Synthesising Corporate Responsibility on Organisational and Societal Levels of Analysis: An Integrative Perspective

When challenged to summarise the economic perspective on the responsibility of the corporation, its proponents’ interpretations range from a narrow focus on shareholder profit maximisation (Friedman 1962, 1970) to a broader maximisation of the total value of firms (Jensen 2002, 2008), or to a notion of business opportunity through cost-benefit analysis (McWilliams and Siegel 2001; Hamschmidt and Dyllick 2006), considerations of competitive advantage (Burke and Logsdon 1996; Porter and Kramer 2006) or/and stakeholder analyses (Freeman 1984; Jones 1995; Freeman et al. 2010) with an aim of contributing to the economic performance of the firm (Orlitzky et al. 2003; De Bakker et al. 2005).

When scholars of the critical perspective (e.g. Levitt 1958; Banerjee 2007; Shamir 2008; Fougère and Solitander 2009; Hanlon and Fleming 2009) are asked what corporate responsibility is, their answers differ significantly from those of the advocates of the economic perspective. Within this stream of thought, scepticism that firms act, and even can act, responsibly is rife (Banerjee 2007; Kallio 2007). There is also growing empirical evidence to support this critical argument (Ho and Welford 2006; Guidolin and La Ferrara 2010; Kambewa et al. 2008; Banerjee and Bonnefous 2011). The critical perspective challenges that there is any such thing as responsible corporate action and perceives the corporate responsibility phenomenon mainly as a managerial tool and a political discourse aimed at extending the role of markets and power of the private actors in society.

The politico-ethical perspective (e.g. Goodpaster 1983; Young 2004; Reis et al. 2004; Scherer and Palazzo 2007, 2011; Pruzan 2008; Ketola 2008, 2010) challenges the traditional idea of society being composed of distinct spheres of human life with different logics of action. Corporations are powerful actors operating in an increasingly globalised world where questions of business and ethics (Freeman et al. 2010, see the separation fallacy), economics and politics (Scherer and Palazzo 2007), or ecology (van Marrewijk 2003; Ketola 2008) are unavoidable and inseparable. Corporations thus need to develop a more comprehensive ethical identity, and to increase transparency, to acquire a democratic legitimacy, and to fulfil their responsibilities to societies and the environment. Under the politico-ethical perspective, corporate responsibility is something inherent in organisations and societies, as companies are composed of sentient human beings.

As noted above, the economic perspective on corporate responsibility is based on the classical-liberal conception of the proper division of responsibility between the public and private spheres of society. The classical-liberal social order features strict boundaries between the public and private sectors of society. In such a political setting, the primary responsibility of the corporation is to act economically (Scherer et al. 2006). Thus, the issues of intra- and inter-generational justice (Langhelle 2000) lay beyond the primary scope of the corporation, unless they are to result in increased affluence and competitiveness through the market mechanism. However, as empirical studies by political philosophers (e.g. Pogge 2002) and economists (e.g. Piketty 2014) demonstrate, the market-based approaches to social justice (e.g. Prahalad 2006), including the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society, have proved inadequate (to put it mildly). Furthermore, with regard to environmental justice, ecological economists (e.g. Daly 1996; Latouche 2007; Victor 2008), ecological philosophers (e.g. Naess 1989), environmental sociologists (e.g. Foster 1999), and ecosocial theorists (e.g. Bookchin 1980), as well as the global data on the planet (IPCC 2014) have shown how markets have neither solved, nor apparently are able to solve the issues of climate change, diminishing biodiversity, and overuse of natural resources due to the inherent problems of market failure and the necessity for economic growth. These problems have long been viable at the increasing rate of unequal distribution of wealth and ecological damage related to economic development.

