Corporate Social Responsibility: Past, Present, And Success Strategy For The Future

Abstract

Recently, scholars and managers have devoted greater attention to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its strategic implications. With more awareness surrounding the topic it would be expected for there to be a consensus on a definition, but as of yet none has been reached. The lack of a universally accepted definition has led some to define it as a term, a concept, a process, a theory, while others simply call it an activity or set of activities (Hazlett & Murray, 2007). CSR has been also captioned under many names. Terms such as corporate citizenship, global citizenship, corporate social responsiveness, strategic philanthropy, and even spiritual capitalism are sometimes used interchangeably, depending on the organization to use it. Often, these numerous monikers and interpretations lead to confusion amongst those intending to study or implement the practice into their business strategy.
 This uncertainty on how CSR should be defined has led some academics and practitioners to believe that the concept is void of any definition. Contrary to this belief, others find that there is an overabundance of definitions; many of which are “often biased toward specific interests and thus prevent the development and implementation of the concept” (Dahlsrud, 2008). Our study focuses on the importance of CSR and why it’s becoming so prevalent in any organizations. By studying the history of CSR, its many definitions, as well as its implementation methods, we attempt to suggest strategic alternatives for an effective corporate social responsibility.

Literature Review on the Association between Earnings Management and Corporate Social Responsibility

“…CSR is voluntary activities that are taken by a firm to run in a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable manner (Alshannag et al, 2017). Ahmadian & Khosrowpour (2017) explained that CSR is known as different terms, for example, corporate social responsiveness, corporate citizenship, strategic philanthropy, and global citizenship, etc. Sometimes spiritual capitalism is utilized conversely; actually, it depends on the company to use it.…”

Corporate culture in small and medium enterprises: Application of corporate social responsibility theory

“…CSR must be implemented and carried out in order for a company to attain financial benefits. Avoiding the number game is important because although money is being allocated to environmentally sustainable processes without financial gain, the benefits of CSR will pay back the company in time (Ahmadian & Khosrowpour, ). Due to the paucity of research on CSR in SMEs in Sub‐Saharan Africa, only limited aspects of the CSR–SMEs relationship have been investigated (Amaeshi et al, ).…”

Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility: Bridging the Concepts

“…Many definitions call for a business to make a "commitment" to contribute to sustainable economic development, to work with society, and to contribute to a cleaner environment to improve quality of life without the need for coercion [6].…”

“…Because firms operate in and amongst society, it is only natural that they be aware of the public's demands and interests. This means that businesses have greater expectations to do provide positive outcomes while mitigating the effects of negative outcomes, which would affect the public [6].…”