Global Rules and Private Actors: Toward a New Role of the Transnational Corporation in Global Governance

By Andreas Georg Scherer, Guido Palazzo, D. Baumann. 2006

563 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We discuss the role that transnational corporations (TNCs) should play in developing global governance, creating a framework of rules and regulations for the global economy. The central issue is whether TNCs should provide global rules and guarantee individual citizenship rights, or instead focus on maximizing profits. First, we describe the problems arising from the globalization process that affect the relationship between public rules and private firms. Next we consider the position of economic and management theories in relation to the social responsibility of the firm. We argue that instrumental stakeholder theory and business and society research can only partially solve the global governance issue, and that more recent concepts of corporate citizenship and republican business ethics deliver theoretically and practically helpful, fresh insights. However, even these need further development, especially with regard to the legitimacy of corporate political activity.

Subfields: Information Systems and Management, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/cf9afcdacc381692e46a13ee0b020ef2afb3f47c

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Citations in the corpus

Corporate social responsibility, board of directors, and firm performance: an analysis of their relationships (2014, background): “It has also been shown that managers use corporate governance mechanisms together with CSR practices to resolve conflicts between stakeholders (Harjoto and Jo 2011; Scherer et al. 2006).”
Analyst Coverage, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Firm Risk (2014, background): “…possible to satisfy all related stakeholders, there is a growing literature on conflict resolution (e.g. Jensen 2002, Calton & Payne 2003, Scherer et al. 2006, Jo & Harjoto 2011, 2012), in which the role of the corporation is also subject to discursive scrutiny by noninvesting…”
What Happened to the ‘Development’ in Sustainable Development? Business Guidelines Two Decades After Brundtland (2014, background): “…arena and the considerable regulatory void that has resulted from this situation (Braithwaite and Drahos, 2000), the private sector may play a significant role in shaping the rules regarding the transition to a more sustainable future (Kolk and van Tulder, 2005; Moon, 2007; Scherer et al., 2006).”
Corporate social responsibility, firm value, and influential institutional ownership (2018, methodology): “In addition, we follow Servaes and Tamayo (2013) to construct Advertising Intensity, calculated as annual advertising expenses to sales ratio. Block Institutional Ownership (Block IO) is measured as the percentage of a firm’s shares held by investors whose ownership is at least 5% of the firm’s shar”
CSR and the Debate on Business and Human Rights: Bridging the Great Divide (2012, background): “…with the need to redefine their role and purpose in a deliberative manner and to deal with increasing expectations regarding their involvement in the development and enforcement of global rules and standards for the global market place (Scherer, Palazzo, and Baumann 2006, Scherer and Palazzo 2007).”
How Do Firms Comply with International Sustainability Standards? Processes and Consequences of Adopting the Global Reporting Initiative (2015, background): “There is a dearth of empirical research into the impact of global governance institutions on firms, as the literature is dominated by theoretical articles on the role of corporations in global governance issues (e.g. Hess, 2007; Scherer et al., 2006; van Oosterhout, 2010).”
Input and output legitimacy of multi-stakeholder initiatives (2012, background): “As CSR increasingly involves the private regulation of business (Kobrin, 2009; Matten & Crane, 2005; Scherer & Palazzo, 2011; Scherer et al., 2006; Waddock, 2008), the legitimacy of such regulation will be increasingly important, at least for as long as a global nexus of public governance is…”