Legitimating Business Activities Using Corporate Social Responsibility: Is there a Need for CSR in Agribusiness?

result, enterprises in the agribusiness sector are increasingly exposed to the public eye (Jansen/ Vellema: 2004). The perception of consumers and other stakeholders - which are according to Freeman “any group or individual who can affect, or is affected by, the achievement of the organization’s objectives” - is of growing criticism and risk-consciousness and manifests itself in changed attitudes towards food production (Jäckel/Spiller: 2006; Haddock: 2005). The use of GMO in agriculture, e.g., is regarded to be morally reprehensible (Becker: 1999). The BSE-crisis and other food scares led to growing consumer uncertainty and resulted in decreased meat consumption and in the increasing percentage of outspoken vegetarians and low-meat consumers (von Alvensleben: 1997; Staack: 2005). Moreover, the influence capacity of stakeholders is growing (Gerlach: 2006). As a result these factors have reduced the legitimacy of traditional (e.g., animal production) as well as new production technologies (e.g. bioenergy) in the agribusiness. In the long term the success of enterprises in the agribusiness can be affected by legitimacy losses. Against this background, legitimacy is regarded as a resource that guarantees the long-term survival of an enterprise (Palazzo/Scherer: 2006). Primarily the market based view in general management literature and the macro-institutional approach in neo sociological-institutionalism are employed to understand business operations embedded in societal structures. In this context legitimacy means the conformation of an organization with social norms, values and expectations (Oliver: 1996).