Some Elements in Knowledge Gaps on Business and Human Rights with Regard to a Future Research Agenda

For the CSR movement the challenge is broadly speaking to make responsible business practices both effective and sustainable in the long run, communicate them credibly to third parties, and institutionalise them more widely in the business community. In this article, I address three main themes where I think more clarity would enable CSR to evolve to a new level and achieve its promising potential. First will be discussed the scope of corporate responsibilities. Second, the effects of the responsible business practices on governance in host countries can be multiple; some are direct and easy to grasp but others are more subtle and difficult to assess. Third, states (both home and host countries) could stimulate responsible business practices through various policy measures and even hard law; would the latter really be incompatible with corporate voluntarism?