Since the economic purpose of the corporation ought to be governed by the regulatory framework provided by the governing institutions of the limited state, the responsibility for social, as well as environmental, justice is pushed into the public sphere (Richter 2010). Controversially, in the free market ideal of the economic perspective, the role of the public sector is minimal. In other words, the public sector of classical-liberal society has only a narrow and indirect responsibility to promote well-being. Instead, the tasks of the state are to promote free competition, protect private property rights, the freedom of contracts, and to ensure that resources in society are used efficiently (Friedman 1962; Jensen 2002, 2008). On the organisational level, this signifies that corporations should manage all operations as efficiently and effectively as possible with the help of modern management techniques such as cost-benefit analysis (McWilliams and Siegel 2001) and sophisticated models of competitive advantage (Porter and Kramer 2006) and stakeholder management (Jones 1995). The pitfalls in the organisational practice, however, can be found when these models are put into practice. Cost-benefit analysis necessitates the quantification of responsibility, but the chore has been found challenging in most cases, and impossible in others (see Hanley and Spash 1993; Nussbaum 2000). For instance, while some trust that the optimum amount of honesty can be calculated, few truly think that reductions in biodiversity could be translated into the prices of corporate products, and then also be successfully communicated to corporate stakeholders. In addition, utility functions suggesting something like we need to cut down 20 per cent of our ethics in order to return us to profitability or we cannot afford to take care of others any longer are intuitively somewhat repellent and morally questionable. Furthermore, the market-oriented business strategy has been described as outsourcing ethical consideration to consumers and holding assumptions consistent with weak sustainability (at best), which are argued to be “insufficient in order to achieve sustainability over time and space” (Heikkurinen and Bonnedahl 2013, p. 191).

Furthermore, the pitfalls of the economic perspective on corporate responsibility have to do with its somewhat inconsistent political background theory, which emphasises the moral significance of the boundaries between business and politics without robust institutional mechanisms to support those boundaries (Mäkinen and Kourula 2012). However, in the social order suggested by classical-liberalism, there are no so-called basic-structure institutions taking care of the egalitarian background required to establish a just society. The lack also threatens citizens’ democratic control over the economic sphere of society and the basic terms of their social life (see Rawls 1996, 2001). Since classical-liberalism only accepts the very limited public structures of society (protecting the capitalist basic rights) with no major redistributive functions, the approach suffers from the absence of any robust institutions that could halt the concentration of economic value over time, leading to the unequal distribution of wealth both locally and globally.

In the context of the globalising economy, classical-liberalism produces strong private concentrations of power operating within the relatively weak public structures of society. In these settings, the private economic power of corporations is easily transformed into unequal political power and, contrary to the classical-liberal ideal, the boundaries between business and politics become blurred; thus allowing firms to become major political actors in society and harbingers of development.

From the critical perspective, the corporate responsibility discussion is nothing more than a part of the neo-liberal political strategy that aims to legitimise the extension of corporate economic power in society at the expense of its democratic spheres (Banerjee 2007). Therefore, the corporate responsibility discourse transforms the bedrock of democracy and justice into economic and managerial questions where the laws of economics and markets prevail (Shamir 2008). On the organisational level, these ideas are compatible with the pursuit of competitive advantage and stakeholder management, which are becoming the major political currency in contemporary societies (Banerjee and Bonnefous 2011). As a consequence, those with the economic resources and managerial control over the means of production can dictate the fundamental terms of social and ecological life, while others, and particularly the least advantaged members of societies and non-human actors without economic capital, gradually lose their voice.

While the inherent problems of the classical-liberal social order offer plenty of room for criticism, the critical perspective on corporate responsibility has not yet been able to suggest clear ways forward through its deconstructive focus on neo-liberal ideology. “Although ideological critiques are important and informative, they are likely to fail to attack the fundamental problems because they can be perceived as disconnected from, and unconcerned with, routine activity in corporations” (Kuhn and Deetz 2008, p. 183). In other words, the major potential of the critical case is surely its ability to highlight the ongoing injustice and power asymmetries in human and non-human life, but its definite pitfall is the lack of available solutions. For the societal level, the suggested way forward is through governmental intervention by means of regulation (Banerjee 2010), but the means of organisational management remain undetermined. Within the critical perspective there might even be an assumption underlying this lack of management tools that private responsibility is not needed when global and local public governance mechanisms are able to take care of social and environmental responsibilities. We might also judge that the critical perspective on corporate responsibility discussion does not go far enough towards its roots in critical theory when it connects the neo-liberal political processes and the economic perspective understanding of responsibility. To clarify, the advocates of the critical perspective’s position are rather weak in the political debate unless they can argue for an alternative that would demonstrate the outcomes of justice on the societal level and implications for the corporation. Even though it seems rather difficult to find an alternative model for the economic perspective, we must acknowledge the critical perspective for its ability to reveal the ideological foundations of the debate.

