Stability and Change in Corporate Social Responsibility in India:Organizational Ethics, Accountability and Nation-Building

• In Event: Change We Can Believe In: Stability and Change in Organizations

Abstract

This essay problematizes the dominant/popular understanding of corporate social responsibility in India. It briefly explains the organizational context of Indian firms, and then examines how corporate social responsibility is presently understood by corporations and their stakeholders, through detailed empirical data collected during 2000-2007 by third-party sources. The paper focuses on three themes: the confluence of ethics in modern CSR, failure of the neo-liberal ‘business case’ of CSR, and the infusion of nationalism in corporate responsibility.

Author

• Rahul Mitra, Purdue University