What motivates managers to pursue corporate responsibility? a survey among key stakeholders

Abstract Following several decades of scholarship with several disciplinary points of departure, there is today a great heterogeneity of theories and approaches to Corporate Responsibility (CR). Taking a pragmatist position, this paper takes some of the most central theoretic perspectives on CR and exposes them to an evaluation by three panels: corporate leaders, MSc students and NGOs. The purpose of the paper is to clarify and compare what these panels think motivates mangers to pursue CR from a positivist and normative perspective. We find that the three panels are in surprising agreement as to what they assume motivates managers to pursue CR and what should motivate the same managers. We also see a large discrepancy between what they think motivates and what should motivate managers. Branding, stakeholders, and value maximization are assumed to be key motivators, whereas sustainability and branding should be the key motivators. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.