Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Social License to Operate

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Business and Professional Ethics

Synonyms

Continuous acceptance

The social license to operate concept originated in the mining industry as a metaphor, which compares the power of communities with the power of governments.

During the 1990s, the mining industry found itself under close public scrutiny following a series of well-publicized chemical spills, tailings dam failures, and increasing conflict with local communities around exploration and development projects (see Thomson and Joyce 2006, for a review of this time period). In 1996, a Roper opinion poll showed mining to rate last among 24 US industries in terms of public popularity, behind the tobacco industry (Prager 1997). Internationally, mining became a pejorative term in many circles and widely regarded as a problem industry that was the cause of unwanted pollution and undesirable social impacts. This reputation was deeply rooted in the general public and widely shared by opinion formers and constituted a liability to the industry (Schloss 2002). At the same...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • AccountAbility and Business for Social Responsibility (2004) Business and economic development: mining sector report. AccountAbility and Business for Social Responsibility, London/San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  • Barney JB, Wright M, Ketchen J (2001) The resource-based view of the firm: ten years after 1991. J Manag 27(6):625–641

    Google Scholar 

  • Barreiro-Deymonnaz R (2013) Social licensing in the construction industry: community and government interests. Constr Law Int 8(1):22–29

    Google Scholar 

  • Berger C (2011) Losing your social licence can hurt. The Age. http://tinyurl.com/hqnc5q8. Accessed 23 Feb 2016

  • Boutilier RG (2014) Frequently asked questions about the social licence to operate. Impact Assess Proj Apprais 32(4):263–272

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boutilier RG, Thomson I (2011) Modeling and measuring the social license to operate: fruits of a dialog between theory and practice. The social license to operate seminar, Brisbane 2011. Center for Social Responsibility in Mining; University of Queensland

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown LD, Ashman D (1996) Participation, social capital, and inter-sectoral problem solving: African and Asian cases. World Dev 24(9):1467–1479

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Business for Social Responsibility (2003) The social license to operate. Business for Social Responsibility, San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  • Casciaro T, Piskorski MJ (2005) Power imbalance, mutual dependence, and constraint absorption: a closer look at resource dependence theory. Adm Sci Q 50(2):167–199

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cooney J (2017) Reflections on the 20th anniversary of the term social license. J Energy Nat Resour Law. https://doi.org/10.1080/02646811.2016.1269472

  • Corscadden K, Wile A, Yiridoe E (2012) Social license and consultation criteria for community wind projects. Renew Energy 44:392–397

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deephouse DL, Suchman MC (2008) Legitimacy in organizational institutionalism. In: Greenwood R, Oliver C, Sahlin K, Suddaby R (eds) The sage handbook of organizational institutionalism. Sage, Oxford, UK, pp 49–77

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Demuijnck G, Fasterling B (2016) The social license to operate. J Bus Ethics 136:675–685

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freeman RE (1984) Strategic management: a stakeholder approach. Pitman, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Glaser BG, Strauss AL (1999) The discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research. Aldine Transaction, New Brunswick

    Google Scholar 

  • Graafland JJ (2002) Profits and principles: four perspectives. J Bus Ethics 35(4):293–305

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gulati R (2007) Managing network resources: alliances, affiliations and other relational assets. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Gunningham N, Kagan RA, Thornton D (2004) Social license and environmental protection: Why businesses go beyond compliance. Law Soc Inq 29(2):307–341

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hall NL (2014) Can the “social licence to operate” concept enhance engagement and increase acceptance of renewable energy? A case study of wind farms in Australia. Soc Epistemol 28(3-4):219–238

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ircha MC (2012) Social license for ports. Canadian Sailings, pp 17–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Joyce S, Thomson I (1999) Earning a social licence. Min J 332(8535):441–443

    Google Scholar 

  • Joyce S, Thomson I (2000) Earning a social licence to operate: social acceptability and resource development in Latin America. Can Min Metall Bull 93(1037):49–52

    Google Scholar 

  • Leith P, Ogier E, Haward M (2014) Science and social license: defining environmental sustainability of Atlantic salmon aquaculture in South-Eastern Tasmania, Australia. Soc Epistemol 28(3-4):277–296