Another contribution of the critical perspective is to function as a stepping stone on the route to the politico-ethical perspective. The inability of the critical perspective to produce a paradigm shift in the corporate responsibility discussion has paved the way for advocates of the politico-ethical perspective to develop new conceptualisations of the relationship between business and society. The way forward that this perspective offers is a path to moral development and political activity in societies and business organisations. For social and environmental justice to be a reality locally and globally, under the politico-ethical perspective corporations would have to bear a responsibility extending beyond economic instrumentalism (Néron 2010; Whelan 2012).

Advocates of the politico-ethical perspective aim to replace the dominant economic conception of responsibility with a new ethical and/or political understanding of corporate responsibility. It is an ambitious aim requiring the political version of the politico-ethical perspective discussion to expressly challenge the traditional ideas of clear boundaries between the economic and political spheres of society, and the notion of private firms being mere economic actors that operate within a regulatory framework of the public sector of society. As an alternative to the economic and critical perspectives, the politico-ethical perspective offers an understanding of corporate responsibility where business firms blur the traditional boundaries between the economic and the political through voluntary self-regulation and by taking over the traditional executive tasks of political and social regulation of the private sphere in the spirit of deliberative democracy (Scherer and Palazzo 2007, 2011; Matten and Crane 2005; Crane et al. 2008).

An obvious pitfall of this thinking is its utopian nature, apparent in the lack of empirical studies that support the antithesis to the economic and critical perspective. An assumption that corporations and consumers can together succeed in radically reducing the volume of production and consumption in the rich north (which is needed for inter-generational justice), while simultaneously promoting global and local redistribution of economic wealth (which is needed for intra-generational justice), might be unrealistic. However, while this assumption does not accord with the empirical view of the world at large, we have recently witnessed the emergence of more ecologically and socially egalitarian ways of organising business practices, including sustainable enterprises (Tilley and Young 2006; Rodgers 2010; Holt 2011), community-supported organisations (Stagl 2002), fair businesses (Ketola 2012), co-operatives (Stattman and Mol 2014), and time banks (Seyfang 2003). There is certainly potential for these social movements to offer alternative ways to organise economic activity.

On the societal level, the assumptions made under the politico-ethical perspective are also of concern. The political side of the case assumes that globalisation and new forms of democratic conceptions (such as multi-stakeholder initiatives and public–private partnerships) are enough to challenge the economic and critical perspectives on corporate responsibility (Mäkinen and Kourula 2012; Mäkinen and Kasanen 2014, 2015). These assumptions, however, could be impugned. First, the current rate of globalisation cannot be guaranteed to prevail over the coming decades. Even if it did, it is debatable whether globalisation as a phenomenon could fundamentally challenge political agendas, such as that of classical-liberalism that describes the boundaries between the private and public spheres (Tainio et al. 2013). In other words, whether the so-called strong globalisation thesis is fully justified is moot. Be that as it may, it is possible to accept the strong globalisation thesis and still argue for a need to strengthen the boundaries between business and politics in the global economy due to the acute inequalities in society and the ecologically harmful consequences of business activity (Mäkinen and Kasanen 2015).

The following assumption could also be considered a pitfall on the societal level. The new forms of democracy, that is, the republican political philosophy (see Sunstein 1988; Dagger 2006; White 2012) and the deliberative concept of democracy (see Richardson 2002; Crocker 2006) are hardly served by proffering a mandate to enlarge the political participation of corporations in society. The theory relied upon by contemporary republicans and deliberative democrats seems, in fact, highly receptive to institutional measures designed to create stronger boundaries between economic and political powers (see Rawls 2001, pp. 149–150). These potentials and pitfalls are worth considering when hypothesising on the responsibility of the corporation to create a just society, and also when synthesising the perspectives to promote a more holistic understanding of the phenomenon.

