Conceptualizing data‐deliberation: The starry sky beetle, environmental system risk, and Habermasian CSR in the digital age

Abstract

Building on an illustrative case of a systemic environmental threat and its multi‐stakeholder response, this paper draws attention to the changing political impacts of corporations in the digital age. Political Corporate Social Responsibility (PCSR) theory suggests an expanded sense of politics and corporations, including impacts that may range from voluntary initiatives to overcome governance gaps, to avoiding state regulation via corporate political activity. Considering digitalization as a stimulus, we explore potential responsibilities of corporations toward public goods in contexts with functioning governments. We show that digitalization—in the form of transparency, surveillance, and data‐sharing—offers corporations’ scope for deliberative public participation. The starry sky beetle infestation endangering public and private goods is thereby used to illustrate the possibility of expanding the political role of corporations in the digital sphere. We offer a contribution by conceptualizing data‐deliberation as a Habermasian variation of PCSR, defined as the (a) voluntary disclosure of corporate data and its transparent, open sharing with the public sector (b) along with the cooperation with governmental institutions on data analytics methods for examining large‐scale datasets (c) thereby complying with existing national and international regulations on data protection, in particular with respect to privacy and personal data.

The digital transformation of work: A relational view

“…transparency may also open up opportunities for firms to engage in deeper dialog with their stakeholders (Schultz & Seele, 2020). In other words, technological shifts constitute an occasion to re-question the meaning of work and its connection with the phenomenon of relationality (Gibbs, 2008), a phenomenon worth exploring.…”

“…A third line of exploration may apply relational sociology to understand better the links between the different components (resources, goals, normative requirements, and values) of the relation between for-business organizations and their social environment. To illustrate, digitalization broadens corporations' scope for deliberative public participation (Schultz & Seele, 2020), therefore, augmenting those firms' potential responsibilities toward public goods. In this sense, a relational approach poses the need for firms to consider not only the resources and efficiency available to them through digitalization, but also, and mainly, the goals and values that technological advance allows them to further.…”

Legal and social aspects of the state participation in the governance of the large corporations in Russia

“…According to the Chinese doctrine, "focusing only on shareholders' financial return is not consistent with the concept of sustainable corporate governance". Corporate social responsibility is a non-financial performance index [21]. Political corporate social responsibility theory implies an extensive interpretation of politics and corporations, including impacts that may range from voluntary initiatives to overcome governance gaps to avoiding state regulation via corporate political activity [22].…”

Blockchain and business ethics

“…Through blockchain‐based data storage solutions (offered by Etherty, Trust, etc. ), such information can now be accessible instantaneously and worldwide, also to help address CSR issues of public good (Schultz & Seele, ). In fact, some cities in both North and South America have already begun to put up their registries of deeds onto publically accessible blockchains.…”

“…Building on the political philosophy of Habermas, specifically discourse ethics and deliberative democracy, business ethics scholars have ascribed a political role to corporations characterized by a responsibility to engage in open discourse, to allow for societal participation and to contribute to the closing of regulatory gaps. What is well established in general management and business ethics (Scherer & Palazzo, ), already has been adopted for the field of digitalization, leading to the concept of “data deliberation” (Schultz & Seele, ), where private firms, governments, and other stakeholders join forces to increase public goods and encounter challenges such as environmental system risks. For blockchain technology, in particular with a view to improved transparency in supply chain management, something similar might hold.…”