Corporate Social Responsibility - a means-ends review

The main view of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is to negate the notion that business enterprise is a machine that solely aims at profit maximization and that it should also be concerned with social performance by responding positively and proactively to the legitimate expectattions of its stakeholders. Thus, to study CSR, we first need to ask ourselves whether we are convinced with the rationale of CSR in terms of its ends (or its view about the roles and aims of commercial enterprises in society). Then, we study the various CSR mechanisms, which I call means here.) Based on Cochran (2007), I came up with the following diagram to capture the main points on CSR's ends and means:

I think it is not easy to be convinced with the rationale of CSR ends solely based on discussion of abstract ethical principles. It appears that the increasing adoption of CSR in the business community  is as much due to the heightened social expectations on higher corporate CSR performance; this heightened social expectation, in turn, is fostered by increased affluence in society, globalization and Internet-based media. Management theoriests have suggested that companies can following certain strategic management practices to improve social and financial performance at the same time; some suggest that, even without clearly measurable economic benefit, adopting more CSR practice is a brand insurance, and this brand insurance is especially important for global businesses.

In short, increasing adoption of CSR (as an ends for business) in the business community can be explained by superior CSR theoretical arguments as well as by a number of PEST trends. As to the means to conduct CSR, there are various CSR mechanisms and strategic guidelines explained in the CSR literature.

References

1. Cochran, P.L. (2007) "The evolution of corporate social responsibility", Business Horizon, 50, pp. 449-454.
2. Werther Jr., W.B. and Chandler, D. (2005) "Strategic corporate social responsibility as a global brand insurance", Business Horizon 48, pp. 317-324.
3. On Corporate Social Responsibility: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_social_responsibility