���������

INTEREST CATEGORY: MARKETING AND SOCIETY
POSTING TYPE: Calls: Journals

Posted by: Diletta Acuti

---

Reframing Corporate Social Responsibility in an Age of Polycrisis

Our world is in crisis. Still recovering from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic (Peredo et al., 2022; Zanoni and Mir, 2022), we are facing a harsh new reality of a rapidly warming globe (Wright, Nyberg, De Cock), loss of biodiversity and degradation of nature (Labatut, 2023), escalating social inequalities (Chrispal, Bapuji, and Zietsma, 2021; Paiva and Miguel, 2022), ongoing socio-political conflict and polarization (Jamali and Mirshak, 2010; Nordbrandt, 2023), and looming economic crises (Banerjee et al., 2021). We face, simultaneously, not one crisis but a cluster of crises; a ‘polycrisis’ characterized by inter-related issues that shape and compound one another (Swilling, 2013). The role of organizations in these crises is significant, whether as a cause or a potential source of solutions.

In management literature, the role of business in addressing societal issues has mainly been addressed through research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) (Lockett, Moon and Visser, 2006; Murphy and Schlegelmilch, 2013). In recent decades, CSR research has generated a significant volume of highly cited contributions (Wickert, 2021). However, such research has also been challenged for its truly transformative potential, with some arguing that CSR has been diminished, ‘de-radicalized’ (Shamir, 2004) and become inherently hypocritical (Antonetti et al., 2020; Christensen, Morsing and Thyssen, 2020). At worst, scholars have advocated that we ‘forget’ about CSR and its variations (Rhodes and Fleming, 2020), particularly as ‘sustainability’ is increasingly becoming the preferred concept for describing business responsibility (Aslaksen, Hildebrandt and Johnsen, 2021). This is because the CSR literature suffers from three main limitations.

First, as the COVID-19 pandemic illuminated, CSR research is ill-equipped theoretically and empirically to address profound crises (Crane and Matten, 2021). CSR research assumes either the stability and continuity of prevailing institutions or their absence rather than directly addressing their fracturing, instability, and overhaul as evidenced during crises. Second, despite its aim to tackle social and environmental problems, CSR research remains largely firm rather than society-centric (Acuti, Glozer and Crane, 2024; D’Cruz et al., 2024; Pfajfar, Shoham, Małecka and Zalaznik, 2022). Third, CSR research has, as with most management research, under-valued the importance of making positive real-world impacts on the people and places negatively affected by corporations (Smith, Discetti, Bellucci and Acuti, 2022; Spence and du Gay, 2022). While robust theory and methods are essential, the lack of sufficient attention to offering solutions to tackling the vast array of crises we currently confront, means that most CSR research only influences the scholarly community but leaves the world of practice – and the problems faced by those beset by crises – untouched (Accounting for Impact; Impact Scholar Community, 2024).

Special issue information:

This special issue aims to take stock of literature on CSR to meaningfully contribute to addressing today’s expanding contexts of polycrisis by gathering scholars interested in resetting, redirecting and reframing the CSR literature towards constructively addressing polycrisis. We invite empirical, theoretical, and case-based research papers that address relevant topics at the intersection of polycrisis and CSR and that address one or more of the following themes:

1) Polycrisis-focused CSR research: Crises can overturn prevailing assumptions about CSR and demand new ways of theorizing and researching (Aboelenien, Arsel and Cho, 2021; Crane and Matten, 2021). What is needed is, a deeper understanding of how broader crises (plural) impact organisations and vice-versa (Cho, Senn and Sobkowiak, 2022; Lee, Mascena, Rüegger and Miller, 2025); Wickert, 2021) and to understand crises as ongoing and constitutive, as opposed to episodic/discrete events. We hereby ask:

• What are the roles and responsibilities of government, business, and civil society in attending to polycrisis? How do these roles and responsibilities evolve over time?
• Does communication in and around CSR construct, address, normalise or exacerbate social and environmental crises?
• Does CSR downplay, misdirect or ignore crises in societies? Can CSR change our conception of polycrisis?

