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New article re: SIM history.

Journal of Business, Economics, and Ethics

www.zfwu.de

Forty Years On: Still Searching for the Corporation-Society

Paradigm*

JAMES E. POST**

zfwu 16/2 (2015), 136–149

In 1975, the Journal of Economic Literature published an article by Lee E. Preston

entitled "The Corporation and Society: Search for a Paradigm". The article became an

important landmark in the evolution of the young, but rapidly growing, field of business

and society. This paper reviews Preston's effort to articulate the corporation-society

paradigm. The author, who served as Preston's research assistant when the

original paper was written and, later, as his coauthor, discusses Preston's "search for a

paradigm", offers an assessment of where the field stands today, and discusses whether,

or where, a new paradigm is likely to emerge.

Keywords: Corporate Responsibility, CSR Paradigm, Interpenetrating Social Systems,

Social Contract, Stakeholder Theory, Sustainability Paradigm

Vierzig Jahre später: Noch immer auf der Suche nach dem Unternehmen-

Gesellschaft-Paradigma

1975 veröffentlichte das Journal of Economic Literature Lee E. Prestons Artikel „The Corporatoin

and Society: Search for a Paradigm".In der jungen, aber rasch wachsenden Forschung zu Unternehmen

und Gesellschaft ist der Artikel zu einem wichtigen Meilenstein geworden. In diesem Artikel

wird Prestons Versuch, das Unternehmen-Gesellschaft-Paradigma zu formulieren, gewürdigt. Dafür

wird die „Suche nach einem Paradigma" diskutiert, eine Einordnung des heutigen Forschungsstandes

gegeben, und die Frage erörtert, ob und wo ein neues Paradigma voraussichtlich entsteht. Der Autor

hatte Preston beim Schreiben des ursprünglichen Artikels als dessen Assistent unterstützt und wurde

später sein Co-Autor.

Schlagwörter: Unternehmensverantwortung (CSR), CSR-Paradigma, Interpenetrierende Gesellschaftliche

Systeme, Stakeholder-Theorie, Nachhaltigkeitsparadigma

1. Introduction

1.1 The Invitation

The business and society field was in its early history during the 1970s when Lee Preston,

a distinguished economist and expert on competition policy, was invited to prepare

a survey paper for the prestigious Journal of Economic Literature (JEL). JEL was

known to be an authoritative source of information about the important literature in

various subfields of economic science. The editors recognized that the corporation-society

relationship was a topic of emerging importance, and one that was rapidly

changing in many industrialized and developing economies. Moreover, the "relationship"

involved much more than antitrust policy and competitive practices. Topics

such as consumerism, pollution and environmental degradation, workplace discrimination,

and other matters of public concern had no obvious "place" within economics,

given their non-market features. How, the editors queried, were these activities to

be understood within the framework of social science?

....

________________________

* The manuscript was submitted on 17.05.2015.

** Professor Emeritus Dr. James E. Post, Boston University – Questrom School of Business, 595

Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA, Tel.: +1-(0)617-353-4162, E-Mail: jepost@

bu.edu, Fields of Research: Corporate Social Responsibility, Public Affairs Management,

Corporate Governance, Global Codes of Conduct, Business Ethics.

zfwu 16/2 (2015), 136–149 137