Corporate social responsibility

Matthews, Lee; Ingram, Claire

Abstract

In its most general sense, corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be understood as the recognition that corporations have a responsibility to society that includes but is not limited to their economic performance. There are a large number of definitions for CSR but this entry will be using Carroll’s (2016: p. 2): “Corporate social responsibility encompasses the economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary (philanthropic) expectations that society has of organizations at a given point in time”. Carroll’s framework for CSR has been represented in the form of a pyramid, aptly known as “Carroll’s Pyramid”. The pyramid represents a hierarchy of economic, legal, ethical and discretionary/philanthropic responsibilities; from required (economic and legal) to expected (ethical) to desirable (discretionary/philanthropic). While few would dispute that businesses need to meet economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic expectations of society, debates about what those expectations are and how they should be met are unlikely to be resolved conclusively any time soon— if ever.

Citation

Matthews, L., & Ingram, C. (2024). Corporate social responsibility. In L. Matthews, L. Bianchi, & C. Ingram (Eds.), Concise Encyclopedia of Corporate Social Responsibility (43-54). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800880344.ch09

• Online Publication Date: Jan 28, 2024
• Publication Date: Jan 28, 2024
• Deposit Date: Oct 16, 2024
• Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 43-54
• Book Title: Concise Encyclopedia of Corporate Social Responsibility
• Chapter Number: 9
• ISBN: 9781800880337
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800880344.ch09
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/40582713
• Publisher URL: https://www.elgaronline.com/display/book/9781800880344/ch09.xml