Introduction: Corporate responsibility and global business

Corporate responsibility has gone global. Business leaders, as well as leaders from government and civil society, increasingly argue that business must play a constructive role in addressing massive global challenges. Business is not responsible for causing most of the problems associated with, for example, extreme poverty and hunger, child mortality and HIV/AIDS – and, arguably, it is only indirectly responsible for most of the problems of climate change. However, it is often claimed that business has a responsibility to help ameliorate many of these problems and, indeed, it may be the only institution capable of effectively addressing some of them. As a result, corporate responsibility has secured the attention of business leaders, governments and NGOs to an unprecedented extent. Thus this book, Global Challenges in Responsible Business – which originated in an international conference on corporate responsibility organized at London Business School – addresses the implications for business of corporate responsibility in the context of globalization and the social and environmental problems faced by global business today. The book offers a rich set of articles reflective of research on corporate responsibility, many of which are informed by empirical studies. It focuses on three key corporate responsibility issues for global business: embedding corporate responsibility within the organization, the relationship between corporate responsibility and marketing, and implementing corporate responsibility in developing countries.