Social Standards: Toward an Active Ethical Involvement of Businesses in Developing Countries

Thomas Beschorner () and Martin Müller ()

Journal of Business Ethics, 2007, vol. 73, issue 1, 20 pages

Abstract: As a consequence of the changing conditions of doing business, we can observe the emergence of an increasing number of industrial and company-specific codes of conduct, as well as social and environmental standards. This paper considers these initiatives as being self-regulating governance mechanisms, which are characterized by a process of voluntary adherence on the part of firms to certain mechanisms or principles that seek to promote a “good society.â€\x9D Two specific internationally established standards are discussed: Social Accountability 8000 (SA 8000) and AccountAbility 1000 (AA 1000). These institutionalized approaches are described and then contrasted in relation to a number of different factors, particularly the degree to which they foster “reflexivity,â€\x9D in terms of how businesses think about these issues, and “dialog,â€\x9D in terms of how businesses interact with stakeholders. Such questions are relevant to the ways in which these standards might be introduced and implemented, and which of these institutionalized approaches are the most promising for international businesses in developing countries. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2007

Keywords: social standards; social accountability 8000; accountability 1000; reflexive modernity; reflexivity; dialog; institutionalization; developing countries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-006-9193-3

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