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Center for Social Innovation

 

Research Project

The Political Dimensions of Corporate Social Responsibility

CSI will sponsor research by Gretchen Crosby Sims, a doctoral student who is completing her dissertation in political science. This research explores the political dimensions of corporate social responsibility. It suggests that corporations have measurable political incentives to practice good corporate citizenship; specifically, citizenship efforts may help companies gain access to lawmakers and win political benefits. In return, citizenship serves the interests of reelection-minded political leaders by helping them provide the public good—such as good schools, clean air, or available child care—by increasing the net supply of public good available in communities, though this depends on the nature and magnitude of the benefits firms win in exchange for their citizenship efforts. Perhaps even more interesting, corporate citizenship seems to signal a shift in the way American corporations define their interests, which carries important implications for theories of corporate power.