| Companies are increasingly incorporating social and environmental responsibility programs into their business functions, due to mounting data that demonstrates a positive relationship between corporate responsibility and increased economic benefits. However, there has been an excessive proliferation of inadequate terms and paradigms for understanding corporate responsibility; the result is a confusing academic and consumer landscape where it is difficult to discern which companies are genuinely pursuing good deeds and which companies are not.;In this paper, I propose a new theoretical paradigm, Strategic Ethics, for understanding corporate responsibility projects that is more holistic than other methods, and is based advancing the pursuit of ethical behavior in business environments. Alongside the Strategic Ethics theoretical framework, I present a measurement rubric for conducting audits of companies who pursue social and environmental activities, to facilitate evaluation of those programs and comparison between companies on the grounds of Strategically Ethics. To illustrate the value of the Strategic Ethics framework, I conduct sample audits of three companies: Ben & Jerry's, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters and American Apparel.;This paper is a basic introduction to the Strategic Ethics model. As corporate responsibility and ethics programs continue to grow in importance in modern business, a uniform defining model like Strategic Ethics will be invaluable to evaluating those programs. |
