Corporate Social Responsibility and Regulatory Governance: Towards Inclusive Development?

The corporate social responsibility (CSR) movement has been instrumental in raising awareness that firms have responsibilities other than to their owners and 'the bottom line'. Yet despite all the talk about the importance of stakeholders, transparency, corporate citizenship and sustainability, the developmental and regulatory impacts of CSR remain highly questionable. This book assesses the global rise of private regulation and CSR from the perspective of social and sustainable development. By adopting a multidisciplinary lens, it examines why the experience of CSR pales in comparison with the promise, what needs to be done to address 'the intellectual crisis' of CSR, and forms of corporate accountability and regulation more conducive to inclusive patterns of development.