Corporate Digital Responsibility: Towards a Comprehensive Understanding of the Theoretical Framework

  • Rakan Alrdaan School of Law, University of Tabuk, Saudi Arabia
Keywords: Corporate Digital Responsibility, Corporate Social Responsibility, Digital Transformation, Digital Ethics, Data Governance

Abstract

The rapid digital transformation across contemporary business environments has reshaped the ethical, operational, and governance responsibilities of corporations, giving rise to the concept of Corporate Digital Responsibility (CDR) as an advanced extension of traditional Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). This study aims to examine the theoretical foundations of CDR, clarify its conceptual dimensions, and analyze its interconnections with data governance, privacy protection, ethical innovation, and digital risk management. It also seeks to identify and evaluate the essential role played by stakeholders in shaping, operationalizing, and reinforcing CDR within modern digital ecosystems. Employing an analytical approach grounded in recent literature and comparative studies, the research provides a comprehensive understanding of CDR as a multilayered construct that emerges from the dynamic interaction between corporations, employees, consumers, regulators, civil society, investors, and technology providers. The findings demonstrate that CDR transcends mere regulatory compliance and constitutes an integrative framework that embeds digital ethics within corporate strategy while strengthening transparency, accountability, and digital trust. The study further reveals that the effective implementation of CDR requires robust governance structures capable of reconciling technological advancement with the protection of individual rights and the mitigation of risks associated with data use and artificial intelligence. It recommends adopting a participatory model in which all stakeholders contribute to shaping digital policies, thereby enhancing institutional resilience and promoting sustainable and socially responsible technological outcomes. Ultimately, the research concludes that CDR has become a strategic necessity for corporate success in the digital age rather than an optional ethical commitment.

