Consumer groups, employee forums, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are also increasingly being recognized as powerful influences over corporate activities and Chapter 18 describes the work of NGOs in aligning corporate with social and environmental purposes. Historically, the relationship between corporations and NGOs has been antagonistic. However, increasingly corporations and NGOs are working in partnership to achieve common goals. The role of NGOs in influencing corporate activities is not restricted to such partnerships. They have been adopting activist campaigns to achieve desired outcomes in a form that is not dissimilar to those of institutional investors. These campaigns have often been seen by companies to be shareholder-value destroying but this is by no means always the case and NGO campaigns can be mutually beneficial for firms as well as society. NGOs can bring knowledge of a local community or a technical and legal expertise nature that firms may lack. They execute projects in common with companies, set agendas for various constituencies, exchange complementary knowledge in diverse areas, and provide access to networks.
The Impact of NGO Activism
