The Difference Makers : How Social and Institutional Entrepreneurs Created the Corporate Responsibility Movement

Tells the stories of 23 entrepreneurs who have been instrumental in developing corporate responsibility. It offers an analysis of how CSR has emerged as a key business issue, why it has evolved so quickly, and the visions of its thought leaders.

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.