Disrobing the emperor: mainstream CSR research and corporate hegemony

• Published in: Management of environmental quality Vol. 20; no. 3; pp. 335 - 346
• Main Author: Jones, Marc T
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bradford Emerald Group Publishing Limited 01.01.2009
• Subjects: Abandonment; Blockage; Business schools; Coherence; Corporate responsibility; Corporate social responsibility; Economics; Employees; Environmental quality; Ethics; Executives; Externality; Globalization; Hegemony; Management; Multinational corporations; Positioning; Relocation; Social responsibility; Society; Stakeholders; Stockholders; Streams; Studies; Transnational companies; Corporate social responsibility; Globalization; Hegemony; Transnational companies
• ISSN: 1477-7835; 1758-6119
• DOI: 10.1108/14777830910950720

Purpose - This paper aims to utilise a typological matrix as the basis to categorise various corporate-society interventions. It aims to argue that an instrumental version of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is hegemonic in both the theoretical and normative domains of mainstream research, and that this hegemony underpins an intellectual blockage that prevents the field from achieving critical reflexivity and ultimately, a justifiable raison d'eˆtre.Design methodology approach - The paper reflects on the extant CSR literature in the context of globalisation; presents a two-dimensional typological matrix to be used in positioning corporate-society interventions; provides examples of particular activities relevant to each quadrant of the matrix; and considers the wider political economy of CSR research.Findings - The logical implications of the corporation as an institution behaving in increasing accordance with the normative expectations of mainstream CSR scholarship will likely lead in the direction of increasing corporate hegemony.Practical implications - The paper proposes the adoption of the more theoretically coherent and empirically precise terms enlightened self-interest and corporate social irresponsibility in CSR and related research streams, as well as the institutional relocation of much future CSR research to disciplinary areas outside of the business school.Originality value - The typological matrix presented in this paper offers a new way of locating corporate-society interventions. The partial abandonment of the term "CSR" by researchers, as well as the institutional relocations of much CSR research, are original notions.