2) Society-centric research on CSR and Polycrisis: Although there is a gradual turn towards more society-centric CSR research (Andersen and Johansen, 2021; D’Cruz et al., 2024), the multitude of crises facing us today prompt an urgent need to accelerate such research to consider perspectives from those people and places that are most directly and acutely experiencing polycrisis (Crane and Matten, 2021; Wickert, 2021). We advocate research that addresses:

• What is the role of CSR, and its alternatives, for societies facing crises including subaltern voices, indigenous peoples and migrants, and organisations that support such communities?
• How can we forward a more socially inclusive notion of stakeholders within CSR that attends to intersectional identities encompassing, gender, caste, ethnicity and race that are currently confronted with crises?
• What is the relationship between CSR and counter-cultural movements and how is this relationship shaped in contexts of (poly)crisis?

3) Impact-oriented research on CSR and Polycrisis: There is a need for research on CSR that does not just consider policy and practice implications in a throwaway paragraph at the end of an article, but which is rooted in “engaged scholarship” (Hoffman, 2021) and an ambition for real-world impact. This requires research that crosses disciplinary boundaries across the management field, and explores the intersections of domains including politics, psychology, sociology, geography, development studies, environmental science, biology, and earth sciences. In doing so, we advocate for interdisciplinary research that addresses the following questions:

• What theories/concepts/contexts can be brought into CSR research to create impactful insight into polycrisis? What lenses might better inform conceptions of ‘progress,’ ‘impact’, ‘transformation’ and ‘change’?
• What methodologies will aid the CSR field in contributing positive societal impact to tackling crises, bringing stakeholders, and their needs, into the heart of the research process?
• How can, or should, CSR research at the interface of polycrisis be defined and measured? Who can and should benefit from the impact and how should trade-offs among communities be managed?

We will provide an online webinar and paper development workshop to support authors wishing to submit to this special issue. Please contact Sarah Glozer at  for further details.

Manuscript submission information:

Submissions are welcomed starting: September 1st, 2026

Paper Submission Deadline: September 30th, 2026

If you’d like to submit to this special issue, you can do it .

Please make sure you select the Article Type “VSI: Polycrisis” when submitting your paper.

All submissions will go through the JBR regular double-blind review process and follow the standard norms and processes.

References:

Aboelenien, A., Arsel, Z., Cho, CH. Passing the buck versus sharing responsibility: the roles of government, firms, and consumers in marketplace risks during COVID-19. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2021; 6 (1),149-58.

Accounting for Impact. (2024). https://www.accountingforimpact.org/

Acuti, D., Glozer, S., Crane, A. What is (and is not) stakeholder dialogue in CSR? A review and research agenda. International Journal of Management Reviews, 2024; 26 (4), 518-35.

Aslaksen, H. M., Hildebrandt, C., and Johnsen, H. C. G. The long-term transformation of the concept of CSR: Towards a more comprehensive emphasis on sustainability. International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, 2021: 6(1), 11.

Andersen, S. E., Johansen, T. S. Corporate citizenship: Challenging the corporate centricity in corporate marketing. Journal of Business Research, 2021; 131, 686-699.

Antonetti, P., Bowen, F., Manika, D., Higgins, C. Hypocrisy in corporate and individual social responsibility: Causes, consequences and implications. Journal of Business Research, 2020; 114, 325-326.

Banerjee, S. B., Jermier, J. M., Peredo, A. M., Perey, R., Reichel, A. Theoretical perspectives on organizations and organizing in a post-growth era. Organization, 2021; 28 (3), 337-357.

Cho, C.H., Senn, J., Sobkowiak, M. Sustainability at Stake During COVID-19: Exploring the Role of Accounting in Addressing Environmental Crises. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 2022; 82, 102.

