One major company states in its annual report that corporate citizenship is both "a moral responsibility and an economic necessity". But what is the business case for and against increased corporate citizenship? This is the subject of a recent research paper entitled ‘The Business Case for Corporate Citizenship’ from Arthur D. Littles Environment & Risk practice. The paper was commissioned by the World Economic Forum for their Global Corporate Citizenship Initiative.
The paper stipulates that good Corporate Citizenship can bring substantial long-term benefits to business in eight areas:
* Reputation management
* Risk profile and risk management
* Employee recruitment, motivation and retention
* Investor relations and access to capital
* Learning and Innovation
* Competitiveness and market positioning
* Operational efficiency
* Licence to operate.
It identifies ways you can enhance business performance by becoming a better corporate citizen and provides real-life case study examples where companies have derived business benefits from doing this and where companies have suffered from being poor corporate citizens. ‘The Business Case for Corporate Citizenship’ paper was distributed at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, 31 January to 4 February, 2002, accompanying the CEO statement on Corporate Citizenship, which was being signed by around 50 business leaders.
