Developments in the Concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Abstract

There is an impressive history associated with the evolution of the concept and definition of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The roots of the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as existing in the present form, have a long history which indicates that the business domain have paid increasing attention to the concerns of society .However the term Corporate Social Responsibility is viewed as an umbrella concept and is still searching for a universally accepted definition, which covers all the concepts related to sustainable, responsible, and ethical business behaviour. This paper reviews how the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility has evolved over time and what alternative interpretations and approaches have come into discussions on Corporate Social Responsibility. The objective of this paper is to explore a plethora of events, factors and phenomena which have influenced the embodiment of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Headnote

Abstract

There is an impressive history associated with the evolution of the concept and definition of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The roots of the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as existing in the present form, have a long history which indicates that the business domain have paid increasing attention to the concerns of society .However the term Corporate Social Responsibility is viewed as an umbrella concept and is still searching for a universally accepted definition, which covers all the concepts related to sustainable, responsible, and ethical business behaviour. This paper reviews how the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility has evolved over time and what alternative interpretations and approaches have come into discussions on Corporate Social Responsibility. The objective of this paper is to explore a plethora of events, factors and phenomena which have influenced the embodiment of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Key Words: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Corporate Social Performance (CSP), Corporate Philanthropy (CP), Sustainable Development (SD)

Introduction

What is Corporate Social Responsibility?

While there is no universal definition of corporate social responsibility (Chandler, G. 2001), it generally refers to transparent business practices that are based on ethical values, compliance with legal requirements, and respect for people, communities, and the environment. Thus, beyond making profits, companies are responsible for the totality of their impact on people and the planet (Chandler, G. 2001). Due to lack of consensus in the literature different authors have described it in a variety of ways. CSR is a collective term used for a variety of actions (Godfrey & Hatch 2007, p.88). It can have a different meaning for different companies and cover a number of subjects (Decker 2004, p.714). There is a range of terms all evidently referring to the same process, we have Sustainability ,Corporate Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Accountability as well as Corporate Citizenship "Community Relations" and "Corporate Community Engagement", Corporate Citizenship, Triple Bottom Line, and Strategic Philanthropy (Zadek 2001; Carroll 2006; Werther & Chandler 2006; Matten et al. 2007; Googins, Mirvis, and Rochlin 2007), (Differentiation between the content of these umbrella-terms exists (e.g Talvio & Välimaa, 2004) different authors used the term interchangeably depending on the era, author preference or geographical location. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is nowadays a prominent issue for many businesses. The concept is closely related to sustainable business development, which requires companies to balance their social, environmental and economic responsibilities towards business stakeholders.

As Warren (2003, 154) points out, the relationship between business and society is a complicated phenomenon, societal expectations pressurizes companies to act responsibly with regards to their external as well as internal environments (Du, Bhattacharya & Sen., 2010; Issaksson & Jørgensen, 2010; Waller & Conaway, 2011).

Economic activity does not occur in isolation, but is interrelated to social, environmental and political systems (Rayman-Bacchus 2006, 325). Business activities have a whole array of consequences - such as pollution or unemployment - on individuals, communities, nations and the whole species of life (Gray et al. 1996, pp.1-2). The notion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) conceptualizes the role of business to their stakeholders and society, suggesting that companies would be responsible for these consequences (Niskala & Tarna 2003, p.19). Companies are expected to become socially committed even in areas not directly related to their business or the efficient supply of goods (Matten and Crane, 2005; Porter and Kramer, 2006; Scherer and Palazzo, 2007; Sethi, 1995). A business should contribute to and support the broader community and improve the quality of society (Carroll, 1995; Snider, Hill, & Martin, 2003). Studies have identified CSR as a business entity's adherence to and fulfilment of the responsibilities that could bring benefits to the greater community (Albinger & Freeman, 2000; Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001; Carroll, 1991; Dacin & Brown, 1997), while recognising the interest of multiple stakeholders and maximising economic, social and environmental values (Matten et al., 2003; Waddock, 2004; Wood, 1991). Although there would be a good argument for the notion that the business of business is business, the modern corporation is under increasing pressure to define its goals more broadly. It seems, today successful business requires something more than showing profit and serving the interests of shareholders (e.g. Elkington 1997; Freeman 1984). The transient business environment requires corporations to adopt to the new business environment and rise to new challenges. In addition to staying globally competitive, corporations are required to be attentive to stakeholders and to issues such as climate change, sustainable development and employee health care. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a widely accepted idea, promoted by corporations, governments, non-govemmental organizations and individual consumers alike (Lee 2008, p.53).

