Reframing Corporate Responsibility in an Age of Impact

Reframing Corporate Responsibility in an Age of Impact examines how expanding corporate influence is reshaping both societal expectations of business and what corporate responsibility means. As corporations become embedded in global supply chains, digital infrastructures, and political processes, approaches centered on compliance, identifiable actors, and discrete decisions become increasingly insufficient. The book places expectations at the center of corporate responsibility and connects them to impact, power, and legitimacy. Shifting from event-based to trajectory-based logic, it examines how consequences accumulate and unfold across time, contexts, and organizational boundaries. Tracing the evolution from shareholder primacy and stakeholder approaches to shared value, impact, and political responsibility, it shows how systemic influence raises new questions about authority, judgment, and accountability, extending these dynamics beyond corporations to other influential organizations. The book then turns to the organizational capacities required to exercise responsibility as expectations continue to evolve. It examines judgment, governance, learning, adaptation, and preparedness when consequences cannot always be anticipated and the boundaries of responsibility cannot be fully defined in advance. For scholars, graduate students, and practitioners in corporate responsibility, business ethics, and organizational theory, the book highlights a critical organizational capacity: recognizing when the terms of responsibility have changed.