Special Issue:
Delivering Sustainability through Ecosystem Innovation
CSR & Business Ethics
40 Items
What is Corporate Social Responsibility?
The European Commission provides a simple definition of Corporate Social Responsibility: “the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society”.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a management concept which refers to the activities that companies undertake to integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and to manage their stakeholders (e.g., employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders, etc.).
The CSR concept points to a firm’s sense of responsibility towards the economic, social and ecological environment in which it operates.
Firms are said to be “socially responsible” when they take responsibility for their impact on society.
Corporations who want to “do well by doing good” can account for the social consequences of their activities by undertaking a number of actions (e.g., waste management, responsible sourcing, anti-corruption), or by launching sustainability programmes (e.g., environmental and eco-efficiency programmes, programmes promoting social equity and gender balances, human rights programmes).
Corporate social responsibility reports – where to find information on a company’s CSR activities?Corporations often publish an annual corporate social responsibility report where they explain their responsible management principles and practices.
They often communicate on the ecolabels and sustainability certifications that they have on their website.
Corporate Social Responsibility is associated to a number of related concepts and terms, such as Corporate citizenship; Green washing; Sustainability; Sustainable business; Triple bottom line; philanthropy; license-to-operate; strategic CSR; creating shared value; sustainable finance; Corporate Social Responsibility, Strategy, and Competitive Advantage
CSR is an important element of companies’ strategy. Some authors have argued that companies can become more competitive by being more socially responsible and by “creating shared value” (CVS) (see, Porter and Kramer’s 2006 Harvard Business Review article titled “Strategy & Society:
The Link between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility”).
The strategic importance of corporate social responsibility / sustainability / business ethics topics for corporations is evidenced by the development of socially responsible investments funds and sustainable finance indices, such as the Down Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), FTSE4Good, Ethibel sustainability index, the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI).
Non-financial rating agencies in Europe, the USA and eslwhere (e.g., Eiris, RobecoSAM, OEKOM, Vigeo) have played an important role in the development of socially responsible investments by evaluating corporations’ performance on the basis of non-financial (sustainable) criteria.
Business ethics is an applied form of ethics that refers to the ethical problems associated to a business environment.
It is therefore related to the application of ethical principles to the management and conduct of firms.
Corporations usually express their ethical approach to their activities in a set of core values or principles, which go beyond the corporation’s legal requirements.
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