Doing Good and Doing Well:Making the Business Case for Corporate Citizenship
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Authors:
Simon Zadek -
Publication Date:
November 2000 -
Report Number:
R-1282-00-RR
Corporate citizenship is emerging as a central issue for business, and is, as a result, coming under the scrutiny of the "business case" approach. This report--written by one of Europe's leading thinkers in corporate citizenship, stakeholder relations, and social and ethical accounting and reporting--explores this theme from a variety of perspectives and in the context of actual practices by leading firms.
Major findings:
- Companies engage in corporate citizenship for a variety of reasons, among them:
- to defend reputation and avoid potential financial loss
- to achieve cost benefits
- for strategic business reasons
- to help manage risks and promote innovation in learning in a dynamic and complex environment ("the New Economy case")
- Whether corporate citizenship "pays" is not as relevant a question as how corporate citizenship contributes to achieving the core business strategy.
Special features:
- summary of key findings
- tables and graphs illustrating results
- appendix on international standards for corporate behavior