This article explains problems and opportunities created by standardized ethics initiatives (e.g., the UN Global Compact, the Global Reporting Initiative, and SA 8000) from the perspective of stakeholder theory. First, we outline differences and commonalities among currently existing initiatives...

The United Nations Global Compact – which is a Global Public Policy Network advocating ten universal principles in the areas of human rights, labour standards, environmental protection, and anti-corruption – has turned into the world’s largest corporate responsibility initiative. Although...

This introductory essay argues that the use of the concept of deliberative democracy in CSR re-search needs to be theoretically extended. We review three developments that have recently oc-curred in deliberative democracy theory within political science and philosophy: (1) the concep-tualization...

This article examines under what conditions business schools may decouple the structural effects of their engagement in responsible management education from actual organizational practices. We argue that schools may be unable to match rising institutional pressures to publicly commit to...

This article assesses the proliferation of international accountability standards (IAS) in the recent past. We provide a comprehensive overview about the different types of standards and discus their role as part of a new institutional infrastructure for corporate responsibility. Based on this,...

This research-based essay offers a cross-disciplinary examination of ethics education in MBA programs. Based on data underlying the Beyond Grey Pinstripes (BGP) survey we find: that business schools doubled the number of ethics-related courses in different disciplines between 2005 and 2009, that...

This paper examines the factors that drive the success of multinational corporations (MNCs) in their pursuit of regional strategies. Based on contingency theory, we develop a comprehensive regional success factor model to investigate the effects of regional management autonomy and regional...

This chapter starts with a definition of Organizationa Integrity (OI), before outlining differences between compliance and integrity as two key elements of every ethics management system. We propose that only a discur-sive understanding of OI can overcome the deficits of compliance strategies,...

In this paper we draw on insights from Habermasian deliberative democracy to reshape the discussion around corporate citizenship and present an enhanced concept by focusing on the process of legitimation of corporate actions. In the age of globalization, multinational corporations have expanded...

The legitimacy of MSIs as institutions for social and environmental governance in the global economy has received much scholarly attention over the past years. To date, however, research has yet to focus on assessing the legitimacy of MSIs in their interactions with other actors within larger...