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J Bus Ethics (2016) 137:173193 DOI 10.1007/s10551-015-2546-z
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s10551-015-2546-z&domain=pdf
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Web End = CSR-Washing is Rare: A Conceptual Framework, Literature Review, and Critique
Shawn Pope Arild Wraas
Received: 8 November 2014 / Accepted: 12 January 2015 / Published online: 29 January 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015
Abstract Growth in CSR-washing claims in recent decades has been dramatic in numerous academic and activist contexts. The discourse, however, has been fragmented, and still lacks an integrated framework of the conditions necessary for successful CSR-washing. Theorizing successful CSR-washing as the joint occurrence of ve conditions, this paper undertakes a literature review of the empirical evidence for and against each condition. The literature review nds that many of the conditions are either highly contingent, rendering CSR-washing as a complex and fragile outcome. This nding runs counter to the dominant perception in the general public, among activists, and among a vocal contingent of academics that successful CSR-washing is rampant.
Keywords Corporate social responsibility
Greenwashing CSR and decoupling CSR
communication CSR performance
CSR literature review
Many consumers, activists, and academics believe that a multitude of companies are proting from insincere claims of corporate social responsibility (Mattis 2008). Capturing this view, increasingly, is the expression that many companies are CSR-washing (Mattis 2008). As evidence of the prevalence of this view, international surveys
demonstrate that most consumers believe that CSR activities are undertaken supercially as the basis for marketing campaigns (Globescan 2010; Kanter 2009). A poll of thousands of Americans, likewise, nds that nearly two in three believe that companies overstate or exaggerate their social obligations in relation to the natural environment (Katz 2008). Among academics, similarly, the idea that CSR-washing is rampant has attracted much attention. Figure 1 shows that in the most recent decade graduate theses and journal articles mentioning CSR-washing have increased in parallel with news articles doing the same in the New York Times. Suspicions of CSR-washing have become so prevalent that some academics have gone so far as to assert that false CSR claims are everywhere (Alves 2009). Other academics have made less sweeping claims that the perception of widespread CSR-washing, simply, continues to dissuade consumers from buying CSR products and to discourage companies from participating in the CSR movement (Mayser and Zick 1993;...