Can Citizen Campaigns and Voluntary Standards Make Business Socially Responsible?

As public regulations are weakened, voluntary groups are attempting to police business. But their campaigns are dependent on media coverage and easily watered down. Joint efforts by government and advocates work better.

King's new SSN brief sums up findings from his research on corporate responsibility campaigns.

In addition to his research focused on corporate responsibility campaigns, Brayden King has analyzed the financial and reputational incentives influencing corporate decision making. Earlier work probed the ways in which social movements and activists influence legislative agendas. In 2005, King co-authored an article using this perspective to make sense of the step-by-step impact of the women's suffrage movement. King contributes to media discussions of social movements as well as publishing for academic audiences, and he is now serving as the co-director (along with Ann Orloff) of the Evanston chapter of the Scholars Strategy Network.

 

Related research: Mark Anner of the University of Pennsylvania has done research that reinforces King's findings. His recent SSN brief discusses why corporate responsibility campaigns have not been as effective at enforcing basic labor standards as unions and other workers' organizations fighting for their own rights.