This paper aims to strengthen the legitimacy of those social and environmental standards which are most effective in helping companies to meet their CSR objectives. The authors discuss four different standards – ISO 14001, SA 8000, Forest Stewardship Council and Fair Labour Association) – and examine how they impose legitimacy on the companies implementing them.
Key Findings
For each standard, deficits are apparent, particularly when considering the supply chain.
- While standards are passed upstream in the supply chain, this seems to be done on a practical basis, while the normative implications and stakeholder requirements might not be integrated into the standard at all.
- ISO 14001 and SA 8000 are the most popular standards, likely due to the support of large, well-known companies.
- In some cases – sustainable forestry, for example – similar standards with less stringent compliance requirements have diffused more widely.
- Such actions can make it more difficult for CSR to gain credibility through environmental and social standards. Legitimate instruments may become discredited.
- In order to ameliorate legitimacy of such standards among stakeholders, it is important to improve the transparency of the certification results.
Author(s)
M. Mueller, V. Gomes de Santos, S. Seuring
Source
Journal of Business Ethics (2009) DOI10.1007/s10551-008-0013-9
Tags: csr, Environmental, Governance, Journal of Business Ethics, legitimacy, M. Mueller, objectives, S. Seuring, Social, standards, Supply Chain, V. Gomes de Santos