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin P, Shepheard M (2011) What is meant by the social licence? In: Williams J, Martin P (eds) Defending the social licence of farming: issues, challenges and new directions for agriculture. Collingwood, CSIRO Publishing, pp 3–12

    Google Scholar 

  • Mele D, Armengou J (2016) Moral legitimacy in controversial projects and its relationship with social license to operate: a case study. J Bus Ethics 136:729–742

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morrison J (2014) The social license: how to keep your organization legitimate. Palgrave Macmillan, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Nelsen J, Scoble M (2006) Social license to operate: issues of situational analysis and process. Department of Mining Engineering, University of British Colombia, Vancouver

    Google Scholar 

  • Pfeffer J, Salancik GR (1978) The external control of organizations. Harper and Row, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Prager S (1997) Changing North American mindset about mining. Eng Min J 88(2):36–42

    Google Scholar 

  • Quigley R, Baines J (2014) How to improve your social licence to operate: a New Zealand industry perspective. New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries, Wellington

    Google Scholar 

  • Raman S, Mohr A (2014) A social licence for science: capturing the public or co-constructing research? Soc Epistemol 28(3-4):258–276

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schloss M (2002) Transparency, governance and government in the management of mineral wealth. Presented at the World Mines Ministers Forum, Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  • Shepheard ML, Martin PV (2008) Social licence to irrigate: the boundary problem. Soc Altern 27(3):32–39

    Google Scholar 

  • Sherif M (1966) In common predicament: social psychology of intergroup conflict and cooperation. Houghton Mifflin, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith DC, Richards JM (2015) Social license to operate: hydraulic fracturing-related challenges facing the oil and & gas industry. Oil Gas Nat Resour Energy J 1(2):83

    Google Scholar 

  • Smyth H (2008) The credibility gap in stakeholder management: ethics and evidence of relationship management. Constr Manag Econ 26(6):633–643

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tertzakian P (2012) In B.C., energy companies forgot about the social licence. The globe and mail. http://tinyurl.com/j4jwvrh. Accessed 6 Nov 2016

  • Thomas M (2013) A social license to operate. Hart energy. http://www.epmag.com/item/A-social-license-operate_118059. Accessed 28 Dec 2016

  • Thomson I, Boutilier RG (2011) Social license to operate. In: Darling P (ed) SME Mining Engineering Handbook. Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, Littleton, pp 1779–1796

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomson I, Joyce S (2006) Changing mineral industry approaches to sustainability. In: Doggett MD, Parry JR (eds) Wealth creation in the minerals industry: integrating science, business and education, Special publication number 12. Society of Economic Geologists Inc., Littleton

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomson I, Joyce S (2008) The social licence to operate: What it is and why is seems so hard to obtain. Proceedings of the 2008 Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada Convention, 3 March 2008. Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  • UNWTO (2014) Global report on adventure tourism (on line version). https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/staticunwto/Affiliate-members/1-GLOBAL+REPORT+)N+ADVENTURE+TOURISM_online.pdf. Accessed 9 Mar 2016

  • Wang S (2013) Managing Canada's forests under a new social contract. For Chron 81(4):482–485

    Google Scholar 

  • Wernerfelt B (1984) A resource dependence theory of the firm. Strateg Manag J 5(2):171–180

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zandvliet L, Anderson MB (2009) Getting it right: making corporate-community relations work. Sheffield, Greenleaf

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Sustainable Community Development, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada

    Robert G. Boutilier

  2. Shinglespit Consultants Inc., 4885 Seawright Road, Hornby Island, BC, V0R 1Z0, Canada

    Ian Thomson

Authors
  1. Robert G. Boutilier
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ian Thomson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Robert G. Boutilier .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    Deborah C Poff

  2. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    Alex C. Michalos

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Boutilier, R.G., Thomson, I. (2018). Social License to Operate. In: Poff, D., Michalos, A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Business and Professional Ethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23514-1_127-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23514-1_127-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-23514-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-23514-1

  • eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation