Good corporate citizenship: A Delphi study defining the key aspects according to the business and academic communities

Conversations about companies behaving as good corporate citizens are abundant in the business press today, particularly the debate about their responsibilities toward society. Many corporations, especially large, transnational firms, have great wealth and access to enormous resources. Sometimes this wealth is in excess of that possessed by entire smaller nations, allowing these companies to wield great power. While a high standard of living has accompanied the technological innovations associated with corporate advancement, along with these benefits have come a collection of environmental and social problems.; Corporate citizenship can be viewed as a company's management of its influences on and relationships with the rest of society. Increasingly, a well-ordered system of strong governance where whole system needs such as law and order and social justice and conservation are well controlled so that companies can focus solely on profits while doing their part in being good neighbors is missing. Businesses today face complex, and often competing, motives and incentives in their decision making, where consumers, investors, and other stakeholders feel they owe something to their workers and the communities in which they operate, which may entail sacrificing some profit at times. This research investigates what good corporate citizenship entails. A review of the literature points to the absence of a clear definition of this construct.; Through use of the Delphi methodology, experts from both the business and academic communities have been called upon to identify a framework to guide companies in emulating behavior which would represent good corporate citizenship. The study consisted of three rounds of questionnaires administered electronically via the Internet in which the participants were asked to rate various potential principles of good corporate citizenship using a 7-point Likert scale. The findings suggest 10 areas for attention: legal compliance, employee relations, environmental performance, transparency in corporate reporting, human rights, product stewardship, stakeholder communication, profitability and investor relations, strategy integration, and community involvement.