References

1. Acquisti, A., Brandimarte, L. and Loewenstein, G. (2020). ‘Privacy and human behaviour in the age of information’. Science, 347(6221).
2. AfB (2019) AfB social & green IT. https://www.afb-group.de/home/.
3. Ahmed F, Naeem M, Iqbal M (2017) ICT and renewable energy: a way forward to the next generation telecom base stations. Telecommun Syst 64:43–56. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11235-016-0156-4
4. Andersen N (2018) Corporate digital responsibility. https://www2.deloitte.com/de/de/pages/innovation/contents/corporate-digitalresponsibility.html
5. Asthana A, McVeigh T (2010) Government services to be online-only. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/nov/20/governmentservices-online-only
6. Baldé C, Forti V, Gray V, Kuehr R, Stegmann P (2017) The global E-waste monitor 2017. UNU, ITU & ISWA, Bonn, Geneva, Vienna
7. Barker K, Askari M, Banerjee M, Ghazinour K, Mackas B, Majedi M et al (2009) A data privacy taxonomy. In: Sexton AP (ed) Dataspace: the final frontier. Springer, Heidelberg.
8. Bean S (2017) Employers must prepare for emerging technologies that will reshape work by 2030. https://workplaceinsight.net/employers-must-prepare-for-emerging-technologies-thatreshape-working-lives-by-2030/
9. Beech M COVID-19 pushes up internet use 70% and streaming more than 12%, first figures reveal. https://www.forbes.com/sites/markbeech/2020/03/25/covid-19-pushes-up-internet-use70-streamingmore-than-12-first-figures-reveal/#75b0fa983104
10. Bernard T (2021) Corporate social responsibility in postcolonial contexts: A critical analysis of the representational features of South African corporate social responsibility reports. Critical Discourse Studies 18(6), 619–636. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2020.1798797
11. BMJV (2019) CDR-Initiative diskutiert Prinzipien einer Digitalen Verantwortung. https://www.bmjv.de/SharedDocs/Artikel/DE/2019/040219_CDR-Initiative.html
12. Boudet J, Gregg G, Rathje K, Stein E, Vollhardt K (2019) The future of personalization—and how to get ready for it. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-future-of-personalization-and-how-to-get-readyfor-it.
13. Brown I, Korff D (2016) Digital freedoms in international law—practical steps to protect human rights online. https://globalnetworkinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/GNI-Digital-Freedoms-ExecSummary.pdf.
14. Cattaneo G, Micheletti G, Woodward A, Osimo D (2016) Data ownership and access to data: key emerging issues. http://datalandscape.eu/sites/default/files/report/EU_Data_Market_D3_6_and_D_37_DataOwnership_29Jan2016.pdf.
15. Chamorro-Premuzic T, Frankiewicz B (2019) Does higher education still prepare people for jobs? https://hbr.org/2019/01/doeshigher-education-still-prepare-people-for-jobs
16. Cooper T, LaSalle R (2016) Guarding and growing personal data value. https://www.accenture.com/t20160929T010202__w__/_acnmedia/PDF-32/Accenture-G
17. Crane, Andrew, Abagail McWilliams, Dirk Matten, Jeremy Moon, and Donald S. Siegel. (2008) The corporate social responsibility agenda. In The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Crawford K (2021) Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence. New Haven: Yale University Press
18. Dignum V (2018) Ethics in artificial intelligence: introduction to the special issue. Ethics Inf Technol 20:1–3. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-018-9450-z
19. De-Sola Gutierrez J, Rodríguez de Fonseca F, Rubio G (2016) Cellphone addiction: a review. Front Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2016.00175
20. Dolan J (2018) Digital inclusion and a trusted internet—the role of the international development community in balancing internet access and cybersecurity. https://www.dai.com/cda-cybersecurity.pdf
21. Eavis P and Krauss C (2021) What’s Really Behind Corporate Promises on Climate Change?, The New York Times, 22 February 2021. Available at https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/22/business/energy-environment/corporations-climate-change.html
22. Enerdata (2018) Between 10 and 20% of electricity consumption from the ICT* sector in 2030? https://www.enerdata.net/publications/executive-briefing/expected-world-energy-consumption-increasefromdigitalization.html
23. Elliott, K., and J. Copilah-Ali. 2024. Implementing corporate digital responsibility (CDR): Tackling wicked problems for the digital era: Pilot study insights. Organizational Dynamics 53(2):1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2024.101040.
24. ENISA (2022). Human Factors in Cybersecurity. European Union Agency for Cybersecurity.
25. European Commission (2020) Circular economy action plan: for a cleaner and more competitive europe. https://ec.europa.eu/environment/circular-economy/pdf/new_circular_economy_action_plan.pdf
26. European Commission (2019) Digital inclusion for a better EU society. https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/digital-inclusionbetter-eu-society
27. Floridi, L. (2016). The Ethics of Information. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
28. Friede G, Busch T, Bassen A (2015) ESG and financial performance: aggregated evidence from more than 2000 empirical studies. J Sustain Finance Invest 5(4):210–233. https://doi.org/10.1080/20430795.2015.1118917
29. Hayes JF, Maughan DL, Grant-Peterkin H (2016) Interconnected or disconnected? Promotion of mental health and prevention of mental disorder in the digital age. Br J Psychiatry 208(3):205–207. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.114.161067
30. Hartley, N., W. Kunz, and J. Tarbit. 2024. The corporate digital responsibility (CDR) calculus: how and why organizations reconcile digital and ethical trade-offs for growth. Organizational Dynamics 53(2):1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2024.101056.
31. Herden, Christina J., Ervin Alliu, André Cakici, Thibaut Cormier, Catherine Deguelle, Sahil Gambhir, Caleb Griffiths, et al. (2021) Corporate digital responsibility. Sustainability Management Forum 29(1), https://doi.org/10.1007/s00550-020-00509-x
32. Hill J (2014) The growth of data localization post-Snowden: analysis and recommendations for U.S. policymakers and business leaders. Conference on the Future of Cyber Governance, 2014. The Hague Institute for Global Justice, The Hague. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2430275