In order to foster the potential of previous studies, our integrative perspective aims to bridge and reconcile the economic, critical, and politico-ethical perspectives on corporate responsibility. We propose that:

When there is a robust division of moral labour in a society, the responsibility of a corporation may be economic (as suggested by the economic perspective) without jeopardising democracy and sustainability (as reported by the critical perspective). Moreover, the economic role of corporations neither signifies the absence of deliberative democratic mechanisms nor business practices extending beyond mere compliance (as called for under the politico-ethical perspective).

To take the initial steps towards this synthesis, we suggest that to ensure the impartiality and functionality of both the democratic and economic logics, clear boundaries and the division of moral labour between public and private spheres should be put in place (Fig. 2). Hence, the prerequisite is a strong, democratic public sphere of society to draft and enforce fair institutional conditions under which the activities of the private sphere take place, so that economic actors can advance their ends within the framework of basic-structure institutions that are provided by the democratically governed public sphere of society (Rawls 1996, pp. 266–267; Rawls 2001; Mäkinen and Kourula 2012).

In other words, from the integrative perspective the private sphere must be embedded within the public sphere (see Fig. 2) to ensure the robust division of moral labour. The economy and its actors are to function within a society in such a manner that the democratic public sphere is able to make decisions concerning the institutional framework within which private sphere operations take place. As we know, currently this is not the case as large corporations are able to steer the democratic decision-making process to suit their economic interests (Fuchs and Clapp 2009; Néron 2015). The private sphere must be integrated within the public sphere since only this way can governments implement regulations ensuring that social and environmental justice become reality, as that cannot be guaranteed if corporate action is voluntary or justice becomes subject to the vagaries of the market. This is the precondition for the democratic division of responsibilities between public and private actors in a society (see also Mäkinen and Kasanen 2014, 2015).

On the other hand, we suggest that this type of strict division of moral labour between the public and private sphere offers room for private actors to focus on their core business competencies without being overwhelmed by political responsibilities and activities. When the division of moral labour is established, business organisations and managers are then free to further their goals effectively within the framework of the basic structure (see Rawls 1996, pp. 268–269). In this Rawlsian basic-structure society, “individuals will be assigned a duty to support just institutions, but within the framework established by those institutions, they will be able to lead their lives in such a way as to honour the values appropriate to small-scale interpersonal relationships” (Scheffler 2005, p. 236). To apply this idea to corporate responsibility signifies that the primary task of private organisations and managers is to support public, democratic basic-structure institutions, while also being free to pursue their economic, or other interests such as providing equitable workplaces or contributing to the health of natural environment.

The widespread assumption that corporations would unite in opposition to governmental intervention through legislation seems a fallacy. In fact, a survey conducted among Nordic companies demonstrates “a very strong preference for increased international regulation of social and environmental issues” (Gjølberg 2011, p. 1). In addition to supporting responsible managers and possible benefits that might accrue to companies already implementing corporate responsibility by levelling the playing field through raising the overall level of compliance (Gjølberg 2011), distress from stakeholder demands might offer an explanation, and an important effect for openness to increased social and environmental regulation. For instance, to reduce the harmful overconsumption and overproduction of modern societies, the “basic structure [importantly] helps to shape people’s characters, desires, aims, and aspirations” (Scheffler 2005, p. 238) away from these unsustainable practices. Scheffler (2005, p. 238) adds that “[s]ince the basic structure inevitably has this function, and since the question of how people and their aspirations are to be shaped is a moral question, it is again essential that the basic structure should be regulated by norms of justice.”

It is crucial to understand that the proper division of moral labour and the separation of the private and public spheres of society are necessary to create and maintain the spaces for democratic deliberation (multi-stakeholder initiatives etc.) that comply with environmental and social justice. From the integrative perspective, the deliberative democratic processes (suggested by the politico-ethical perspective) and their contributions are considered important means for regulating global and local business conduct through legislation. In addition, as Mena and Palazzo (2012) suggested, the deliberative processes must meet legitimacy criteria in terms of procedural fairness, consensual orientation, and transparency (input legitimacy) as well as in terms of rule coverage, efficacy, and enforcement (output legitimacy). Public, democratic support for stakeholder initiatives is an effective indicator of both the input and output legitimacy of the process.

