This theoretical paper takes an agency-theoretic approach to questions of corporate social responsibility (CSR). A comparison of various extant frameworks focusses on how CSR agency emerges in complex multi-agent and multi-sector stakeholder networks. The discussion considers the respective capabilities and relevance of these frameworks – culminating in an integrative CSR practice model. A short literature review of the evolution of CSR since the 1950’s provides the backdrop for understanding multi-agent cross-sectoral stakeholder coalitions as a strategic determinant of today’s organizational behavior. The paper turns to Werhane’s coupling of moral imagination and systems thinking and forging stakeholder coalitions in problem contexts that were traditionally deemed intractable by for-profit organizations. However, it identifies the problem that the systems approach treats macro-agents (organizations, stakeholders) as given (“black-boxed”) and shies away from more radically re-imagining the possibilities of reassembling agency from the bottom up. Actor Network Theory (ANT) provides such a method, which strictly commits to treating organizational behavior as a product of technological, human and environmental micro-processes. ANT, however, is lacking a genuine moral deliberative stance in designing complex CSR coalitions. In an attempt to capitalize on the respective strengths of these frameworks (Systems thinking and ANT) the paper tends to a recent iterative series of “situational transactive” models that are rooted in the US pragmatist tradition and seek to capture intelligent planning processes in complex problematic contexts. The contribution proposes a new CSR practice model, which assigns specific roles to the theoretical contributions of ANT, system thinking and pragmatism in complex deliberation processes. This model can be industry-tested in a future study.

这篇理论论文采用代理理论方法来解决企业社会责任 (CSR) 问题。各种现有框架的比较侧重于 CSR 代理如何在复杂的多代理和多部门利益相关者网络中出现。讨论考虑了这些框架各自的能力和相关性——最终形成了一个综合的企业社会责任实践模型。对 1950 年代以来企业社会责任演变的简短文献回顾为理解多主体跨部门利益相关者联盟作为当今组织行为的战略决定因素提供了背景。本文转向 Werhane 将道德想象和系统思考结合起来，并在传统上被营利组织认为难以解决的问题环境中建立利益相关者联盟。然而，它确定了系统方法将宏观代理（组织、利益相关者）视为既定（“黑盒”）的问题，并回避更彻底地重新想象自下而上重组代理的可能性。行动者网络理论（ANT）提供了这样一种方法，它严格致力于将组织行为视为技术、人类和环境微过程的产物。然而，ANT 在设计复杂的 CSR 联盟时缺乏真正的道德审议立场。为了利用这些框架（系统思维和 ANT）各自的优势，本文倾向于最近迭代的一系列“情境交互”模型，这些模型植根于美国实用主义传统，并试图捕捉复杂问题中的智能规划过程上下文。该贡献提出了一种新的CSR实践模式，该模式赋予了ANT在复杂审议过程中的理论贡献、系统思维和实用主义的具体作用。该模型可以在未来的研究中进行行业测试。