Towards the age of corporate responsibility? Emerging challenges for the business world

The article seeks to show how the issue of ethical corporations can be examined and challenged through the concept of corporate responsibility. Corporate responsibility first emerged as a term around 10 years ago with the rise of environmental reporting systems. At that time, the UNCED summit in Rio boosted the general level of consciousness concerning these issues and the first business-driven international organisation to tackle the field, Business Council for Sustainable Development, emerged. Globalisation, which by any indicators accelerated enormously during the 1990s, has challenged corporations to consider responsibility in a new light. The evolution and spread of a global network of finance have increased the need for transparency and responsibility, at the same time as the shift from 'international' to 'global' signified the gradual breakdown of old institutions and the emergence of new ones. This article evaluates how corporations have responded to this challenge and postulates, in the light of increasing pressures on human and natural conditions, a coming 'Age of Responsibility' that will set corporate responsibility a basis for any action in business world. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.