ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the evolution of the corporate citizenship notion and offers some cautions concerning how best to interpret the notion. It examines the conventional interpretation of the notion, and provides an alternative progressive responsibility approach. Social responsibility of necessity involves legal and moral compliance; corporate altruism is a strategic investment for many companies. Corporate citizenship was readily interpreted as action in response to and/or on behalf of various stakeholder groups. A consensus among business managers, philanthropic managers and scholars that is favourable to the corporate citizenship notion viewed as a win–win proposition is understandable. The limited view of corporate citizenship is ultimately grounded in a narrow perspective concerning legal standing in criminal and civil actions. If one is to take corporate citizenship seriously, then unequal distributions of wealth and power in society imply a fundamentally different theory of progressive responsibilities for corporations.
