Parliament House, Canberra: The public policy case for corporate citizenship

Orfeus Research was commissioned by the Department of the Parliamentary Library, Parliament House, Canberra, to produce a report on the relationship between corporate citizenship and public policy. Until recently, the focus of the corporate citizenship debate has been on the business case – on why being good is good for business. Increasingly, the focus is also on the relationship between public policy and corporate citizenship, and the increasing pressure on governments to regulate corporate social behaviour. The report argues that similar to the need for companies to understand the business case for corporate citizenship, governments should understand the public policy case for corporate citizenship, which rests on four key areas:

The report then explores the various potential policy options for corporate citizenship including not playing a role, legislation and regulation, non-regulatory activism, and governments acting as demonstrators of best practice in corporate citizenship. It concludes by suggesting that the Australian government does have a role to play in corporate citizenship but that role is not necessarily a regulatory one and offers a series of recommendations based on the non-regulatory activist model.

The report, Corporate Citizenship and the Role of Government: the Public Policy Case (Research Paper No.4 2003–04) was released in December 2003 and can be downloaded from here.