The past as corporate social responsibility

Abstract

Research of “past-as-corporate social responsibility” (past-as-CSR) examines historic corporate actions and their contemporary relevance. Emerging from scholarship on business ethics and CSR, the past-as-CSR approach combines a political perspective of corporate responsibility with an interpretive theory of history. This approach examines how actors in public controversies regarding the past try to shape how it is understood and the implications of this contest of narratives. Research to date has focused on cases of failures of corporate responsibility (or, irresponsibility), leaving interpretations of putatively noble past activities theoretically under-developed. This chapter aims to fuel these efforts - critical and otherwise - by clarifying the potential for historical methods to advance past-as-CSR scholarship and improve our understanding of how interpretations of the past influence current analysis and practice. Drawing from the recent debate on the integration of history and organisational research, we specify the value of different empirical strategies to resolving remaining conceptual puzzles.