IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/dij/revfcs/v10y2007iq2p5-35.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Aux sources de la responsabilité sociale de l’entreprise : à la (re)découverte d’un ouvrage fondateur, Social Responsibilities of the Businessman d’Howard Bowen L’impact des privatisations sur la performance des entreprises françaises

Author

Listed:
  • Aurélien Acquier

    (ESCP-EAP)

  • Jean-Pascal Gond

    (University of Nottingham et Université de Toulouse 1)

Abstract

(VF)Le livre d’Howard Bowen, Social Responsibilities of the Businessman (1953) a un statut paradoxal. Reconnu comme l’un des travaux fondateurs sur la Responsabilité Sociale de l’Entreprise (RSE), il est très fréquemment cité alors même qu’il semble avoir été très peu lu et analysé. Cet article, en proposant d’analyser cet ouvrage et d’en présenter les grandes idées, s’inscrit dans une démarche visant à appréhender la construction de la notion de RSE et à en reconstituer la généalogie. Au-delà du témoignage historique, cet ouvrage a une forte résonance théorique:il préfigure un grand nombre de recherches ultérieures et propose un cadre d’analyse fécond.(VA)Howard Bowen’s book Social Responsibilities of the Businessman (1953) has a paradoxical status. Considered as a seminal work in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility, it is frequently quoted although it does not seem to have widely been read. Adopting a genealogical perspective, we analyze this book and present its core theses, in an attempt to grasp the dynamics of the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility. Beyond its historical value, Social Responsibilities of the Businessman contains important theoretical implications:it foreshadows many strands of later trends of CSR research, and provides a fruitful analytical framework.

Suggested Citation

  • Aurélien Acquier & Jean-Pascal Gond, 2007. "Aux sources de la responsabilité sociale de l’entreprise : à la (re)découverte d’un ouvrage fondateur, Social Responsibilities of the Businessman d’Howard Bowen L’impact des privatisations sur la perf," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 10(2), pages 5-35, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:dij:revfcs:v:10:y:2007:i:q2:p:5-35
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repec-crego.u-bourgogne.fr/images/stories/rev/102035.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Malcolm Rutherford, 2001. "Institutional Economics: Then and Now," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 173-194, Summer.
    2. Dierkes, Meinolf & Berthoin Antal, Ariane, 1986. "Whither corporate social reporting: is it time to legislate?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 28(3), pages 106-121.
    3. Freeman, R. Edward, 1994. "The Politics of Stakeholder Theory: Some Future Directions1," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(4), pages 409-421, October.
    4. Aurélien Acquier & Franck Aggeri, 2007. "The Development of a CSR Industry: Legitimacy and Feasibility as the Two Pillars of the Institutionalization Process," Post-Print hal-01745137, HAL.
    5. Preston, Lee E, 1975. "Corporation and Society: The Search for a Paradigm," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 13(2), pages 434-453, June.
    6. Winton U. Solberg & Robert W. Tomilson, 1997. "Academic McCarthyism and Keynesian Economics: The Bowen Controversy at the University of Illinois," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 29(1), pages 55-81, Spring.
    7. Aurélien Acquier & Franck Aggeri, 2007. "The development of a CSR industry: legitimacy and feasibility as the two pillars of the institutionalization process," Post-Print hal-01117319, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Boeddeling, Jann, 2011. "Corporate Social Responsibility: Fundamentalstellung für Kapitalismus und Wirtschaftssoziologie," Wittener Diskussionspapiere zu alten und neuen Fragen der Wirtschaftswissenschaft 17/2011, Witten/Herdecke University, Faculty of Management and Economics.
    2. Franck Aggeri & Julie Labatut, 2010. "La gestion au prisme de ses instruments," Post-Print hal-02659906, HAL.
    3. Rim Lahbil & Rachid Wahabi, 2017. "Reporting Corporate Social Responsibility: At The Pursuit Of Legitimacy - A Literature Review," Eurasian Journal of Business and Management, Eurasian Publications, vol. 5(3), pages 68-81.
    4. Aurélien Acquier & Eva Boxenbaum & Rebecca Pinheiro-Croisel, 2011. "Standards and innovation in emerging fields: Pushing breakthrough innovation or enrolling actors? An analysis of eco-district standards in France and Denmark," Post-Print halshs-00743376, HAL.
    5. Krichewsky, Damien, 2014. "The socially responsible company as a strategic second-order observer: An Indian case," MPIfG Discussion Paper 14/10, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    6. Marisol Sandoval, 2015. "From CSR to RSC," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 47(4), pages 608-624, December.
    7. Malcolm Rutherford, 2001. "Walton Hamilton, Amherst, and the Brookings Graduate School: Institutonal Economics and Education," Department Discussion Papers 0104, Department of Economics, University of Victoria.
    8. Mbanyele, William & Huang, Hongyun & Li, Yafei & Muchenje, Linda T. & Wang, Fengrong, 2022. "Corporate social responsibility and green innovation: Evidence from mandatory CSR disclosure laws," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    9. Andrew Lynn, 2022. "Ethics, Economics, and the Specter of Naturalism: The Enduring Relevance of the Harmony Doctrine School of Economics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(3), pages 661-673, July.
    10. Govindan, Kannan & Shankar, Madan & Kannan, Devika, 2018. "Supplier selection based on corporate social responsibility practices," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 353-379.
    11. Scott Sonenshein, 2009. "Emergence of Ethical Issues During Strategic Change Implementation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(1), pages 223-239, February.
    12. Ruben Burga & Davar Rezania, 2016. "Stakeholder theory in social entrepreneurship: a descriptive case study," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 6(1), pages 1-15, December.
    13. Jérôme Ballet & Damien Bazin, 2004. "Prendre au sérieux les enjeux environnementaux," Post-Print halshs-01070785, HAL.
    14. Wei Peng & Baogui Xin & Yekyung Kwon, 2019. "Optimal Strategies of Product Price, Quality, and Corporate Environmental Responsibility," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-24, November.
    15. Gani, Azmat & Scrimgeour, Frank, 2014. "Modeling governance and water pollution using the institutional ecological economic framework," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 363-372.
    16. Louis Ndjetcheu, 2012. "An African critical interpretation of the positive theory of accounting of Watts and Zimmerman (1978, 1980, 1986)," African Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 1(1), pages 25-39.
    17. Kazadi, Kande & Lievens, Annouk & Mahr, Dominik, 2016. "Stakeholder co-creation during the innovation process: Identifying capabilities for knowledge creation among multiple stakeholders," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 525-540.
    18. WANG Jifu & GUPTA Vipin & LYBOLT Liza & WANG Xiuli, 2022. "Corrected Game Model In Csr: Mnc Strategies And Chinese Practice," Studies in Business and Economics, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 17(3), pages 269-287, December.
    19. Nir Halevy & Sora Jun & Eileen Y. Chou, 2020. "Intergroup Conflict is Our Business: CEOs’ Ethical Intergroup Leadership Fuels Stakeholder Support for Corporate Intergroup Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 162(1), pages 229-246, February.
    20. Lamin B. Ceesay, 2020. "Exploring the Influence of NGOs in Corporate Sustainability Adoption: Institutional-Legitimacy Perspective," Jindal Journal of Business Research, , vol. 9(2), pages 135-147, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    responsabilité sociale de l’entreprise; histoire des idées managériales; Howard R. Bowen; construction théorique; corporate social responsibility; history of managerial thoughts; theory-building.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L21 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Business Objectives of the Firm
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • N40 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - General, International, or Comparative

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dij:revfcs:v:10:y:2007:i:q2:p:5-35. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Informatique Technique MSH Dijon (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.revues.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.