Corporate social responsibility - innovation or tradition? On the changing social responsibility of enterprises in Germany

In the last few years corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a new buzzword in Germany. Corporations have established own CSR departments, issued regularly CSR reports, have become members of CSR associations or initiatives and collectively sent out the message that they comprehensively master their societal responsibilities. Thereby, social responsibility of corporations is not an entirely new phenomenon in Germany. In the paper, the change from an implicit social responsibility of corporations as institutionalized in laws and regulations in the times of Germany Inc. to an explicitly voluntary CSR will be reconstructed. [PUB ABSTRACT] Reprinted by permission of Rainer Hampp Verlag