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The Changing Social Role of Business in a World of Collapsing Boundaries

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Part of the book series: Humanism in Business Series ((HUBUS))

Abstract

The issues of corporate sustainability and responsibility — what we can call the new CSR (corporate social responsibility) — underpin a significantly changing set of social and sustainability demands on businesses. This new CSR is arguably being brought about by pressures from stakeholders, governments, and what I have elsewhere called a growing responsibility infrastructure. Technological advances that connect enterprises, stakeholders, and social concerns in new ways fuel and underpin it, creating instantaneous transparency, whether companies desire it or not. In the wake of scandal after scandal and problem after problem, many observers, including Occupy protesters and sympathizers, now believe that the world needs systemic reform of the role of business in society. Concerns about the increasing power of (particularly) large companies in the world only increase the demands for system reform.

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© 2014 Sandra Waddock

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Waddock, S. (2014). The Changing Social Role of Business in a World of Collapsing Boundaries. In: Pirson, M., Steinvorth, U., Largacha-Martinez, C., Dierksmeier, C. (eds) From Capitalistic to Humanistic Business. Humanism in Business Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137468208_5

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