Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T02:20:04.117Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Citizenship, Inc. Do We Really Want Businesses to Be Good Corporate Citizens?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Pierre-Yves Néron  and
Wayne Norman
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Are there any advantages to thinking and speaking about ethical business in the language of citizenship? We will address this question in part by looking at the possible relevance of a vast literature on individual citizenship that has been produced by political philosophers over the last fifteen years. Some of the central elements of citizenship do not seem to apply straightforwardly to corporations. E.g., “citizenship” typically implies membership in a state and an identity akin to national identity; but this connotation of citizenship is obviously problematic for multinational corporations. However, the language of citizenship does help to focus our attention on various legal and political virtues (or vices) for corporations—topics that have been largely neglected by discussions under other rubrics, such as CSR or sustainability. We finish with an evaluation of the potential benefits and costs of conceptualizing and talking about ethical business practices in the language of citizenship.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , January 2008 , pp. 1 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andriof, J., and Mcintosh, M., eds. 2001. Perspectives on Corporate Citizenship. Sheffield, Eng.: Greenleaf Publishing.Google Scholar
Annan, Kofi. 1997. Renewing the United Nations: Report of the Secretary-General. New York: United Nations.Google Scholar
Artman, Barbara, and Vidaver-Cohen, Deborah. 2000. “A Framework for Understanding Corporate Citizenship: Introduction of the Special Issue of Business and Society Review on ‘Corporate Citizenship for the New Millennium,’” Business and Society Review 105: 1–7.Google Scholar
Beauchamp, Tom L., and Norman, Bowie. 2003. Ethical Theory and Business, 7th edition. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Birch, David. 2001. “Corporate Citizenship: Rethinking Business Beyond Corporate Social Responsibility,” in Andriof, and Mcintosh, 2001.Google Scholar
Boatright, John. 2002. “Stakeholders as Contractors: Reconciling Stakeholder Theory with the Nexus-of-Contracts Firm,” Journal of Banking and Finance 26: 1837–52.Google Scholar
Boatright, John. 2006. Ethics and the Conduct of Business, 5th edition. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Bovens, Mark. 1998. “The Corporate Republic: Complex Organizations and Citizenship,” in Communitarianism and Citizenship, ed. Christodoulidis, E. A.. Aldershot, Eng.: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Carroll, Archie B. 1998. “The Four Faces of Corporate Citizenship,” Business and Society Review 100: 1–7.Google Scholar
Carroll, Archie B., and Ann, Buchholtz. 2005. Business and Society: Ethics and Stakeholder Management, 6th edition. Belmont, Calif.: South-Western College Publishing.Google Scholar
Connolly, Williams E. 1983. The Terms of Political Discourse. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Crane, Andrew, Dirk, Matten and Jeremy, Moon. 2004. “Stakeholders as Citizens? Rethinking Rights, Participation and Democracy,” Journal of Business Ethics 53: 107–22.Google Scholar
Dawkins, Cedrik E.. 2002.“Corporate Welfare, Corporate Citizenship, and the Question of Accountability,” Business & Society 41: 269–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Easterbrooke, Frank and Daniel, Fischel. 1991. The Economic Structure of Corporate Law. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Fombrun, C. J., Gardberg, N. A. and Barnett, M. L. 2000. “Opportunity Platforms and Safety Net: Corporate Citizenship and Reputationnal Risks,” Business and Society Review 105: 85–106.Google Scholar
Fraser, Nancy, and Linda, Gordon. 1994. “Civil Citizenship against Social Citizenship?” in The Condition of Citizenship, ed. Bart Van Steenbergen. London: sage Publications.Google Scholar
Freeman, Edward R. 1984. Strategic Management: a Stakeholder Approach. Marshfield, Mass.: Pitman Publishing Inc.Google Scholar
Galston, William. 1991. Liberal Purposes: Goods, Virtues, and Duties in the Liberal State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garsten, Christina. 2003. “The Cosmopolitan Organization: An Essay on Corporate Accountability,” Global Networks 3: 355–70.Google Scholar
Goddard, Trevor. 2005. “Corporate Citizenship and Community Relations: Contributing to the Challenge of Aid Discourse,” Business and Society Review 110: 269–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grimaldi, Jennifer. 1998. “Business Ethics around the World: Ethics and the Political Activities of US Business,” Business Ethics: A European Review 7: 245–49.Google Scholar
