A Qualified Account of Supererogation: Toward a Better Conceptualization of Corporate Social Responsibility

Abstract

Some firms are initiating pro-stakeholder activities and policies that transcend conventional corporate social responsibility (CSR) conceptions and seem inconsistent with their business interests or economic responsibilities. These initiatives, which are neither legally nor morally obligatory, are responding to calls for a more active role of business in society and for a broader interpretation of CSR. In fact, they benefit stakeholders in a superior and an innovative way and are difficult to reconcile with commonly used rationales in the extant CSR literature, such as win-win opportunities, creating shared value, or corporate philanthropy. For better insight, we develop a qualified account of the concept of supererogation from ethical theory. This account, which examines voluntary responses to moral obligations from which a business is normally excused, is applied to identify the unique features of the initiatives that are not readily understood within conventional reasoning, which is generally focused on a business case.

Creating shared value: A systematic review, synthesis and integrative perspective

“…Furthermore, recent work (Tencati et al., 2020) presents a supererogation model that explains the ways companies engage with society. This model covers the limitations of creating shared value and offers a way forward through which some social issues can be solved.…”

“…Concluding our discussion, such an approach synthesizes the understanding emerging from the current literature addressing the CSV concept, but it has important limitations. Firstly, it is strictly economic in nature and does not consider, for example, moral and social factors (Beschorner, 2014; Tencati et al., 2020). For instance, research has found a strong ethical stance to be a determinant for CSV in Asia (Kim et al., 2019), but research on the matter is still at too early a stage to be included in a comprehensive framework.…”

How does organizational leadership contribute to the firm performance through social responsibility strategies?

“…Therefore, in current challenging environments, by increasing environmentally sensitive consumers who are demanding sustainable and more environmentally friendly products and services, companies are forced to apply new environmental strategies ( van de Haar and Hesseborn, 2020 ). One of those strategies is CSR, in which the companies consider not only their profitability and economic growth, but also the interests of society and environment by taking responsibility because of the social and environmental impacts of their activities ( Tencati et al., 2020 ). This study is going to address “to what extend CSR as a mediator could contribute to the effect of leadership on the firm's performance”.…”

Young’s Social Connection Model and Corporate Responsibility

“…What is the relationship between SCMR and supererogation (e.g., Dmytriyev 2019;Tencati et al 2020)? Hahn asserts that, "…the social connection model…refines and thereby shifts the difference between responsibilities for justice and supererogative deeds" (2009, p. 55n31).…”