The paper aims to propose a reinterpretation of corporate apologia and social legitimacy from theoretical perspectives of phenomenology and Foucault's theory of discipline.
The reinterpretation proposed in this paper is based on diagnostic theories aimed at making improvements by guiding practice in a determinate direction and by providing a basis for criticizing practice. The author also provides examples of adequate and inadequate corporate apologia along with the theoretical framework proposed in this paper.
Besides shouldering responsibility corporations cannot help becoming disciplined subjects in order to re‐establish legitimacy with the public.
The paper proposes a view of corporate apologia as self‐discipline for corporations that have undergone mishaps in order to reestablish legitimacy. Some examples of Japanese multinational corporations, such as Toyota and Toshiba, are included to contextualize abstract ideas.
