For example, it claims, as you do above, “consumers have been a largely unstructured stakeholder group left to their own buying habits”. I would argue they still are, the web hasn’t made the consumer more homogeneous, in fact blogs are often individual affairs as the authors point out later on. Moreover what kind of consumer are we talking about here? There is no discussion of the size, age, product or service just a generic view of companies and consumers.

The paper failed to cite references and even stoops as low as to draw its CSR definition from Wikipedia. There is no clear or coherent argument here for why CSR requires the 2.0 suffix.

This article is a dangerous misleading piece of pseudo-social research.

As someone coming out of the CSR game recently I fail to see any of the above. Doesn’t mean it’s not there though…

Whether it is becoming a fast growing trend and an interesting field of research is beyond doubt. Besides our own growing service (www.actics.com), several online services are emerging (please refer to our blog for references), and e.g. the Danish business sector is embracing it with both the leading Danish weekly business magazine ‘Mandag Morgen’ and the next issue of the Danish CSR Handbook running a major feature about it.

We do specifically NOT claim that consumers have become more homogeneous. Rather that their affects and opinions are more effortlessly structured and empowered with new media: ‘New online media are so efficient at structuring dialogue, connecting edges, and handling different opinions, that consumers no longer depend on homogeneity or numbers to gain leverage.’

There are many opportunities in applying the new web tools within CSR. We hope the manifesto might serve as an initial guide on how to understand and reap them.