Corporate Legitimacy and Social Responsibility : The Role of Law

Corporate social responsibility must be considered within the context of managerial response to a crisis of corporate legitimacy and can be best understood if viewed in part as a problem in role definition—how the corporation and society perceive the corporations public role. The author contends that law can play an important part in providing the framework of controls necessary for the expansion of the corporations public role, while concurrently providing a strengthened base for corporate legitimacy.