A Stakeholder Approach to Corporate Social Responsibility: Pressures, Conflicts, and Reconciliation

Corporate social responsibility has grown into a global phenomenon that encompasses businesses, consumers, governments, and civil society, and many organizations have adopted its discourse. Yet corporate social responsibility remains an uncertain and poorly defined ambition, with few absolutes. First, the issues that organizations must address can easily be interpreted to include virtually everyone and everything. Second, with their unique, often particular characteristics, different stakeholder groups tend to focus only on specific issues that they believe are the most appropriate and relevant in organizations' corporate social responsibility programs. Thus, beliefs about what constitutes a socially responsible and sustainable organization depend on the perspective of the stakeholder. Third, in any organization, the beliefs of organizational members about their organization's social responsibilities vary according to their function and department, as well as their own managerial fields of knowledge. A Stakeholder Approach to Corporate Social Responsibility provides a comprehensive collection of cutting-edge theories and research that can lead to a more multifaceted understanding of corporate social responsibility in its various forms, the pressures and conflicts that result from these different understandings, and some potential solutions for reconciling them.

Dr Adam Lindgreen is Professor of Marketing at Cardiff Business School. He received his Ph.D. from Cranfield University. He is widely published. His most recent books are Managing Market Relationships and Memorable Customer Experiences. Dr Philip Kotler is the S. C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, and is hailed as 'the world's foremost expert on the strategic practice of marketing.' He is the author of numerous books including Marketing Management, the most widely used marketing book in graduate business schools worldwide. Professor Kotler has consulted for such companies as IBM, General Electric, AT&T, Honeywell, Bank of America, Merck, and Samsung, and he has advised foreign governments. Dr Joëlle Vanhamme is Professor of Marketing at Edhec Business School. She received her Ph.D. from the Louvain School of Management, the Catholic University of Louvain. She is widely published. Her most recent books are The Crisis of Food Brands and Memorable Customer Experiences. Dr François Maon is Assistant Professor of Strategy and Corporate Social Responsibility at the IESEG School of Management. He also received his Ph.D. from the Louvain School of Management. He has published in several journals.