Theoretical backing for separating public and private spheres can be found, not only among the proponents of the economic perspective (e.g. Friedman 1962; Jensen 2002) but also among advocates of the critical perspective (e.g. Levitt 1958; Banerjee 2007). As mentioned above, the supporters of the economic perspective suggest strict boundaries between business and politics and work towards a self-directed private sphere of society with the economic perspective on corporate responsibility. On the other hand, the proponents of the critical perspective call for a democratically governed public sphere of society, as they are rightly concerned about the ongoing expansion of the private sphere and consequent penetration of the economic logic throughout the public sphere.

Looking from the integrative perspective, the classical-liberal public sphere of society is too limited and economically oriented to regulate the private sphere of society in a globalised economy where the power of corporations is increasing relative to the public sphere of society (Mäkinen and Kasanen 2015). As envisioned by the proponents of the critical perspective, these weaknesses of the classical-liberal social order in local, domestic and global settings (via different power-gaining vehicles such as corporate responsibility) can easily lead to the extension of the economic sphere of society, at the expense of the democratically governed public sphere of society (Harvey 2005; Banerjee 2007; Shamir 2008). This process—where the boundaries between business and politics become extremely blurred—is problematic from the economic perspective because business firms become political actors, and the classical-liberal social order is therefore violated (e.g. Friedman 1962, 1970; Jensen 2002, 2008). The process is also problematic from the critical perspective, as the public sphere of society gradually becomes economised and penetrated by the rules of the market (Fougère 2011; Banerjee 2007; Shamir 2008). Despite some actions being considered legitimate in a society, the democratic logic is jeopardised if its status and the mechanism by which it functions is weakened. For these reasons, the integrative perspective aims to make the boundaries between business and politics stronger, and also to establish a clear division of moral labour between the private and public spheres of society. This condition could be supported from both economic and critical perspectives as it preserves the central aims of both perspectives on corporate responsibility.

A central scholarly target of the integrative perspective on corporate responsibility is to examine the multiple ways in which the boundaries between business and politics can be secured. First, the dominant ends of the public and private spheres of society could be more separate than in the classical-liberal setting, where the major political aims of the public sphere of society are economic and relatively similar to the targets of the private sphere of society. In the classical-liberal social order, the boundaries between business and politics are relatively fragile for that reason. Alternatively, the public sphere of society that should be firmly committed to the ends of social and environmental justice is not so vulnerable to local, domestic, and global economic powers as is the economically oriented, classical-liberal public sector is (Mäkinen and Kasanen 2015). Second, our political culture offers an alternative conception of the public sphere that works harder than the classical-liberal public sector to oppose the concentration of economic power and the related expansion of the private sphere over time. The integrative perspective uses these alternative political conceptions of the public sector in the setting of corporate responsibility studies to outline a better balance between business and politics in the global setting (see Mäkinen and Kasanen 2015).

In addition, the integrative perspective on corporate responsibility takes into account some of the major democratic and ethical aims of the politico-ethical perspective. In the contemporary globalised economy, there is a need to democratically embed corporations into global regulatory frameworks and processes intended to regulate global businesses, as argued by the proponents of the politico-ethical perspective (Baur and Palazzo 2011; Scherer et al. 2013). In this context, corporations’ active participation with the public as well as with civil society actors in different deliberative spaces and processes like multi-stakeholder dialogues, standard setting processes, and learning initiatives can be extremely important.

To incorporate the idea of deliberative democracy into the setting of global governance articulated by the proponents of the politico-ethical perspective, the integrative perspective on corporate responsibility focuses first on the institutional conditions for deliberative dialogue and democracy. It is generally accepted that these background conditions for deliberative democratic spaces include equal political rights, equality before the law, economic justice, and procedural fairness (see Rawls 2001; Richardson 2002; Crocker 2006; Habermas 1996).

