No Company is an Island. Sector-Related Responsibilities as Elements of Corporate Social Responsibility

In this paper, I analyze the moral responsibilities that companies have with regard to the development of their sector, especially when there are path dependences that can lead sectors on more or less morally acceptable paths, e.g., with regard to market access for disadvantaged groups. The interdep...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of business ethics 2017-11, Vol.146 (1), p.135-148
Main Author: Herzog, Lisa
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Business and Management
Business Ethics
Case studies
Companies
Corporate responsibility
Customers
Disadvantaged
Disadvantages
Education
Ethics
Industrywide conditions
Management
Minority & ethnic groups
Moral development
Morality
Path dependence
Philosophy
Quality of Life Research
Social responsibility
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In this paper, I analyze the moral responsibilities that companies have with regard to the development of their sector, especially when there are path dependences that can lead sectors on more or less morally acceptable paths, e.g., with regard to market access for disadvantaged groups. The interdependencies between companies in a sector are underexplored in the literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Reflections on the normative status of profit-seeking and on the normative bases of CSR, however, provide us with reasons for seeing sector-related responsibilities as an important component of CSR. Based on a case study of a financial institution, I analyze various morally relevant ways in which the strategic decisions of companies relate to those of other companies in their sector. I argue that companies have a co-responsibility to contribute to the development of the moral dimensions of their sectors, especially when they deal with vulnerable customers.
ISSN:0167-4544
1573-0697
DOI:10.1007/s10551-015-2923-7