Objective: The study attempts to explore a plethora of events, factors and phenomena which have influenced the embodiment of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Methodology and Research limitations: This research work is based on secondary sources. Though immense efforts have been put to review the available literature but it is difficult to cover it in its entirety.

Development of Corporate Social Responsibility

The modern concept of CSR can be more clearly traced from the mid to late 1800s, with industrialists like John H. Patterson of National Cash Register seeding the industrial welfare movement and philanthropists like John D. Rockerfeller setting a charitable precedent that we see echoed more than a hundred years later with the likes of Bill Gates (Carroll, A.B. 2008).

The industrial-social scenario vis a vis the employee management, which existed during this time were portrayed in the novels, plays, dramas, other work of arts composed by the laureates and artists of the era. One of those being the Hard Times by Charles Dickens in which he describes the living and working conditions in industrial cities of the 19th century in Hard Times (1854):

[...] several large streets all very like one another, and many small streets still more like one another, inhabited by people equally like one another, who all went in and out at the same hours, with the same sound upon the same pavements, to do the same work, and to whom every day was the same as yesterday and tomorrow, and every year the counterpart of the last and the next. (Dickens, 1987: pp. 33-34).

Carroll (1999) corroborates that the notion of CSR is not new or recent. It has existed in society, both past and present in different forms but substantially the same. The business community has constantly concerned itself with societal issues for many centuries. For example, in England, the Rowntree confectionary business with a staunch Quaker tradition established the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust in 1904. The purpose of the trust which still exists till today works for Quaker ideals including international peace and justice (JRCT website, 2006). It was around this time in 1906 that Upton Sinclair published his famous book, The Jungle, which highlighted the scandalous working conditions at major meat factories in the US. As a result of the book, the public essentially demanded corporate social responsibility regarding the working conditions for factory employees and the cleanliness of food processing activities. The public outrage eventually led to the creation of the Food and Drug Administration which serves to ensure corporations are in fact looking out for the best interests of their public.

Essentially, CSR is a result of industrialization (May et al., 2007). The idea of social responsibility starts from the writings of Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), the founder of US Steel who elaborated two principles he believed were necessary for capitalism to work. The first was the principle of charity which refers to the compassion exerted by the rich members of the society for the benefit of the unfortunate ones including the unemployed, the elderly and the sick ones. These charity acts could be exerted either directly or indirectly, through community groups, churches or settlement houses. The second principle entitled the stewardship principle requires the business men to act as caretakers of their wealth for the rest of the society. The stewards, as Carnegie calls them should hold their money in trust and use them for any purpose the society regards as legitimate(http://feaa.ucv.ro/RTE/012-14.pdf) In the 1870s steel baron Andrew Carnegie earned a reputation as an "enlightened industrialist" by building model communities for his workers and prescribing eight-hour workdays before such became law. The founder of Carnegie Steel Company, Andrew Carnegie donated most of his fortune to form various charitable organisations and academic institutions (Fortune, 2006).

In Britain, visionary business leaders in the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution built factory towns, such as Bourneville (founded by George Cadbury in 1879) and Port Sunlight (founded by William Lever in 1888 and named after the brand of soap made there), that were intended to provide workers and their families with housing and other amenities when many parts of the newly industrialized cities were slums. A similar pattern also emerged in the United States-George Pullman's town built on the outskirts of Chicago was described as "the most perfect city in the world (Margaret Crawford,1995). Later, Andrew Carnegie expanded this concept and proposed the responsibility of philanthropy in The Gospel of Wealth (Carnegie, 1889), as a concept CSR was developed along with the inception of the consumer and labour movements of the time. Its development was under the condition that with the ever-lasting expansion of capitalism in the 1920s.

The early 20th century also brought increased governmental regulation and produced an early scholarly version of business responsibility (Clark, 1916). Clark wrote in his article that "if men are responsible for the known results of their actions, business responsibilities must include the known results of business dealings, whether these have been recognised by law or not" (Clark, 1916). It emphasised the importance of transparency in business dealings. British economist Arthur Cecil Pigou advocated the use of taxes to reduce pollution emissions and improve efficiency in the 1920s for the first time. The focus on this changing notion of 'private property' towards public ownership of corporations was initiated after the Wall Street crash of 1929 exposed corporate irresponsibility in large organisations. Since then, social responsibility has continued to be the focus of business operations and a popular topic of investigation for practitioners and academics from a range of disciplines for decades (Birch. 2001,Bradley,1987, Crane, McWilliams, Matten, Moon and Digel,2008, Van Oosterhout & Huegens,2008, Pearce and Doh, 2005). The roots of today's CSR movement, however, are considered to lie in the 1920s (Asongu, 2007). Soon after the Wall Street crash of 1929 when the ideologies of capitalism revealed corporate irresponsibility the main concern were the problems of the gap between rich and poor; and also the conflict between employer and worker. Meanwhile, when the Great Depression hit in the 1930s, it heightened people's awareness towards corporate social responsibility. At that time, businesses were encouraged to be more humane, ethical and transparent (Maignan and Ferrell, 2003).

