CSR as a Political Arena: The Struggle for a European Framework

Abstract

This contribution is a reaction to the striking fact that the political aspect of CSR has remained largely hidden in most of the scientific and practice-oriented management literature. This work intends to illuminate the political dimension of CSR in that the changing stance of the European Commission toward CSR between 2001 and 2006 is analyzed and interpreted as a result of political processes within an “issue arena”. For this case study written documents from the most important actors are used (EU Commission, EU Parliament, the Council, advocacy groups and lobbies for industry and civil society CSR platforms) as well as interviews with high ranking representatives of these institutions (conducted in the spring of 2008).