From Body of Knowledge to Ways of Thinking : Theoretical Implications of Sector-specific CR in Europe

Abstract

The main question of this final section of the book is: What theoretical lessons can we learn from sector-specific corporate responsibility in Europe? We will develop our argument in five steps:First, a perspective on cultural business ethics will be sketched that can be located between pure business perspectives, on the one hand, and pure normative perspectives on CR, on the other. Thus, cultural business ethics is characterised as a third way that emphasises the factual normative orientations of actors and the normative social dynamics in societies. Second, we will suggest a road leading from CR blue-prints to culturally embedded responsibility that is based on four still very general theoretical key elements: interests and power, institutional change, negotiation and deliberation, and the new role of actors. Third, based on per-spectives of the embeddedness of practices and their contextualisation, the merits of SCR will be outlined.Fourth, these merits will be analysed through the lenses of the following key dimensions: issues, actors, organizational fields, locality and modes of cooperation. Finally, we will draw attention to some shortcomings of a sectoral approach and sketch some theoretical-but also empirically applicable-perspectives for further research that stress 
 cross-sectoral perspectives based on societal needs.