Products That Kill and Corporate Social Responsibility: The Case of U.S. Defense Firms

摘要

Scholars of corporate social responsibility (CSR), which refers to the responsibilities of a firm to society in four domains: economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary, have typically excluded defense firms from their research, mainly on ideological grounds. This study challenges these assumptions and measures the CSR orientations of managers of defense firms. The findings reveal the orientations of defense firm managers to be consistent with those of other corporate populations, though the highly regulated environment of defense contracting causes some differences. The findings help to redeem the social standing of defense firms, and by implication, their employees and the military members who use their products, from unwarranted antimilitary biases.