Formal corporate social responsibility programmes used to be confined to energy companies with obvious reputations to lose.

But the past few years have seen most of the largest companies formalise corporate social responsibility, rather than rely on quixotic charitable contributions and ad hoc reaction to public pressure.

So are the programmes a success? Corporate social responsibility increasingly involves considerable resources, not just money, but also scarce senior management time. So questions about what is being achieved will become more pressing.

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