Investigates what it means for corporate social responsibility (CSR) to be "mainstreamed" in a company. Rather than a single 'best practice,' narratives provided by managers revealed that mainstreaming can be understood in terms of three distinct CSR orientations: the business-case model, the syncretic stewardship model, and the social values-led model. These different orientations and approaches to mainstreaming CSR are the result of three interrelated factors: an "external market for virtue," an "internal market for virtue," and the established culture of the company. For business case and social values-led firms, incentives can be developed that encourage them to gravitate toward the syncretic stewardship orientation, which may well represent the most sustainable dimension of CSR.

Companies are increasingly seeing corporate social responsibility as a key to long-term success and are collaborating with nonprofit organizations in various ways to establish themselves as good corporate citizens. Delves into a promising form of company/nonprofit collaboration called social alliances--long-term, collaborative efforts between companies and nonprofits that are designed to achieve strategic objectives for both organizations. The characteristics, factors, and circumstances that enable or impede social alliances are examined through an investigation of 11 social alliances involving 26 organizations. Though social alliances may be fraught with problems, they can be designed, structured, nurtured, and maintained in a manner that enables both to contribute to solving pressing social problems and to fulfilling important strategic objectives for companies and nonprofits.