Abstract

WIELAND, Carsten. STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: NGOs and Businesses Move from Conflict to Cooperation. colomb.int. [online]. 2009, n.69, pp.86-107. ISSN 0121-5612.

The struggle of NGOs to promote sustainable behavior from companies has successfully gained public sympathy, and has triggered a rising number of international voluntary agreements, public policy initiatives, and even state regulations. Some companies have worked their way out of stigmatization and tried to become responsible corporate citizens. While plenty of other companies are still trying to evade the CSR debate and the reporting standards therein, others have adjusted their structures to adopt them. Although this tends to raise costs on a short-term basis, most of the CSR-friendly companies have managed to economically outperform the deniers in the long run. Compliers have proven that they are able to adapt more swiftly to new market challenges, or state regulations. In addition, consumer patterns seem to reward CSR behavior. Within a decade business-NGO cooperation has become a mainstream issue, and has led to many synergetic dynamics and yielded creative solutions.

Keywords : Corporate social responsibility; sustainability; non-governmental organizations; business behavior; civil society; advocacy.

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