This paper provides an overview of the literatures on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and on the governance of business, and explores the links between these two, frequently separate, debates. It concludes that while there is a general recognition in the literature of the factors that encourage companies to adopt a proactive approach to CSR, the specific factors and their relative importance are relatively poorly understood. The paper then considers the empirical evidence on corporate responses to climate change. This evidence provides three important insights into the relationship between CSR and governance. The first is that governance interventions such as non-governmental organisation (NGO) campaigns and mandatory disclosure regimes are hugely important in focusing company attention on relevant issues, and in stimulating the development of organisational capacity and potential investment opportunities. The second is that these interventions are more likely to influence company behaviour when they are aligned. Expressed another way, while it may be relatively easy for companies to ignore individual pressures, it is much more difficult to ignore multiple pressures where those pressures have a common message or purpose. The third is that company behaviour is generally driven by their analysis of the business case for action (or inaction). Companies have made most progress in situations where they see a clear business case for action and where the actions do not require dramatic changes to their business models and practices. Delivering change beyond these limits, acknowledging, of course, that companies do learn by doing and that the business case can evolve, is much more difficult and likely to depend on the powers of the regulatory state
