Sector-specific Corporate Responsibility in Germany

Germany is one of the world's leading exporters and benefits from a healthy economy despite the economic and financial crisis. It is also the origin of the so-called "social market economy". In light of this tradition and its strong economy, which boasts many leading companies, the country has been criticised for not doing enough regarding explicit corporate responsibility (CR). This has changed with the government's recent publication of an "action plan" and sub-sequent initiatives to support CR. However, the government's new CR approach does not take sector-specific corporate responsibility (SCR) into account. This is a missed opportunity because, as this chapter shows, public actors have already been active supporters of various sectoral initiatives