Consumers as Drivers of Corporate Responsibility

Abstract

Legend has it that King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table embarked on various quests for the Holy Grail, the cup from which Christ is said to have drunk at the Last Supper and a symbol of mystical union with God. These quests and their more prosaic modern day counterparts are often an elusive search for perfection. Many scholars and business practitioners are on a search for a “holy grail ” in trying to identify the business case for corporate responsibility (CR). If there is not a business case for corporate responsibility then reliance must be placed on the normative (moral) case—that is, simply put, doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do. However, this poses a major if not insurmountable problem, at least for managers of publicly held companies when their desire to make responsible business decisions appears to be at odds with fiduciary duties to shareholders (Smith 2003). On the other hand, if there is a business case for corporate responsibility then we have a “win-win ” where everybody gains, including shareholders. The business case is often grounded in three key drivers: that consumers, employees and investors care in ways that create economic incentives for companies to give attention to corporate responsibility. As Starbucks explains in its 2001 Corporate Social Responsibility

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