ABSTRACT
Since the 1970s, public and civil society dissatisfaction with the global clout and power of corporations has generated a growing wave of new institutional mechanisms that attempt, in different ways, to create more accountable, responsible, and transparent corporations. Created in a context in which global corporations seem to be growing ever larger and more powerful and nation-states weakening, these institutional mechanisms have become part of a much larger social movement. This movement is attempting to develop a set of constraints on themodern corporation that stands in stark contrast to the dominant economic logic of maximizing shareholder wealth and growing the size and economic and social power of multinational corporations. As the next chapter will discuss in more detail, these new institutions include
business associations and alliances focused on sustainability, responsibility, and accountability, consultancies that help companies behave as good corporate citizens, responsible investment entities, social research organizations, social and environmental standards, monitoring, and reporting initiatives, and initiatives focused on incorporating social issues intomanagement education. Together, they constitute an emerging infrastructure aimed at corporate responsibility, accountability, and transparency. These new institutions are based on thework of a number of pioneering individuals which this book refers to as the differencemakers.
