Corporate social reporting revisited more

The intensity and scope of attention to the impact of business activities on the social and natural environment have waxed and waned over the past forty years. Starting in the late 1960s until the mid 1980s social activists, concerned managers and academics, as well as members of public authorities and national legislatures generated quite a few models and conducted numerous experiments to stimulate the increased and enlarged accountability of business to society. Subsequent years saw a drop in the level of attention to corporate social responsibility, probably as a result of several factors: the election of conservative governments in many countries took the pressure off business; new management fads attracted top management attention, especially the short-term view of shareholder value; and the grass-root pressure groups either faded away, or professionalized (like Green Peace). The problems themselves did not disappear, however, and a number of actors maintained their engagement and continued to work on the topic.

A revival of interest on a wide scale is visible and audible again today. Numerous organizations, including the United Nations, the European Commission, national governments, and public interest groups, are calling for business1 to publish reports documenting their impacts on society and the environment. Giant transnational corporations, in particular, are responding and publishing worldwide social responsibility reports. What can be learned from the earlier years of work in the area of corporate social responsibility and responsiveness, and how should concepts and methods be altered in the light of the changes that have occurred in the way the topic is defined today and in light of the new media available, especially the internet? This article will tackle these two questions first by recalling which of the original concepts were found particularly useful, outlining their key strengths and weaknesses, and then by exploring the factors that currently characterize the field.