A Moral Mapping for Corporate Responsibility: Introducing the Local Dimension—Corporate Local Responsibility (COLOR)

Although the accumulated knowledge repository of the Corporate Responsibility (CR) literature continues to expand, organizational- and institutional-level studies dominate the field. This article addresses this gap by introducing a driver-based approach to CR through the moral mapping of CR policies and theory-building case studies in the textile sector. Considering the CR notion’s diverse stakeholder involvement and cross-disciplinary nature, process tracing of diverse actors from the Industrial Revolution is conducted. A reconstituted Kantian method is employed to assess the moral responsibility of individual agents. Employing this technique, the study categorizes diverse policies and strategies based on decision-makers and the most probable ethical thought processes, or “maxims”, at the time of the decision-making. The findings identify gaps in conventional CR practices, giving rise to CSR-washed actions and irresponsible corporate behavior. To tackle these challenges, we introduce the Corporate Local Responsibility (COLOR) model. This model is based on moral mapping by integrating them into its four pillars to minimize the ethical dilemmas of various actors by engaging broader stakeholders and local communities in the decision-making process.