Political Corporate Social Responsibility and the Role of Companies. Evidence from Novo Nordisk

Abstract

In recent decades, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has received increasing attention by academics, civil society, media, and regulators. An emerging and less investigated version of CSR is Political CSR (PCSR). PCSR has been defined in a number of different ways and each definition has highlighted different aspects of this phenomenon. Several studies have highlighted that, under conditions of globalization, companies can assume a political role by influencing and cooperating with governments and institutions in changing the institutional environment in which they operate. This chapter specifically aims to analyze the political role taken on by corporations to fill regulatory gaps due to weak or insufficient social and environmental standards and norms, and thus to encourage socially and environmentally responsible conduct, by increasing governments’ and institutions’ interest in CSR and in its communication. The empirical approach used to explore PCSR is a case study. The focus of our research is on Novo Nordisk A/S, a multinational corporation recognized internationally for its early commitment to integrating sustainability into its culture and business practices. Using Scherer and Palazzo’s framework of five characteristics that define political CSR (i.e. governance model, self-regulation, responsibility beyond liability, moral legitimacy, and deliberative democracy), we demonstrate that Novo Nordisk exhibits those characteristics and well describes the changing role of corporations as political actors.

Our study contributes to the literature on political CSR, supplementing previous studies and taking part in the understanding of how and why a company can change its role as a political actor. Since the political conception of CSR is still in an early stage of development, our study contributes to operationalizing this concept with reference to a well-known company.