ABSTRACT

In this chapter, the authors offer their own overall assessment of whether corporate responsibility coalitions have had a positive impact. Their assessment is clearly subjective, based on their own experiences with the coalitions and their biases as coalition-builders. The authors provide some of the common criticisms of coalitions. Business-led corporate responsibility coalitions have been criticized on a number of counts, both individually and generally. Many individual companies have a long way to go in aligning environmental, social and governance performance with their core business strategies and financial objectives, and in aligning short-term financial performance with long-term economic performance. Many key socioeconomic and environmental indicators are still moving in a negative direction at the global level and within the majority of countries. The global financial crisis has led to renewed questioning of the legitimacy of business and the global social contract is widely seen to have broken down: there is a trust deficit.