Creating Shared Value as Institutionalization of Ethical Responsibilities of the Business Corporation as a Good Corporate Citizen in Society

Abstract

This article discusses Michael Porter’s paradigm of creating shared value (CSV) based on the criticism of corporate social responsibility by Milton Friedman in the perspective of contemporary debates on legitimacy and good corporate citizenship. This is a development of the argument presented by Jacob Dahl Rendtorff concerning the liberal property rights paradigm of business ethics in his book Responsibility, Ethics and Legitimacy of Corporations (Responsibility, ethics and legitimacy of corporations. Copenhagen Business School Press, 2009). This article discusses the work that Michael Porter has developed together with Mark Kramer, which can be presented as a strategic approach to business ethics and corporate social responsibility. This work began with Porter’s concept of Strategic Philanthropy (The competitive advantage of corporate philanthropy. Reprinted In: Harvard Business School Press (ed) Harvard business review on corporate social responsibility, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2003) which became Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility (Harv Bus Rev 84(12):78–92, 2006) and gradually developed into the concept of Creating Shared Value (Harv Bus Rev 89(1):62–77, 2011). We see how Michael Porter integrates the critical perspective on CSR from Friedman in a strategic concept of philanthropy, corporate social responsibility and creating shared value (CSV). Accordingly, the concept of creating shared value should be considered as a development of the ideas of strategic philanthropy and corporate social responsibility in the perspective of capitalism and freedom. At the same time, however, the concept of creating shared value is broader and more oriented towards society and towards the idea of profit-based CSR since it integrates the values of society and business in corporate legitimacy.