Making Corporate Social Responsibility a Global Concern

In recent decades, claims have increasingly been made on transnational corporations to take responsibility for the promotion and protection of human and labour rights in countries where they operate. This behavioural obligation results from the persistent support of non-governmental organizations commonly known as corporate social responsibility (CSR). Theoretically driven by the 'norm life cycle model' and using an interesting range of case studies; Nike, the anti-apartheid movement to name a few, Lisbeth Segerlund traces the development of corporate social responsibility as a international norm, and how this norm has become an issue on the international agenda. This development is examined through five selected non-governmental organizations; Clean Clothes Campaign; Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International; Global Exchange; and, International Business Leaders Forum and the International Labor Rights Fund, each one of them seen as norm entrepreneurs involved in a process of international norm construction. Theres is a lucid contribution to an emerging scholarship on corporate social responsibility which will interest researchers and practitioners directly or indirectly involved in issues of global governance and global civil society.