Corporate Citizenship as Investing in Social Capital

At the beginning of the 21st century globalisation and technical revolution are transforming our world. New possibilities are arising and co-operative networks are going to be created in order to multiply the capacy and productivity of economics as well as cultural exchange. However, with globalisation new challenges emerge. The gains of the process are unequally distributed between communication elites and the poorly educated which remain sceptical and negative about the current developments. Thus, with exponential growth of communication between certain groups, others are threatened by isolation and disintegration. They expect the winners to "give back" and protest against the upsetting forces," thus questioning the gains for all of us. The protesters of Seattle and Davos may easily become the precursors of a new protectionist backslash. "Corporate Citizenship" is not just a remake of the traditional business ethics debate. Rather it reflects the fact that at the end of the 20th century the relationship between business and society is fundamentally changing. Modern corporations have to "invest" in their social and institutional environment (ssocial capital") as they learnt to invest in buildings ("physical capital") or in the professional training of their employees ("human capital"). Communitiy relations become an important asset to generate trust, foster innovations and facilitate regular contacts of business with other sstakeholder-groups." Acting as a "good corporate citizen" could solve urgent problems and increase long-term corporate profits.