Chrispal, S., Bapuji, H., Zietsma, C. Caste and organization studies: Our silence makes us complicit. Organization Studies, 2021; 42 (9), 1501-1515.

Christensen, L. T., Morsing, M., & Thyssen, O. (2020). Timely hypocrisy? Hypocrisy temporalities in CSR communication. Journal of Business Research, 114, 327-335.

Crane, A., Matten, D. COVID-19 and the future of CSR research. Journal of Management Studies, 2021; 58 (1), 280.

D’Cruz, P., Delannon, N., Kourula, A., McCarthy, L., Moon, J., Spence, L. J. Contesting social responsibilities of business: Centring context, experience, and relationality. Human Relations, 2024; online first.

Hoffman, A. J. The engaged scholar: Expanding the impact of academic research in today’s world, Stanford University Press; 2021.

Jamali, D., Mirshak, R. Business-conflict linkages: Revisiting MNCs, CSR, and conflict. Journal of Business Ethics, 2010; 93, 443-464.

Labatut, J. Towards a biosocial turn in management and organization research? Proposals for a Paradigm Shift. Organization, 2023; 30 (6) 1230-1237.

Lee, J. Y., Mascena, A., Rüegger, S., Miller, E. M. Sustainable development at a temporal crossroads: Learning from the past while focusing on the future. Journal of Business Research, 2025; 190, 115.

Lockett, A., Moon, J., Visser, W. Corporate social responsibility in management research: Focus, nature, salience and sources of influence. Journal of Management Studies, 2006; 43 (1), 115-136.

Murphy, P. E., Schlegelmilch, B. B. Corporate social responsibility and corporate social irresponsibility: Introduction to a special topic section. Journal of Business Research, 2013; 66 (10), 1807-1813.

Nordbrandt, M. Affective polarization in the digital age: Testing the direction of therelationship between social media and users’ feelings for out-group parties. New Media & Society, 2023; 25 (12), 3392-3411.

Paiva, E. L., Miguel, P. L. Overcoming enduring inequalities in Global Value Chains? Interpreting the case of Brazil’s Covid-19 vaccine supply through a chess metaphor. Organization, 2022; 29 (3), 414-425.

Peredo, A. M., Abdelnour, S., Adler, P., Banerjee, B., Bapuji, H., Calas, M., Chertkovskaya, E., Colbourne, R., Contu, A., Crane, A., Evans. M., Hirsch, P.I., Osorio, A.E., Ozkazanc-Pan, B., Smircich, L., Weber, G. We are boiling: Management scholars speaking out on COVID-19 and social justice. Journal of Management Inquiry, 2022. 31 (4), 339-357.

Pfajfar, G., Shoham, A., Małecka, A., Zalaznik, M. Value of corporate social responsibility for multiple stakeholders and social impact–Relationship marketing perspective. Journal of Business Research, 2022; 143, 46-61.

Rhodes, C., Fleming, P. ‘Forget Political Corporate Social Responsibility, Organization, 2020; 27 (6), 943-951.

Smith, H., Discetti, R., Bellucci, M., Acuti, D. SMEs engagement with the Sustainable Development Goals: A power perspective. Journal of Business Research, 2022; 149, 112-122.

Spence, L. J., du Gay, P. In praise of involvement. Business and Society, 2022, 61 (4), 833-838.

Swilling, M. Economic crisis, long waves and the sustainability transition: An African perspective. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 2013; 6, 96-115.

Wickert, C. Corporate social responsibility research in the Journal of Management Studies: A shift from a business-centric to a society-centric focus. Journal of Management Studies, 2021; 58 (8), E1-E17.

Wright, C., Nyberg, D., De Cock, C., Whiteman, G. Future imaginings: Organizing in response to climate change. Organization, 2013; 20 (5), 647-658.

Zanoni, P., & Mir, R. COVID-19: Interrogating the capitalist organization of the economy and society through the pandemic. Organization, 2022; 29 (3), 369-378.

.