need to make systemic objectives explicit, and the responsibility of system participants to regulate their behavior in order to contribute to these outcomes. We comment, from a systemic perspective, on four different management approaches to CSR—shareholder value, corporate social performance, stakeholder theory and corporate citizenship. Three general systemic principles that participants can use as decision-making guides are a focus on value creation, ongoing assessment of collective outcomes, and reflective engagement in the aggregation process. We conclude by commenting briefly on suggestions for future research.

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