Abstract

The paper challenges the purely economic and financial bottom line perspective of business enterprise. Five fundamental questions are raised to address the issue of socially responsible business. Social posturing is not social responsibility, nor is legal compliance true ethics. This is cynical instrumental- ism. Nor, of course, naive idealism has much merit in it. Genuine social responsibility is correlated with rising expectations of transparency from business enterprises. While benchmarking has the advantages of simplicity and cheapness in evaluating social responsibility, the authors suggest deeper and broader alternatives to this methodology such as 'ethical budgets' and 'ethical accounting statements'.