رقابت و مسئولیت اجتماعی شرکتی تحت سرمایه داری خلاق Competition and Corporate Social Responsibility under Creative Capitalism

Introduction In his critique of global capitalism, Pope Francis (2013) concluded that capitalism has lost its traditional legitimacy, since today “everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest” and the outcome has been “masses of people find[ing] themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.” In 2015, the Pope visited the same theme when he stated that widespread greed for money is linked to global capitalism and “condemns and enslaves men and women” (quoted in Yardley and Appelbaum, 2015). Thurow (1996) argued that growth, full employment financial stability, and rising real wages are difficult to maintain under the current capitalism system. He, along with others, underscored the fact that economic crises are inherently part of capitalism. Indeed, a recent financial crisis, which took place in 2008 should not be viewed as a minor passing accident in economic history or a misreading, on the part of a few executives, of market signals. Rather, the crisis appears to be rooted in a system, which over the years has tolerated questionable means of accumulating wealth and the selfish pursuit of interests irrespective of societal welfare. The depth and severity of the financial crisis has induced even the most ardent promoters of the US form of capitalism to rethink their premises and to question the validity of taken for granted assumptions in the last few decades. Ward (2008), for example, argues that “A critical pillar to market competition and free markets did break down” (quoted in Washington Post). Sachs (2009), on the other hand, underlines the flawed set of assumptions upon which US economic policy was built. Barrett (2009) asserts that the recent financial crisis demonstrates the foolishness of one theory of capitalism: “a utopian version of free-market theology that happens to have dominated American economic thinking for two generations.” Barrett warns that the prophets and actors of this form of capitalism are still very much with us and that their simplistic prescription is appealing to some quarters. Capitalism is built primarily on two major principles: private ownership of property (including reaping the rewards of success and bearing the cost of failure) and free competition. The latter gives meaning to free-market economy and by definition is its foundation (Cao, 2008).