Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics Commons^™

A Social Connection Approach To Corporate Responsibility: The Case Of The Fast-Food Industry And Obesity, Judith Schrempf-Stirling

Management Faculty Publications

Corporate responsibility for consumption-related issues has been on the business ethics agenda for several decades. However, some recent consumption-related issues, such as obesity, differ qualitatively from the traditional product liability cases. This study proposes an alternative responsibility concept, referred to as the social connection corporate responsibility (CR). A detailed conceptualization of a social connection CR is presented and subsequently contrasted with the liability approach to CR. Then, a social connection logic to the case of obesity is applied followed by an examination of how fast-food chains are socially connected to obesity, and of what kind of responsibilities such a …