It is now generally recognized that corporations have ethical obligations that go beyond their legal responsibilities, and that these obligations are owed to a range of ‘‘stakeholders’’ other than their own shareholders, such as employees, suppliers, customers, local communities and disadvantaged groups. However, there is considerable disagreement as to how far these obligations go, while the nature and grounding of responsibilities vary enormously with the type of stakeholder in question and the kind of corporations and industries involved. The issues raised in these debates include ethical, legal and political disagreements of a normative kind and social scientific questions about how ethical outcomes are best achieved, measured and monitored in a global market system characterized by enormous inequalities of wealth and power. This series brings together essays that constitute key theoretical standpoints in these areas and major contributions to empirical work as to the existence, reality and effects of schemes to develop corporate ethical and legal responsibilities in different areas.
