Paula Alexander. Corporate Social Irresponsibility. New York, NY: Routledge (2015) pp. 413

Abstract

This book was intuitively appealing because of its title, or in business jargon its “hook”: Corporate Social IRresponsibility. In the foreword, which all should read, the author maps out the book’s target market: MBAs. She extends through argument the position that many graduates of leading business schools— MBAs, CPAs, or attorneys—have not been sensitized to the specific dimension of corporate social responsibility. Alexander argues that we “need to examine our consciences collectively about how the business world could come to its current state of affairs” and confirms that “the challenge for business educators is to develop managers who will face up to the problematic issues, rather than skirt them or sweep them under the rug, so to speak, by fraud or material misstatement” (p. ix). These sentiments are not only factual in the present but also will become more so in the future. Business in the 21st century is faced with certain variables that were not present in centuries past. Technological advances within business, marketing channels, and logistics that were once assigned locally can now be outsourced globally. With the transformation of logistical systems many companies and products are using an omnichannel strategy. We are also seeing more perceived homogeneity within business across cultural and country barriers as evidenced by such strategic alliances as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the European Union (EU), Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and Mercado Común del Sur (or MERCOSUR) aswell as vertically integrated channel systems that many multinational companies have adopted. Within our time we are seeing an economic migration from country to company. Technology has erased many of the barriers to trade but with this integration comes the reality of actual versus perceived economic value both at the personal and the organizational level. From our 21st-century perspective this book helps give light to past and future problems. It should help those who teach and research. The book is comprised of three units containing 14 chapters, but the theoretical justification is found on page 26 within a “model”described as a theoretical orientation to the text. Alexander begins by using an open systems enterprisemodel along with stakeholder theory leading to the question of firm goals that incorporate behavioral theory of the firm, yielding managerial questions as well as the ethics of managerial decision-making. The following represents the approximate structure of the book’s “Theoretical Model”: