ABSTRACT
The role of business in society has been inseparable from its social responsibilities for thousands of years. The rise of ESG and its focus on shareholder value creation mark a sudden break with the past. This chapter traces the history of responsible and sustainable business, from the ancient world to the modern era. Charting the rise of the joint stock corporation, it reveals the world’s first corporate sustainability report (published in 1649). The rise of corporate philanthropists in the nineteenth century, and changing expectations during the 1930s, set the stage for a twentieth century dominated by strong social and stakeholder expectations. The chapter traces the rise of socially responsible investing (SRI) and shareholder activism and explains how ethics has been central to both. It contributes to the research through setting out a history of social accounting that proceeds in tandem with environmental reporting, social disclosures and corporate social responsibility (CSR).
