Corporate Social Responsibility as Mutual Governance: International Interactions of Government, Civil Society and Business

Abstract

There is a growing management literature on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), broadly the responsibility of business to society. Moreover, much of the literature tends to stress either 1) a particular actor perspective (e.g. firms, business associations, governments, civil society), or 2) a particular sphere (e.g. national, sectoral and global) with a particular governance relationship built in. We aim to clarify the debate on the governance of CSR and propose a more comprehensive understanding of CSR governance. We suggest that CSR governance can be conceived of as mutual governance involving two elements: 1) rather than focus on each actor category in isolation we highlight the interactions between them, particularly what we describe as ‘regulatory configurations’; and 2) rather than focus on CSR initiatives as either reflecting home country government programs and largely ignoring the international dimension or reflecting global governance that compensates for weak domestic governance, we highlight how governments can contribute to shaping CSR governance interactions across borders.

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, New Governance, National, International