Thus, the central idea of the integrative perspective is the call for outlining a robust public sphere of society capable of providing these conditions of background justice of democratic deliberation. Arguably, the provision of these public goods in the global setting, while simultaneously fulfilling the efficiency and democracy requirements of the economic and critical perspectives, may put a too heavy burden on the shoulders of various private actors, such as corporations and NGOs. This of course does not signify that those corporations that wish to and are able to exceed the requested level of compliance could not do so.

Furthermore, the integrative perspective studies the strengths and weaknesses of various ideas of deliberative democracy in the setting of global governance of businesses. The central hypothesis of our perspective is that the division of moral labour between public and private spheres is also of vital importance in the setting of global governance of businesses. For example, the Habermasian understanding of deliberative politics involving the idea of division of labour between strong and weak publics is very interesting and worthy of consideration (Fraser 1992; Baynes 2002). In the setting of global governance of businesses, weak publics can be understood as those involving corporations and civil society actors participating in various multi-stakeholder forums and initiatives, while strong publics comprise the formal structures of the public sphere. The integrative perspective thus suggests that weak publics might be tasked with drafting the elements of a global regulatory framework to ensure corporate accountability, while the decision-making and the enforcement responsibilities lie with the democratically governed institutions of the public sphere (see Mäkinen and Kourula 2012).

In parallel with the state regulating its members, societal actors—be they from the public, private, or third sectors—are encouraged to start designing deliberative democratic institutions and structures that would encourage a sense of community, increase citizen engagement, and foster moral development. These ideas are often voiced when examining corporate responsibility from the politico-ethical perspective (e.g. Baur and Arenas 2014). While the ethical potential in societies could (and should) be explored to the fullest, as suggested by the politico-ethical perspective intellectuals (e.g. Pruzan 2008; Zsolnai 2010), the level of legal compliance must simultaneously be rationalised to meet the challenges of contemporary society, as emphasised under the critical perspective. To ameliorate some of the concerns over increased state control and bureaucracy from the economic perspective (e.g. Friedman 1962, 1970; Jensen 2002, 2008), the proposed updated legal compliance level need not necessarily translate into a larger volume of statutes and regulations, but might instead involve a change in quality. Examples of such bureaucratically light legislation could be a basic income or a progressive energy tax on consumption. The ecological, societal, and economic consequences of these policies, however, must be scrutinised in detail before implementation. The overall synthesis is illustrated in Table 2.

In order to achieve the state of synthesis on the societal level, policy makers would be required to separate public and private powers by establishing and maintaining clear boundaries between the two spheres, which would involve drafting and implementing policies to embed the private sphere in the public sphere. The current international business context would require public policies to be put in place on both local and global levels (Locke 2013). That requirement would in turn demand an investigation of the potential for cooperation and coordination between the different vertical and horizontal levels of policy: a sort of meta-governance (see e.g. Christopoulus et al. 2012; Kull 2014). While there may be negative economic consequences in the form of decreased competitive advantage for a society, embeddedness is crucial to ensure social and environmental justice. Because of contextual differences, it would largely fall to the policy makers to plan and implement the transition from an expanded private sphere to a private that is genuinely embedded. However, it may well be worth considering drafting a generic, global piece of legislation setting the maximum size of a corporation and limits to the accumulation of ownership and economic power.

After regaining power and legitimacy in the public sphere, policy makers would be expected to use their democratic authority by implementing the necessary regulation of corporations. This would require responding to questions of social injustice, reducing the gap between rich and poor both globally and locally, and developing strict measures to slow climate change, halt the reduction of biodiversity, and reduce the consumption of natural resources. In the social domain, questions might include enforcing progressive corporate taxation to support small- and medium-sized entrepreneurs, while on the environmental side, policies might encompass imposing a cost on all emissions affecting climate, and taxing resource use. Such policies would have the potential to advance social and environmental justice.

