Corporate Social Responsibility as a Driver of Innovation Processes

Social and environmental challenges such as climate change, resource constraints, urbanization, loss of trust in companies and institutions, loss of biodiversity, access to clean drinking water, quality of working conditions and demographic shifts are often seen as risks by companies, but by a growing number of companies also regarded as an opportunity for innovation. In science, civil society (especially in globally active NGOs), and business (multinationals as well as medium-sized companies) but also in politics, there has been a comprehensive and varied discussion about responsibility of companies during the last years. This discussion has intensified considerably after numerous scandals such as Enron, Worldcom, Siemens (corruption), Nike (child labor), Volkswagen or TEPCO (Fukushima) and the economic and financial crisis 2008/9. © 2018, Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature.