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Filling the Empty Shell. The Public Debate on CSR in Austria as a Paradigmatic Example of a Political Discourse

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ABSTRACT

Instead of essentializing and defining what CSR “is”, we analyze CSR as a political discourse in which different actors struggle to fill the empty shell of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with a legitimate interpretation. In this paper we take the current debate on CSR in Austria as an example to demonstrate how this debate is shaped by changes in the greater socio-economic environment. We suggest that this debate might be paradigmatic for the development of CSR in the European/International context. We argue that the debate and the political moves concerning an implicit or an explicit concept of CSR are rooted in a more fundamental question: the societal (re-)embedding or disembedding of companies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department International Management, University of Graz, Universitaetsstr.15, A-8010, Graz, Austria

    Bernhard Mark-Ungericht

  2. Department of Organization and Learning, University of Innsbruck, Universitätsstrasse 15, A-6020, Innsbruck, Austria

    Richard Weiskopf

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  1. Bernhard Mark-Ungericht
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  2. Richard Weiskopf
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Correspondence to Bernhard Mark-Ungericht.

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Mark-Ungericht, B., Weiskopf, R. Filling the Empty Shell. The Public Debate on CSR in Austria as a Paradigmatic Example of a Political Discourse. J Bus Ethics 70, 285–297 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-006-9111-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-006-9111-8

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