Corporate Citizenship, Social Responsibility, and Sustainability Reports as “Would-be” Narratives

Abstract

Corporate citizenship, social responsibility and sustainability reports could be analyzed from a philosophical viewpoint. In this article, we will use Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutic philosophy to assess the narrativity of such reports. Out of a philosophical viewpoint, our exploratory study analyzes the contents of ten reports: two corporate citizenship reports (Disney; Abbott), three corporate social responsibility reports (WhiteWave; Comcast NBCUniversal; MGM Resorts International), and five sustainability reports (Whole Foods Market; Marriott; Johnson & Johnson; Toyota; Honda). Those reports are arising in-time and are thus referring to past corporate events and phenomena (past-focused perspective). Sometimes such reports introduce a corporate world-dream that could emphasize various issues such as human dignity and inclusiveness/diversity, global health, and planetary stewardship (future-focused perspective). They could even convey a subversive ideal that could strongly shake the foundations of business. The way business corporations are understanding corporate citizenship and sustainability could, more or less radically, change the way we are doing business. However, those corporate citizenship, social responsibility and sustainability reports do not have any emplotment. They are thus stories that cannot be considered as narratives. We could call them “would-be” narratives.