Grit, Kor. 2004. “Corporate Citizenship: How to Strengthen the Social Responsiblity of Managers?” Journal of Business Ethics 53: 97–106.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen. 1992. “Citizenship and National Identity: Some Reflections on the Future of Europe,” Praxis International 12: 1–19.Google Scholar
Hamilton, Alexander, James, Madison, and John, Jay. 2003. The Federalist. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hamilton, J. Brooke, and David, Hoch. 1997. “Ethical Standards for Business Lobbying: Some Practical Suggestions,” Business Ethics Quarterly 7: 117–29.Google Scholar
Hansmann, Henry. 1996. The Ownership of Enterprise. Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Heath, Joseph. 2006a. “An Adversarial Ethic for Business: Or When Sun-Tzu Met the Stakeholder,” Journal of Business Ethics 72: 359–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heath, Joseph. 2006b. “Business Ethics without Stakeholders,” Business Ethics Quarterly 16: 533–58.Google Scholar
Hemphill, Thomas A. 2004. “Corporate Citizenship: The Case for a New Governance Model,” Business and Society Review 109: 339–61.Google Scholar
Jennings, M. Marianne. 1999. Business Ethics: Case Studies and Selected Readings, 3rd edition. Toronto: West Educational Publishing.Google Scholar
Jeurissen, Ronald. 2004. “Institutional Conditions of Corporate Citizenship,” Journal of Business Ethics 53: 87–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuper, Andrew. 2004. Democracy Beyond Borders: Justice and Representation in Global Institutions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kymlicka, Will. 1995. Multicultural Citizenship. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kymlicka, Will and Norman, Wayne. 1994. “Return of the Citizen: A Survey of Recent Work on Citizenship Theory,” Ethics 104: 352–81.Google Scholar
Kymlicka, Will and Norman, Wayne. 2000. “Citizenship in Culturally Diverse Societies: Issues, Contexts, Concepts,”in Citizenship in Culturally Diverse Societies, ed. W. Kymlicka and W. Norman Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kymlicka, Will and Norman, Wayne. 2003. “Citizenship,” in Blackwell Companion to Applied Ethics. ed. Frey, R. and Wellman, C., Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Lay, B., Stavins, R. and Vietor, R., eds. 2005. Environmental Protection and the Social Responsibility of Firms. Washington, D.C.: Resources for the Future.Google Scholar
Livesey, Sharon and Julie, Graham.2007. “Greening of Corporations? Eco-talk and the Emerging Social Imaginary of Sustainable Development,” in May, Cheney, and Roper 2007: 336–50.Google Scholar
Logsdon, Jeanne M. 2004. “Global Business Citizenship: Applications to Environmental Issues,” Business and Society Review 109: 67–87.Google Scholar
Logsdon, Jeanne M. and Donna, J. Wood. 2002. “Business Citizenship: From Domestic to Global Level of Analysis,” Business Ethics Quarterly 12: 155–87.Google Scholar
Marsden, Chris. 2000. “The New Corporate Citizenship of Big Business: Part of the Solution to Sustainability,” Business and Society Review 105: 9–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marsden, Chris and Joerg, Andriof. 1998. “Toward an Understanding of Corporate Citizenship and How to Influence It,” Citizenship Studies 2: 329–52.Google Scholar
Matten, Dirk, and Andrew, Crane. 2002. “Theorizing Corporate Citizenship,” Management Research News 25: 129–31.Google Scholar
Matten, Dirk, and Andrew, Crane. 2005. “Corporate Citizenship: Toward an Extended Theoretical Conceptualization,” Academy of Management Review 30: 166–79.Google Scholar
Matten, Dirk, Andrew, Crane and Wendy, Chapple. 2003. “Behind the Mask: Revealing the True Face of Corporate Citizenship,” Journal of Business Ethics 45: 109–20.Google Scholar
May, Steve, George, Cheney and Juliet, Roper, eds. 2007. The Debate over Corporate Social Responsibility. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mead, Lawrence. 1986. Beyond Entitlement: The Social Obligations of Citizenship. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Micklethwait, John and Adrian, Wooldridge. 2003. The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea. New York: The Modern Library.Google Scholar
Miller, David. 2000. Citizenship and National Identity. Oxford: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Mitnick, M. Barry, ed. 1993. Corporate Political Agency: The Construction of Competition in Public Affairs (New York: Sage Publications).Google Scholar
