ABSTRACT
This case study applies the perspective of social license to operate. The perspective of social license suggests that legal and social obligations and expectations provide separate but interacting issues for assessing the extent to which business conduct is aligned with norms in the community. While each business enterprise serves a number of purposes in the community such as employment and goods and services, the business conduct has to meet both legal and social requirements to operate. The community does not exist to serve the business enterprise. Rather, each corporate entity exists to serve the community with benefits without violating the legal and social license. The social license can be part of a bottom-up as well as an outside-in effort to enhance the social control of business activity. Business enterprises attempt to respond to indicate that their activities are not only legally legitimate but also socially legitimate. The expression is often used when a company’s activities may face disapproval – especially when such disapproval could result in resistance that could harm their business interests.
