Beyond Good Deeds: For Multinational Corporations to Adopt Socially Responsible Business Practices, Voluntary Measures Are Not Enough
Author(s)
Sarsky, Lyuba
Abstract
Hardly a day goes by without trouble facing an American multinational corporation somewhere in its vast global operations. But are voluntary initiatives enough? Can corporate social responsibility keep multinationals out of ethical quagmires? Unfortunately, I believe the answers to these questions is no. Case studies, produced for the California Global Corporate Accountability Project, suggest that the change in corporate governance catalyzed by the corporate social responsibility approach has had only incremental impacts and it risks being short-lived. A long-term approach to corporate accountability requires the engagement, not only of civil society and business, but also of government.
