International Journal of Management Reviews (2010) DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2370.2009.00275.x
The Business Case for Corporate Social Responsibility: A Review of Concepts, Research and Practice ijmr_275 85..106
Archie B. Carroll and Kareem M. Shabana1
Director, Nonprofit Management & Community Service Program & Robert W. Scherer Professor Emeritus, Department of Management, Terry College of Business, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA, and 1 Assistant Professor of Management, School of Business, Indiana University Kokomo, 2300 S. Washington Street, Kokomo, IN 46904, USA Email: acarroll@uga.edu; kshabana@iuk.edu
In this review, the primary subject is the ‘business case’ for corporate social responsibility (CSR). The business
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The term ‘corporate social responsibility’ is still in popular use, even though competing, complementary and overlapping concepts such as corporate citizenship, business ethics, stakeholder management and sustainability are all vying to become the most accepted and widespread descriptor of the field. At the same time, the concept of corporate social performance (CSP) has become an established umbrella term which embraces both the descriptive and normative aspects of the field, as well as placing an emphasis on all that firms are achieving or accomplishing in the realm of social responsibility policies, practices and results. In the final analysis, however, all these concepts are related, in that they are integrated by key, underlying themes such as value, balance and accountability (Schwartz and Carroll 2008), and CSR remains a dominant, if not exclusive, term in the academic literature and in business practice. Just to illustrate how the concept is always evolving, CSR International, a non-profit organization, announced in 2009 the birth celebration of CSR International, an exciting new organization supporting the transition from what it called the ‘old CSR’ (Corporate Social Responsibility) or CSR 1.0 to the ‘new CSR’ (Corporate Sustainability & Responsibility) or CSR 2.0. Whether CSR 2.0 turns out to be substantially different
The purpose of this essay is to research the notion of CSR and uncover its true framework and outline what social responsibility truly means to corporate organisations, and whether it should be seriously considered to be a legitimate addition to the corporate framework of an organisation.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is something that affects all companies and should be an active factor in the company’s decision making. It is something all corporations need to care about. CSR is when business’ or corporations take part in an initiative or campaign for a cause that will benefit society and/or in some way make the world a better place (Taylor, 2015). Initially, Corporate Social Responsibility started to take shape around the 1950’s, but some say that it dates all the way back to the 1800s, the idea of CSR was seen (Carroll, 2007). One may think that because it is dated so long ago, it doesn’t have an important impact today nevertheless, it is proven that Corporate Social Responsibility is a pathway for entities to self benefit as they are in the process of benefitting society.
Social responsibility is an idea that has been of concern to mankind for many years. Over the last two decades, however, it has become of increasing concern to the business world. This has resulted in growing interaction between governments, businesses and society as a whole. In the past, businesses primarily concerned themselves with the economic results of their decisions. “Today, however, businesses must also reflect on the legal, ethical, moral and social consequences of their decisions” (Anderson 15). This paper will discuss the concept of corporate social responsibility. It will give the definition of the phrase, and identify some of the global factors that necessitate corporate social responsibility. It will discuss the importance of corporations setting up corporate social responsibility projects, and the impact these have on society. Social corporate responsibility and the maintenance of high ethical standards is not an option but an obligation for all business.
However, modern theory known as corporate social responsibility (CSR), has complicated the situation in that stating that companies are not only responsible to its shareholders, but also to the stakeholders which its actions may impact (Freeman 1984). While this may seem to contradict the mantra of profit maximisation, Russo and Perrini (2010) suggest that in today’s conscience-minded society, success is based not only on maximising profit but also on a corporation’s stakeholder relationships, which include social and environmental issues.
It is widely believed that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is one of the most important tasks in the twenty century. Some people may consider that companies have always been the profit organizations, and social affairs are in charge by the government, which is a common sense that there are no directly relationships between each other. However, CSR is considered one of the key elements to sustain companies to vary their original operation levels. In this essay, I attempt to outline the different definitions of Corporate Social Responsibility and evaluate the reasons why CSR became a prominent part of the business world by actual
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a hot topic in business for greater than ten years due to the scrutiny of company’s performance. It has been recognised that company’s need to look longer than just at a short term profit perspective. (Brammer and Millington, 2004; Idowu and Papasolomou, 2007; Knox et al., 2005). A greater amount of companies are choosing to adopt CSR, this may be due to the increased pressure to reduce their negative impact on society as a whole. It is now consider the norm for managers to take CSR into account with decision making.
