Abstract
In recent years the quest for responsible and sustainable business has emerged as a prominent theme in academic and practical management discourse. The increasingly intensive debate about ethical and socially responsible business, and the global quest for responsible leadership seen in initiatives such as The Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative and the United Nations Global Compact, are putting contemporary business models and current leadership practice under ever-closer public scrutiny. Increased transparency, political requests for sustainable development, and higher expectations of management are changing the business climate. At the same time, operating and leading global companies in an interconnected world is recognised as being extremely challenging. Running businesses responsibly and sustainably is generally agreed to be essential for several reasons: long-term profitability, securing human rights, taking care of the environment, avoiding or mitigating risks and corporate scandals, respecting all the corporation’s stakeholders and building healthier corporations. But what does this mean?