The Corporate Social Responsibility Notion

This contribution provides a broad overview of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) terminology and its emerging constructs. It presents the business case for CSR. The researcher sheds light on the theoretical underpinnings relating to the CSR agenda, including Corporate Citizenship (Carroll, 1998; Waddock, 2004; Matten and Crane, 2004), Creating Shared Value (Porter and Kramer, 2011; 2006), Stakeholder Engagement (Freeman, 1984) and Business Ethics (Crane and Matten, 2004) as he featured the latest Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility (CSR2.0) perspective (Visser, 2010). These recent developments imply that the organisations' commitment to responsible behaviours may represent a transformation of the corporation into a truly sustainable business that is adding value to the business itself, whilst also adding value to society and the environment. This ‘new' proposition is an easy term that may appeal to business practitioners. CSR2.0 is linked to improvements in economic performance, operational efficiency, higher quality, innovation and competitiveness. At the same time, it raises awareness on responsible behaviours. Therefore, this promising concept can be considered as strategic in its intent and purposes, as businesses are capable of being socially and environmentally responsible ‘citizens' whilst pursuing their profit-making activities