As the industrialization and globalization have become more intense for decades, the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) becomes more advocated and is employed by corporation globally (Smith, 2011). However, despite an urge for performing “good” social roles, there still be numerous of organizations showing their unwillingness to fulfill their expected responsibility due to the controversy of how the concept should be defined amongst academia, businesses, and society, in addition to the conflict of interests between a firm’s shareholders and stakeholders that accounts mostly for difficulties in implementing CSR practices. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to dig deeper into above problems by presenting the definition of
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become more influential when making company’s decisions. 53% of the S&P, an index based on market capitalizations of 500 U.S. companies, has published CSR reports in 2012 as compared to 19% in 2011. An approach, suggested by Business for Social Responsibility, considers CSR as attaining commercial success through respecting people, community and the natural environment. McWilliams & Siegel (2011) added that CSR are actions that far beyond the company’s interests and the minimum requirement by the law.
The term corporate social performance was first coined by Sethi (1975) and his three level model of CSR are 'social obligation (a response to legal and market constraints); social responsibility(Congruent with societal norms); and social responsiveness (adaptive, anticipatory and preventive) (Cochran, 2007).The conceptual theoretical framework of CSR was developed by (Archie B Carroll 1991), and the four dimensions of CSR pyramid are economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropy .In a pyramid a corporation has four types of responsibilities, where the foundation is the economic responsibility to be profitable. The second is the legal responsibility to obey the law set forth by society. The third ethical responsibility is closely linked to the second. The fourth is philanthropic responsibility are the resources contributed by corporations’’. The implementation tool of CSR are the “activities undertaken by a corporation to support
The importance and eminence of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) across the business world started to increase during 1998-2007. Role conflicts often arise when competing demands like business goals and social goals are in question. The increase in the sense of social responsibility,stakeholder pressures and concerns for the environment has heightened the focus of businesses on CSR. A business that fulfils its CSR sufficiently can expect an improvement in its financial performance,enhanced brand reputation, a reduction in its operating costs,long term sustainability, a boost in staff commitment,innovation and production,better risk management,good relations with its stakeholders and development of closer links with customers. However,in today 's world CSR is not being dealt with serious and proper attention hindering the success of businesses.Business ethics concern the study of proper trading policies and practices regarding potentially controversial issues.They are guided by law and are based on a certain scheme that businesses should follow in order to gain public approval and be successful.CSR embraces responsibility for the behaviour of companies and motivates them to have a positive contribution and impact
Many social scientists and economists like Friedman (1917 NYT article); Visser (2010) and Karnani (2011) have been looking at the arguments for and against ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’. There are many different definitions of CSR but the idea behind it is that businesses contribute to the well being of society, as well as sustainable development by delivering environmental, economic and social benefits to society, not just economic benefits to the shareholders.
Long before H.R Bowen, in his book ‘Social Responsibilities of the Businessman’ propounded Corporate Social Responsibility as a desirable directive for prosperous companies; it has been long practised as a mode of charity and philanthropy as advocated by various religious and family values. The concept of CSR since then have been intricately connected with the values of good governance which aims to usher a socially inclusive positive society which focuses on addressing cultural impediments, social issues and environmental sustainability. As proposed by the United Nations Environment Programme, companies should be ethically responsible and should strive
While corporate social responsibility (CSR) has existed for a long time, it has garnered attention only in the last two decades as an important aspect of doing business. Academic research on CSR has evolved over the years, indicating a change in how CSR is viewed as time goes by. In the earlier years of
The idea of a perfectly clear and all summative definition and concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been a much deliberated and controversial one. So aged has been this deliberation that Votaw and Sethi (1973) depicted it as a brilliant term; which rightfully means something, but not always the same thing to everybody. The research of Marrewijk (2013, p.95) elaborated on the intensity of this unending debate among academics, consultants and corporate executives which results in creating, supporting and criticizing of different concepts. I believe corporate social responsibility are voluntary actions by establishments, enterprise or industries towards a specified region, individuals or society within its locality of operation that yields different forms of development or growth. Such actions usually have a positive effect on the enterprise.
In this report, the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is discussed from the viewpoint of suppliers, customers and society. It is generally defined as the commitment of business to contribute to sustainable economic development by working with employees, their families and local communities (World Business Council for Sustainable