Chapter 17: Reconceptualizing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) As Corporate Public Responsibility (CPR)

On January 23, 2014, two companies became the winners of the 2014 Public Eye Awards for their environmental pollution and human rights violations: Gazprom and Gap. The Public Eye Awards are given to the most highly nominated companies for their irresponsible business practices (The Public Eye Awards, 2014). Every year, the worst companies are nominated by a jury and the public, and the results are released around the time of the annual meeting of World Economic Forum. This online campaign highlights the consequences of the behaviors of large corporations (Chaudhuri, 2012). The cases released by the Public Eye Awards make us question what makes corporations socially responsible and raise doubts about the effectiveness and efficacy of CSR activities when the same corporations are also accused of being socially irresponsible.