¹Carroll School of Management, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA

Correspondence: Sandra Waddock, Carroll School of Management, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA. E-mail: waddock@bc.edu

Abstract

This paper outlines the emergence of corporate responsibility/corporate citizenship as part of corporate practice. The paper first defines the terms, then briefly focuses on the history of corporate citizenship and its evolution over time, highlighting the current popularity of the term both in academic and practice-based work. It turns next to an assessment of the current pressures and dynamics facing major corporations, highlighting the internalization of corporate responsibility practices into companies' business models, and a growing infrastructure that involves new standards and principles, the social investment movement, NGO pressures, multi-sector collaborations particularly around so-called bottom-of the pyramid strategies, internal and external responsibility management approaches, and stakeholder engagement, as well as transparency and reporting. Finally, the paper addresses how some of the current pressures are likely to evolve in the future, noting the emergence of new conversations like Corporation 2020, which focus on the core purposes and definition of the corporation, as well as other pressures that are likely to continue to develop, with a brief discussion of the implications for practice of all of these shifts.