This Handbook forms part of wider research in responsibility, ethics and legitimacy of corporations. Through an interdisciplinary perspective with comparative integration of sociological, politological, philosophical, theological, ethical, economic, legal, linguistic and communication theoretical approaches this Handbook will clarify how the interrelation between company and environment is mediated by legitimating notions in public spaces and public relations; how and why these notions have changed radically; how these transformations strike on the epistemological as well as practical dimension of business companies; and the problems involved in these transformations at the macro-, meso- and micro levels.
The Handbook begins with a historical introduction and chronology of the development of business legitimacy, providing a comprehensive assessment of the concept's evolution and identifying the most influential authors and their works. These may be divided into authors who follow (1) a philosophical, sociological, or conceptual tradition in management and leadership in their treatment of legitimacy and those who belong to the research tradition of (2) application of the concept in management science and leadership as well as in organizational theory and business practice in the interdisciplinary perspective of the different approaches.
The Handbook continues with systematic approaches and major themes developed in the concept of business legitimacy. Contributions here may be conceptual, empirical/applied or case studies. The different parts of the volume deal with the different topics to which business legitimacy has been applied, with how legitimacy is relevant in the various operational areas of the firm, and with the legitimacy theory's responses to some of the most important issues that businesses and organizations currently face.
Jacob Dahl Rendtorff, (born 1965), Ph.D. and Dr. Scient. Adm. (Doctor Scientiarum Administrationis), is professor of philosophy of management and head of the Research Group on Management and Organization in the Department of Social Sciences and Business, Roskilde University, Denmark. Rendtorff has a background in research in ethics, bioethics and biolaw, business ethics, philosophy of management, political theory, and philosophy of law. Rendtorff has also been doing research in phenomenology and hermeneutics, continental French and German philosophy. He is educated in philosophy and political sciences in Copenhagen, Paris, and Berlin, and he has been visiting professor in many universities (Utrecht, Rome, Freiburg, Boston, Stanford, Santa Clara, Louvain, Shanghai, Besançon, Paris, Oslo, and Tübingen). He has held more than 200 international lectures and presentations at different universities and conferences around the world. His research on philosophy of management, business ethics, stakeholder theory, and corporate social responsibility has been published in international journals and books. Rendtorff is member of the editorial board of Society and Business Review. Moreover, Rendtorff is coeditor of the Springer Series Ethical Economy: Studies in Economic Ethics and Philosophy. He is also associate editor of Social Responsibility Journal and European editor of Journal of Business Ethics Education. Rendtorff's most important international books are Basic Ethical Principles in European Bioethics and Biolaw, Center for Ethics and Law 2000; Responsibility, Ethics and Legitimacy of Corporations, Copenhagen Business School Press 2009; French Philosophy and Social Theory: A Perspective for Ethics and Philosophy of Management, Springer International Publishers 2014; Stakeholder Theory: A Model for Strategic Management, Sprinter International Publishers 2016; Cosmopolitan Business Ethics: Towards a Global Ethos of Management, Routledge 2017; Sustainability and Philosophy of Management: Rethinking Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility in Sustainable Development, Emerald 2019; Moral Blindness in Business: A Social Theory of Evil in Organizations and Institutions, PalgraveMacmillan 2020. Rendtorff is currently a member of the board of the Danish Philosophical Forum and is president of the Danish Association for philosophy in French language. He takes also part of the international group on reflection group Eco-ethica about ethics and responsibility in a global world. Rendtorff is a member of the EXCOM, which is the board of EBEN (European Business Ethics Network) and elected to the Steering Committee of FISP (International Federation of Philosophical Societies). Presently, his research interests are business legitimacy, philosophy of management, stakeholder theory, corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and cosmopolitan business ethics.
