Corporate responsibility
Corporate responsibility is a term which has come to characterize a family of professional disciplines intended to help a corporation stay competitive by maintaining accountability to its four main stakeholder groups: customers, employees, shareholders, and communities.
Concept
The professional disciplines included in the corporate responsibility field include legal and financial compliance, business ethics, corporate social responsibility, public and community affairs, investor relations, stakeholder communications, brand management, environmental affairs, sustainability, socially responsible investment, and corporate philanthropy.
Prevalence
Major membership organizations and media in the Corporate Responsibility industry include Business in the Community (bitc.org.uk), WBCSD.org, CERES, National Investor Relations Institute, and Compliance Week.
Media coverage
Business Ethics Magazine (acquired in August, 2006 by The CRO, or Corporate Responsibility Officer) has helped to define the field with its 100 Best Corporate Citizens list, published since 1998. The Corporate Responsibility industry, which includes all professional services purchased by for-profit and not-for-profit companies to maintain their levels of corporate responsibility, was valued by the CRO Magazine at $20 billion in 2005.
In the USA, the failings of corporate responsibility have been closely associated with the corporate scandals (Enron, Tyco, Citigroup) of the 2000-2004 period and the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 which was passed in response to these accounting scandals.[1] Section 302 of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act specifically refers to the corporate responsibilities of the "signing officers" responsible for signing-off financial reports and accounts.[2][3]
In the UK and Europe, the term is more generally associated with the local and Europe-wide regulations holding companies accountable to their stakeholders.
See also
- Corporate social responsibility
References
- ^ Priori, Sarbanes–Oxley Act, accessed 2 October 2020
- ^ Public Law 107–204: An Act to protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures made pursuant to the securities laws, and for other purposes
- ^ Sarbanes–Oxley 101, SOX Section 302: Corporate Responsibility for Financial Reports, accessed 2 October 2020
- v
- t
- e
principles
- Aarhus Convention
- Climate justice
- Corporate accountability / behaviour / environmental responsibility / responsibility / social responsibility
- Dirty hands
- Environmental racism / in Russia / in the United States / in Western Europe / inequality in the UK / injustice in Europe
- Ethical banking
- Ethical code
- Extended producer responsibility
- Externality
- Harm
- Little Eichmanns
- Loss and damage
- Organizational ethics
- Organizational justice
- Pollution
- Principles for Responsible Investment
- Racism
- Social impact assessment
- Social justice
- Social responsibility
- Stakeholder theory
- Sullivan principles
- Transparency (behavioral
- social)
- UN Global Compact
accounting
accounting
- Carbon accounting
- Eco-Management and Audit Scheme
- Emission inventory
- Environmental full-cost accounting / Environmental conflict / impact assessment / management system / profit-and-loss account
- ISO 14000
- ISO 14031
- Life-cycle assessment
- Pollutant release and transfer register
- Sustainability accounting / measurement / metrics and indices / standards and certification / supply chain
- Toxics Release Inventory
- Triple bottom line
- Bangladesh Accord
- Benefit corporation
- Child labour
- Community interest company
- Conflict of interest
- Disasters
- Disinvestment
- Eco-labeling
- Environmental degradation
- Environmental pricing reform
- Environmental, social, and corporate governance
- Ethical consumerism
- Euthenics
- Global justice movement
- Health impact assessment
- Market governance mechanism
- Product certification
- Public participation
- SDG Publishers Compact
- Social enterprise
- Socially responsible business
- Socially responsible investing
- Socially responsible marketing
- Stakeholder (engagement)
- Supply chain management
- Environment portal
- Category
- Commons
- Organizations