Wednesday, February 16, 2022

The Audiences' Say in the Corporate Boardroom: Social Media Births CSR

 One of the burgeoning fields for corporations to include in their boardrooms with appropriately named "chief" and directors is corporate social responsibility (CSR). CSR has grown in proportion to the ability of consumers to have direct contact and give their opinions on the conduct of the business of a corporation. The engagement with consumers doesn't always go as the corporation planned, sometimes proclaiming the corporation needs to perform some task to prove they are doing good for the community, the globe, or humanity in general with their service or product. 

Social media has allowed small but noisy members of activist communities to force large global entities like multinational corporations to take a stand on social, political, and other issues. This has become more abundantly actionable during the Black Lives Matter protests and riots and the subsequent large corporate donations to racial justice organizations. This has even led to large corporate entities creating entire bureaucracies inside their organizations to appease Twitter mobs, like the ever-evolving and increasing power of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion offices. 

They are also forced to take stances on political issues. For instance, last year when MLB was forced to move the All-Star game because of the perception of a voting bill in Georgia. Social media and its direct contact from consumer, customer to CEO or public relations office put undue influence to change the scope of the social responsibility of a corporation. 

As Milton Friedman would say, the only responsibility of a corporation is to provide profits to its stakeholders. While a cold and libertarian take on the issue, the quickly changing social landscape created stakeholder capitalism because people wanted to be involved and make comments are their actions in the public sphere. 



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