Difference Makers

Since the 1970s, public and civil society dissatisfaction with the global power of corporations has generated a growing wave of new institutional mechanisms that attempt, in different ways, to create more accountable, responsible, and transparent businesses. These institutional mechanisms have become part of a much-larger social movement that is attempting to develop a set of constraints on business that stands in stark contrast to the dominant economic logic of maximizing shareholder wealth and growing multinational corporations' size and power. They include business associations and alliances focused on sustainability, responsibility, and accountability, consultancies that are helping companies to behave as good corporate citizens, responsible investment entities, social research organizations, social and environmental standard setters, monitoring and reporting initiatives, and organizations focused on incorporating social issues into management education. These new institutions would not have emerged without the work of a number of pioneering individuals: "The Difference Makers" - visionary social and institutional entrepreneurs who, together, have had a massive impact on getting decision-makers to incorporate social and environmental criteria in the strategies, practices, and purposes of the modern corporation. Thanks to these "Difference Makers", there has been remarkable progress in advancing an alternative agenda and in creating a corporate responsibility infrastructure, particularly since the late 1980s and '90s. It is not often that we have the opportunity to hear from the early pioneers of a social movement about how it grew and evolved, but that is exactly what this book sets out to do. It tells the stories of these social and institutional entrepreneurs and the organizations they have founded and led, largely in their own words. The book examines 23 of the key players who have been instrumental in developing the corporate responsibility movement in North America and the UK. They include John Ruggie and the Global Compact, Allen White and the Global Reporting Initiative, John Elkington and SustainAbility, Simon Zadek and AccountAbility, Alice Tepper Marlin and Social Accountability International, Bob Dunn and Business for Social Responsibility, and Joan Bavaria and Ceres - along with many others. The Difference Makers is a history and detailed analysis of how corporate responsibility has emerged as a key political, social, and business issue, why it has evolved so quickly, and what the visions of its thought leaders are for the future. It will be essential reading for academics, business people and all those who are interested in the future of the corporation.