33. Hilty L, Bieser J (2017) Opportunities and risks of digitalization for climate protection in Switzerland. University of Zurich, Zurich https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-141128
34. Hon W (2017) Data localization laws and policy: the EU data protection international transfers restriction through a cloud computing lens. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, Northampton
35. Hofheinz P, Osimo D (2017) Making Europe a data economy: a new framework for free movement of data in the digital age. Lisbon Council, Lisbon
36. Kim J, Campbell AS, Esteban-Fernández de Ávila B, Wang J (2019) Wearable biosensors for healthcare monitoring. Nat Biotechnol 37:389–406. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-019-0045-y
37. Germann, F. (2021). ‘Digital leadership and corporate digital responsibility’, Journal of Business Research, 134.
38. GeSI (2019) SMARTer 2030. http://smarter2030.gesi.org/downloads/Full_report.pdf.
39. Global Network Initiative (2017) The GNI principles. https://globalnetworkinitiative.org/gni-principles
40. Grigore G, Molesworth M and Watkins R (2017) New corporate responsibilities in the digital economy. In Theofilou A, Grigore G and Stancu A (eds), Corporate Social Responsibility in the Post-Financial Crisis Era. Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 41–62. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40096-9_3
41. IBM (2023). Cost of a Data Breach Report. IBM Security.
42. Lin S-P, Chan Y-H, Tsai M-C (2009) A transformation function corresponding to IPA and gap analysis. Total Qual Manag Bus Excell 20(8):829–846. https://doi.org/10.1080/14783360903128272
43. Isaak J, Hanna MJ (2018) User data privacy: Facebook, cambridge analytica, and privacy protection. Computer. https://doi.org/10.1109/MC.2018.3191268
44. Lobschat L, Mueller B, Eggers F, Brandimarte L, Diefenbach S, Kroschke M, Wirtz J (2019) Corporate digital responsibility. J Bus Res. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.10.006
45. Kocmanová A, Šimberová I (2014) Determination of environmental, social and corporate governance indicators: framework in the measurement of sustainable performance. J Bus Econ Manag 15(5):1017–1033. https://doi.org/10.3846/16111699.2013.791637
46. Manhart A, Blepp M, Fischer C, Graulich K, Prakash S, Priess R et al (2016) Resource efficiency in the ICT sector. https://www.oeko.de/fileadmin/oekodoc/Resource_Efficiency_ICT_LV.pdf
47. Lyon D (2007) Surveillance studies: an overview. Polity Press, Cambridg
48. Mason RO (1986) Four ethical issues of the information age. MIS Quarterly 10(1), 5–12. https://doi.org/10.2307/248873
49. Martin, K. (2019). ‘Ethical issues in the big data industry’. MIS Quarterly Executive, 18(2)
50. Melé D (2008) Corporate social responsibility theories. In The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility. Oxford University Press, Oxford
51. Murphy R, Woods D (2009) Beyond Asimov: the three laws of responsible robotics. Intell Syst Ieee. https://doi.org/10.1109/MIS.2009.69
52. Nambisan, S., Lyytinen, K., Majchrzak, A., & Song, M. (2017). Digital innovation man- agement: Reinventing innovation management research in a digital world. MIS Quarterly, 41(1).
53. OECD (2021). Digital Security and Trust. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
54. Robinson P (2017) The digital influence phenomenon. https://www.meltwater.com/uk/blog/digital-influence-phenomenon/
55. Russell CA, Russell DW and Honea H (2016) Corporate social responsibility failures: How do consumers respond to corporate violations of implied social contracts? Journal of Business Ethics 136(4), 759–773. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2868-x
56. Sadowski J (2019) When data is capital: Datafication, accumulation, and extraction. Big Data & Society 6(1), 2053951718820549. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951718820549
57. Schwartz, M., & Carroll, A. B. (2003). Corporate social responsibility: A three domain approach. Business Ethics Quarterly, 13(4).
58. Scott DA, Valley B, Simecka BA (2017) Mental health concerns in the digital age. Int J Ment Health Addiction 15:604–613. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-016-9684-0
59. Singh Batth R, Nayyar A, Nagpal A (2018) Internet of robotic things: driving intelligent robotics of future—concept, architecture, applications and technologies. IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCS.2018.00033
60. Spiekermann S, Acquisti A, Böhme R, Hui K-L (2015) The challenges of personal data markets and privacy. Electron Markets 25:161–167. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-015-0191-0
61. Tufekci, Z. (2018). ‘How social media shapes public opinion’. Communications of the ACM, 61(6)
62. United Nations Environmental Programme (2007) E-waste—volume II: E-waste management manual. http://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/9801/EWasteManual_Vol2.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y.
63. Venkatesan V, Iliadis I (2012) A general reliability model for data storage systems. In: 2012 ninth international conference on quantitative evaluation of systems London, pp 209–219 https://doi.org/10.1109/QEST.2012.32
64. Voigt P, Busche A (2017) The EU general data protection regulation (GDPR): a practical guide. Springer, Cham https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57959-7
65. Wade M (2020) Corporate Responsibility in the Digital Era, MIT Sloan Blogs. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Available at http://www.proquest.com/docview/2395339489/citation/BF37F43CDB684B00PQ/1
66. Wang C, Wang Q, Ren K, Lou W (2010) Privacy-preserving public auditing for data storage security in cloud computing. In: 2010 proceedings IEEE INFOCOM. IEEE, San Diego
67. Wirtz, J., Zeithaml, V. and Gistri, G. (2023). ‘Digital ethics and responsible innovation’. Service Industries Journal, 43(1–2)
68. Wirtz, J., Patterson, P., Kunz, W., Gruber, T., Lu, V. N., Paluch, S., et al. (2018). Brave new world: Service robots in the frontline. Journal of Service Management, 29(5).
69. Zuboff S (2018) The age of surveillance capitalism: the fight for a human future at the newfrontier of power. PublicAffairs, New York
Published
2024-12-22
How to Cite
Rakan Alrdaan. (2024). Corporate Digital Responsibility: Towards a Comprehensive Understanding of the Theoretical Framework. Journal of Arts, Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences, (115), 554-574. https://doi.org/10.33193/JALHSS.115.2024.1583
Section
المقالات