For Goodness’ Sake: The Next Wave of CSR Research in an Impact-Oriented World

The business case for CSR is a dominant paradigm in management research which argues that organizations should pursue CSR to maximize profits. However, stakeholders increasingly demand managers consider the short- and long-term societal impact of their decisions, such that many stakeholders likely remain unsatisfied by CSR that is primarily oriented toward short-term financial goals. Given this, two dominant theoretical perspectives of CSR have emerged over time: (1) an instrumental perspective that reflects the traditional business case for CSR, and (2) a more normative injunctive perspective that argues organizations have a duty to move beyond financial goals by reducing harm and creating societal value. For this panel symposium we bring together esteemed scholars with expertise in CSR and corporate sustainability to debate whether, why or why not, and how researchers should re-conceptualize the business case for CSR by comparing, contrasting, and reconciling the instrumental and injunctive perspectives of CSR. The panel will (1) offer a current perspective on the state of the business case for CSR, its importance, and its shortcomings; (2) debate the extent to which researchers should seek to re-conceptualize the business case for CSR; and, finally, (3) propose a launching point for future research on the topic. We thereby seek to chart a path forward for researchers interested in CSR at a time when increasingly impact-oriented stakeholder demands blur the line between instrumental and injunctive perspectives of CSR.