University of Tasmania, Australia

Corporate Contributions to Resilient Critical Infrastructure in Australia: Leveraging from resilience as a brand

Research is sought that leads to improvements in the collective impact of private organisations on societies (Gond and Matten 2007). Critical infrastructure in Western nations is largely controlled by private sector organisations. It includes the supply of goods and services such as energy, food, health, water and public safety.

Resilience is the capacity of social-ecological systems to withstand disturbances and rebuild (Simonsen 2007). Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, governments have become interested in critical infrastructure resilience because of its potential to affect the availability of goods and services, shape public confidence, and contribute to one of the greatest benefits to citizens, national security.

One approach to improve critical infrastructure resilience is to develop governance models that enable companies to achieve their business goals while also provide resilient critical infrastructure. In Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) studies, methods that reflect market interests are referred to as the business case approach (Vogel 2005). Very recently potential has been recognised for corporations to strengthen the resilience of critical infrastructure by leveraging from resilience as a brand.

This project aims to investigate the contribution of Australian corporations to strengthening the resilience of critical infrastructure through leveraging from resilience as a brand. Although CSR research has emphasised the organisation as the unit of analysis (Aguilera, Rupp, Williams and Ganapathi 2007) this project takes a national focus. Data collection will be through interview and survey.

The research has implications for theory as it views national security and critical infrastructure as a CSR construction. The study has implications for practitioners because it offers potential to improve the resilience of critical infrastructure.

(References provided on request)