The evolving social responsibilities of internet corporate actors: Pointers past and present

Abstract

Internet corporate behaviour is slowly showing movement from mere legal compliance towards responsible behaviour. Long-evolved off-line Best Practice for corporate voluntarism is, however, largely absent from the Internet. As a result, corporate efforts to act on societal issues beyond the shareholder dividend suffer avoidable shortcomings in design, delivery and recognition. Internet corporate actors can secure greater acknowledgement for their efforts and enjoy greater success, if they involve other interested parties in these efforts from inception, and commit to continuous improvement of their initiatives on the basis of transparent reporting and structured feedback. © Springer-Verlag 2011.