ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the changing nature of the relationship of business to society. It explores the relatively formal recognition of stakeholders in general and civil society in particular as a legitimate source of expectations of and normative influence on standards of corporate conduct and governance. The most escalation of debate about business conduct, and the questions raised about the nature and consequences of individual and collective activities engaged in by agents on behalf of corporate entities and other market actors, is not a new phenomenon. J. Lozano enumerates a number of key drivers for the call for a broader conception of corporate responsibility both in law and custom. The notion that important aspects of corporate activity can be disregarded by corporate boards and management because they are treated as economically external has weakened significantly in the face of the broader conception of corporate responsibility both in law and custom.