Policy making, however, ought not to be limited to these basic tasks but should include the co-designing of the background institutions together with other societal actors, thus allowing deliberative democratic processes to mediate between the public and private spheres. The institutional and economic support of public actors in multi-stakeholder initiatives, for instance, would be advantageous for the cause.

To draw implications for the management practice of business organisations, we propose that a broader understanding of corporate responsibility be adopted; one that incorporates the societal level of analysis (see also Aguinis and Glavas 2012; Frynas and Stephens 2015). This study’s synthesis demonstrates how the organisational and societal levels of analysis are inherently intertwined and cannot be separated without invoking undesired consequences (see Dowling and Pfeffer 1975; Lee 2008). Examining corporate responsibility merely on the organisational level will lead to a lack of understanding of the economic and political context of the corporation. Moreover, a single-level approach to responsible business may have unintended social and ecological effects from the perspectives of intra- and inter-generational justice.

To demonstrate respect for the democratic process, we consider it would be worthwhile for corporations to examine the possibility of refraining from politics as an act of responsibility (see also Néron 2015; Reich 1998; 2008). Rather than spending huge sums each year on lobbying, corporations could deploy their resources more responsibly (see e.g. Ketola 2010, 2012). Since the main purpose of corporate lobbyists is to influence political decision-making in favour of the firm or the industry, it is evident that the expanding lobbying industry is harmful to the democratic logic. The ways in which corporations can harm democracy and the public good include “promoting legislation that benefits corporations at the expense of individual citizens, the capturing of regulatory agencies by those whom the agencies were designed to regulate, and the privatization of functions that have historically been the mandate of local, state, and federal governments” (Barley 2007, p. 201). The corporate involvement in politics already has a track record of changing the direction of several laws and rolling back regulation in favour of corporate economic interests, as well as lowering corporate taxes and removing charges on the use of environmentally harmful substances (Bakan 2004). Moreover, it goes without saying that corporations should not engage in any kind of hidden political lobbying, as it is clearly incompatible with an advanced understanding of corporate responsibility and transparency (Palazzo and Richter 2005).

From the integrative perspective, another form of primary corporate responsibility could be demonstrated through making tax payments instead of adopting tax-avoidance schemes. The tax-free touring that corporations conduct undermines societal development, for instance in areas like public education and health care, and also reduces the options for environmental protection. We second the call of Christensen and Murphy (2004, p. 37) that “[b]usinesses should adopt corporate social responsibility standards on taxation, including requirements to publish all necessary accounting information and to refrain from the use of profits-laundering vehicles created without substantial economic purpose”. Furthermore, in the international setting, the maintenance of double standards can be seen to widen the gap in social justice between the “Rich North” and “Global South” (Castleman 1983; Stefanini 1999). The quality of products and processes should be of the same standard regardless of context (Heikkurinen and Ketola 2012), that is to say, the absence of stakeholder pressure should not signify weaker environmental and social performance. Instead, we propose that corporations involve themselves in co-creating global guidelines and principles for responsible business with other societal actors, e.g. multi-stakeholder initiatives (Mena and Palazzo 2012) and explore the usefulness of universal moral ideas, e.g. the ethics of duty (Bowie 1999; Kolstad 2007) and virtue (Solomon 1992, 2003; Ketola 2008) in their corporate responsibility strategies (Heikkurinen and Bonnedahl 2013).

We would also encourage corporate managers to explore other legal forms to organise economic activity that necessitate taking full, instead of limited, responsibility for their actions. Furthermore, in addition to structural organisational changes, we suggest in line with van Marrewijk (2003), Bonnedahl and Eriksson (2007), and Ketola (2010) that corporations follow the pioneering organisations that have redefined their mission and strategies, and left behind management models based on narrow economic interests. This, however, cannot be expected from listed corporations that are largely bound by socio-economic structures and serving the interests of their shareholders. Self-funded organisations and social enterprises are leading the way in this respect, and importantly shaping organisational structures from within (Pruzan 2008; Heikkurinen and Ketola 2012). These changes may lead to positive reactions among stakeholders and confer advantages on first movers. However, the most important outcome of such policies would be that of supporting social and ecological justice in society at large, which is the motivation behind our integrative perspective.