Stakeholder performance implications of corporate responsibility

Demands for greater integrity - more corporate responsibility - are an increasingly critical element of doing well and doing "good" in today's business environment. Using a definition of corporate citizenship that links stakeholder-related operating practices to corporate responsibility, this paper explores the performance implications of companies treating stakeholders well. Companies face conflicting pressures: one set for profitability and wealth maximisation, the other is to manage more responsibly, with more accountability and transparency. Specifically, the paper addresses the ways in which companies can benefit from - or be hurt by - some general emerging institutional pressures that push in the direction of greater responsibility.