Social Responsibility and the "Green" Business Firm

Abstract

Social responsibility and environmentalism are rotated concepts, par ticularly as they manifest in normative prescriptions for firm-level behavior. More specifically, the practice of environmentally friendly (or "green") policies represents a form of socially responsible behavior by business firms. As a socially responsible orientation is a prerequisite for green behavior, it follows that the viability of the green business enterprise depends to some significant extent on the viability of the concept of social responsibility. The purpose of this article is to examine the latter as it is elaborated in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate social performance (CSP) literatures. The author argues that the social responsibility discourse has been undermined by acon textual development, theoretical misspecification, and unreflexiveness and is thus neither theoretically, empirically, nor normatively sustain able. At the same time, however, the author suggests that this discourse generates ideological effects with material implications for stakeholder groups.