IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iis/dispap/iiisdp192.html

Tracking Global Corporate Citizenship: Some Reflections on ‘Lovesick' Companies

Author

Listed:
  • Grahame Thompson

Abstract

This paper provides an outline of some of the issues I am dealing with in connection to a research project being undertaken on Global Corporate Citizenship (GCC). This research is in its early stages so what is provided here is preliminary and designed to raise rather more issues than it solves. In particular, I am concerned to deal with what it might mean for companies to be described, or to describe themselves, as Global Corporate Citizens. In the general literature on corporate responsibility there is a move away from companies being described, or describing themselves, as Corporately Socially Responsible (CSR) to them re-describing themselves as Global Corporate Citizens (GCC). I want to ask what is involved in this (self)description as ‘citizens'? Can citizenship be applied first to companies and then extended into the global arena in which they operate? When looking at the actual practices of companies that claim to be either simply socially responsible or more recently corporate citizens , there is not much difference between them. Much the same ‘content', as it were, in terms of the claims to what they are doing or should do, adheres under both titles. So is it merely a matter of words? Does it make any difference that on the one had they claim to be socially responsible or on the other to be global citizens? I will argue that this is a very significant change in terminology that is having, and will continue to have, significant affects that need to be analysed and appreciated. To explore these implications, the following analysis situates GCC in a wider framework of the progressive juridicalization and constitutionalization of the international arena more generally.

Suggested Citation

  • Grahame Thompson, 2007. "Tracking Global Corporate Citizenship: Some Reflections on ‘Lovesick' Companies," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp192, IIIS.
    • Handle: RePEc:iis:dispap:iiisdp192
    Note: Length:
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.tcd.ie/triss/assets/PDFs/iiis/iiisdp192.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cutler,A. Claire, 2003. "Private Power and Global Authority," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521533973, November.
    2. Cutler,A. Claire, 2003. "Private Power and Global Authority," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521826600, November.
    3. Levi-Faur, David, 2005. "The Political Economy of Legal Globalization: Juridification, Adversarial Legalism, and Responsive Regulation. A comment," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 59(2), pages 451-462, April.
    4. Cass, Deborah Z., 2005. "The Constitutionalization of the World Trade Organization: Legitimacy, Democracy, and Community in the International Trading System," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199285846.
    5. Logsdon, Jeanne M. & Wood, Donna J., 2002. "Business Citizenship: From Domestic to Global Level of Analysis," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(2), pages 155-187, April.
    6. Kelemen, R. Daniel & Sibbitt, Eric C., 2004. "The Globalization of American Law," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 58(1), pages 103-136, February.
    7. Post, James E., 2002. "Global Corporate Citizenship: Principles to Live and Work By," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(2), pages 143-153, April.
    8. Moon, Jeremy & Crane, Andrew & Matten, Dirk, 2005. "Can Corporations be Citizens? Corporate Citizenship as a Metaphor for Business Participation in Society," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(3), pages 429-453, July.
    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. Vanel, Grégory, 2008. "La normalisation financière internationale face à l’émergence de nouvelles autorités épistémiques américaines," Revue de la Régulation - Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs, Association Recherche et Régulation, vol. 3.
    2. Tanja Börzel, 2010. "European Governance: Negotiation and Competition in the Shadow of Hierarchy," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(2), pages 191-219, March.
    3. Peter T. Leeson, 2008. "How Important is State Enforcement for Trade?," American Law and Economics Review, American Law and Economics Association, vol. 10(1), pages 61-89.
    4. Terry Macdonald, 2008. "What's So Special about States? Liberal Legitimacy in a Globalising World," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 56(3), pages 544-565, October.
    5. Mende, Janne, 2020. "Business authority in global governance: Beyond public and private," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Global Governance SP IV 2020-103, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    6. Walker, Matthew & Parent, Milena M., 2010. "Toward an integrated framework of corporate social responsibility, responsiveness, and citizenship in sport," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 198-213, August.
    7. Glen Whelan & Jeremy Moon & Bettina Grant, 2013. "Corporations and Citizenship Arenas in the Age of Social Media," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(4), pages 777-790, December.
    8. Gerhard Schnyder & Centre for Business Research, 2018. "Investigating New Types of 'Decoupling': Minority Shareholder Protection in the Law & Corporate Practice," Working Papers wp502, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    9. Heydebrand, Wolf, 2009. "Accounting for great expectations: Lessons from the new media surge for critical management theory," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 418-444.
    10. David Detomasi, 2015. "The Multinational Corporation as a Political Actor: ‘Varieties of Capitalism’ Revisited," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 128(3), pages 685-700, May.
    11. Kinvi Logossah, 2013. "Diversité et unité du concept de responsabilité sociale des entreprises," Documents de Travail 2013-09, CEREGMIA, Université des Antilles et de la Guyane.
    12. Melanie Coni-Zimmer & Klaus Dieter Wolf & Peter Collin, 2017. "Editorial to the Issue on Legitimization of Private and Public Regulation: Past and Present," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(1), pages 1-5.
    13. Mende, Janne, 2022. "Business authority in global governance: Beyond public and private," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Global Governance SP IV 2020-103r, WZB Berlin Social Science Center, revised 2022.
    14. Nicolas Dahan & Jonathan Doh & Jonathan Raelin, 2015. "Pivoting the Role of Government in the Business and Society Interface: A Stakeholder Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(3), pages 665-680, October.
    15. Ioanna Boulouta & Christos Pitelis, 2014. "Who Needs CSR? The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on National Competitiveness," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 119(3), pages 349-364, February.
    16. Aldashev, Gani & Zanarone, Giorgio, 2017. "Endogenous enforcement institutions," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 49-64.
    17. João Paulo Cândia Veiga & Fausto Makishi & Murilo Alves Zacareli & Thiago Augusto Hiromitsu Terada, 2016. "Multilevel Governance and Sustainable Development: The Case of Biodiversity in the Amazon Rainforest," Review of Social Sciences, LAR Center Press, vol. 1(3), pages 1-10, March.
    18. Pierre-Yves Néron, 2010. "Business and the Polis: What Does it Mean to See Corporations as Political Actors?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 94(3), pages 333-352, July.
    19. Tanja A. Börzel & Thomas Risse, 2010. "Governance without a state: Can it work?," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 4(2), pages 113-134, June.
    20. Bärbel R. Dorbeck‐Jung & Mirjan J. Oude Vrielink & Jordy F. Gosselt & Joris J. Van Hoof & Menno D. T. De Jong, 2010. "Contested hybridization of regulation: Failure of the Dutch regulatory system to protect minors from harmful media," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 4(2), pages 154-174, June.

    More about this item

    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:iis:dispap:iiisdp192. 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: Maeve (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cetcdie.html .

    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.