A Framework for Understanding Corporate Citizenship Introduction to the Special Edition of Business and Society Review “Corporate Citizenship for the New Millennium” BARBARA W. ALTMAN AND DEBORAH VIDAVER-COHEN C orporate citizenship is a term whose use has grown expo- nentially in the corporate sector in the past five years. Given the explosion of action and writing about the concept it seems new, yet in fact, organizational scientists and people in the philanthropic world have been using it for some time. 1 We believe, and the writings in this volume support, that corporate citizenship is not a new concept, but one whose time has come. Forces in the global environment have prompted managerial consideration of the firm’s interplay with all its constituencies. Therefore, in the last stages of the 20th century, corporations have had to think more carefully about their impacts, starting at the local community level and building from there. New solutions and approaches to solving common problems, and minimizing the negative impacts of corporate operations, are part and parcel of “Corporate Citizenship in the New Millennium.” As the authors in this volume show, corporations embracing these new approaches have found they reap commercial benefits for the firm. © 2000 Center for Business Ethics at Bentley College. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA, and 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK. Business and Society Review 105:1 1–7 Barbara W. Altman is an Adjunct Professor at the University of North Texas and Senior Research Associate at the Boston College Center for Corporate Community Relations. Deborah Vidaver-Cohen is an Associate Professor at Florida International University.