Moon, Jeremy, Andrew, Crane, and Dirk, Matten. 2005. “Can Corporations be Citizens? Corporate Citizenship as a Metaphor for Business Participation in Society,” Business Ethics Quarterly 15: 429–53.Google Scholar
Munshi, Vijay Natasha. 2004. “Conversations on Business Citizenship,” Business and Society Review 109: 89–93.Google Scholar
Newell, Peter. 2005. “Citizenship, Accountability and Community: The Limits of the CSR Agenda,” International Affairs 81: 907–19.Google Scholar
Norman, J. Wayne, 1991. “Taking ‘Free Action’ too Seriously?” Ethics 101: 505–20.Google Scholar
Oberman, William. 2004. “A Framework for the Ethical Analysis of Corporate Political Activity,” Business and Society Review 109: 245–62.Google Scholar
Palacios, José Juan. 2004. “Corporate Citizenship and Social Responsibility in a Globalized World,” Citizenship Studies 8: 383–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, Rai Tarla and Todd, Norton. 2007. “Discourses of Sustainability in Today’s Public Sphere,” in May, Cheney, and Roper 2007: 351–64.Google Scholar
Pettit, Philip. 1999. Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plato, . 2000. The Republic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pocock, J. G. A. 1975. The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Portney, Paul. 2005. “Corporate Social Responsibility: An Economic and Public Policy Perspective,” in Environmental Protection and the Social Responsibility of Firms. ed. B. Lay, R. Stavins, and R.Vietor. Washington, D.C.: Resources for the Future.Google Scholar
Post, E. James and Shawn, L. Berman. 2001. “Global Corporate Citizenship in a Dot.com World: The Role of Organisational Identity,” in Andriof and Mcintosh 2001.Google Scholar
Rawls, . John, . 1985. “Justice as Fairness: Political not Metaphysical,” Philosophy and Public Affairs 14: 223–51.Google Scholar
Rawls, . John, . 1999. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Reilly, J. Bernard, and Myron, Kyj. 1994. “Corporate Citizenship,” Review of Business 16: 37–43.Google Scholar
Rondinelli, Dennis. 2002. “Transnational Corporations: International Citizens or New Sovereigns?” Business and Society Review 107: 391–413.Google Scholar
Saiia, H. David 2001. “Philanthropy and Corporate Citizenship: Strategic Philanthropy is Good Corporate Citizenship,” Journal of Corporate Citizenship 57–74.Google Scholar
Schwartz, K. Mark, and Archie, B. Carroll. “Integrating and Unifying Competing and Complementary Frameworks: The Search for a Common Core in the Business and Society Field.” Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Stoll, L. Mary 2005. “Corporate Right to Free Speech?” Journal of Business Ethics 58: 261–69.Google Scholar
United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development. 1987. Our Common Future. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Valor, Carmen. 2005. “Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Citizenship: Toward Corporate Accountability,” Business and Society Review 110: 191–212.Google Scholar
Velasquez, Manuel. 2005. Business Ethics: Concepts and Cases, 6th edition. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Vijay, Munshi, Natasha, . 2004. “Conversations on Business Citizenship,” Business and Society Review 109: 89–93.Google Scholar
Vogel, David. 1979. Lobbying the Corporation: Citizen Challenges to Business Autority. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Vogel, David. 2005. The Market for Virtue: The Potential and Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Waddock, Sandra. 2001. “Corporate Citizenship Enacted as Operating Practice,” International Journal of Value-Based Management 14 (October): 237–46.Google Scholar
Waddock, Sandra. 2004. “Parallel Universes: Companies, Academics and the Progress of Corporate Citizenship,” Business and Society Review 109: 5–42.Google Scholar
Weber, J. Leonard 1997. “Ethics and the Political Activity of Business: Reviewing the Agenda,” Business Ethics Quarterly 7: 71–79.Google Scholar
Weinstock, Daniel. 2002. “Citizenship and Pluralism,” in Blackwell Guide to Social and Political Philosophy, ed. R. L Simon. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Wilcott, Michael 2001. Citizen Brands: Putting Society at the Heart of Your Business. New York: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Windsor, Duane 2001. “Corporate Citizenship: Evolution and Interpretation,” in Andriof and Mcintosh 2001.Google Scholar
Wood, J. Donna 2004. “On Global Business Citizenship: Introduction to the Special Issue,” Business and Society Review 109: 1–3.Google Scholar
Wood, J. Donna, and Jeanne, M. Logsdon. 2001. “Theorising Business Citizenship,” in Andriof and Mcintosh 2001.Google Scholar
Zadek, Simon. 2001. The Civil Corporation: The New Economy of Corporate Citizenship. London: Earthscan.Google Scholar