In the 1930s the Rockefeller Foundation, before the establishment of the UN and WHO, functioned as the world's unofficial public health directorate, using its enormous philanthropic resources to fight diseases, from yellow fever in Colombia to hookworm in Thailand. Consequently, sustainable development, corporate citizenship and triple bottom line also came into existence (Van Marrewijk, 2003). In the early 1930s, Professor Kreps introduced the subject of Business and Social Welfare to Stanford and used the term "social audit" for the first time in relation to companies reporting on their social responsibilities.

The concept of CSR was originally coined in the 1930s by two Harvard University professors A. A. Berle and C. G. Means. In the book The Modern Corporation and Private Property, they advocate upholding the rights of shareholders, and greater transparency and accountability in large organisations where 'ownership' and 'control' are separated due to regulatory instruments. However Berle and Means's work was highly influential in the discussion on organisational sociology (Kang and Sorensen, 1999: 121-144). The focus on this changing notion of 'private property' towards public ownership of corporations was initiated soon after the Wall Street crash of 1929 when the ideologies of capitalism revealed corporate irresponsibility. With a series of article in 1932 CSR became an debated issue by Columbia Professor Adolf A.Berle and Harvard Professor E.Merrich.Dood featured in the Harward law Review Journal (Cochran 2007:499) . In answering to the question for whom are corporate managers trustees? The Professors posited the response that corporate managers are responsible to the public's a whole, not only shareholders. References from this earlier period worth nothing included Chester Bernard's 1938 publication, The functions of Executive he argues that social responsibility is a function of the "elite" or of the "executive class" s. Joyner and Payne (2002), in particular, think that the first author who indentified the concept of social responsibility in companies is Chester Barnard (1938); in the text The Functions of the Executives, he pointed out the importance and the influence that the external environment can have on the decision-making processes of which a manager is responsible. In particular, Barnard said that the one who has the leadership, necessarily has to consider how the success of a company depends also on the moral incentives he can bring to it.

Clark's Social Control of Business (1939) and Theodore Krepe's Measurement of Social Performance of Business from 1940 just to mention a few the author introduced the term "social audit" for the first time and used it in relation to companies. Joyner and Payne (2002) underline the work of Herbert Simon (Administrative Behavior, 1945), who recognized that all the organizations have to be responsible against their community, beyond the constraints imposed by the law. According to Simon, many firms can be considered of public interest and of primary importance. From mere practical point of view it should be noted that since 1946 business executives were polled by the Fortune Magazine asking them about their social responsibilities.

According to Paladino (2004), there was an evolution of ideas and thinking around social responsibility whose historical origin begins in the decade of the fifties with the definition proposed by Bowen (1953) Previously CSR was used for corporate philanthropy that had no strategic link with the business. It is generally agreed that modern business is an integral part of society and its actions, and that businesses must participate in society in a responsible and ethically symbiotic way (e.g., De George, 1990; Joyner et al., 2002). CSR in its current form is a construct that originated in the 1950s. CSR as a definitional construct wasn't introduced until the 1950's in the book "Social Responsibilities of the Businessman" by Bowen, who has been referred to as the "Father of CSR" due to his groundbreaking research in the field (Carroll 1999, pp.268-270). The 1953 publication of Howard R.Bowen's seminal book, "Social Responsibilities of the Businessmen". arguable marked the beginnings of the modern era of CSR, as we know it today (Carrol 1999: 269). As the title of the US economist Howard Bowen (1908-1989) book suggests, there apparently were no business women during this period, or atleast they were not acknowledged in formal writings. In this book Bowen posed the question- what responsibilities to the society, businessmen are reasonably expected to assume? The answer was that businessmen were responsible for the consequences of their actions in a sphere somewhat wider that covered by their Profit and Loss statements and interestingly 93.5% of businessmen responding , to a Fortune Magazine survey conducted during the same period agreed with the statement ( Carrol 1999:270) . Joyner and Payne agree on attributing a key role in the development of the concept of CSR to Peter Drucker who was the first to use the expression "social responsibilities of business". Unlike Bernard and Simon who had put more attention on the ethical and moral dimensions of people behaviour inside organizations, Drucker focused more on CSR. In the text "The Practice of Management" (1954) he classified the "public responsibility" as one of the eight primary objectives a company must have. Talking about management, he stated: "it has to consider whether the action is likely to promote the public good, to advance the basic beliefs of our society, to contribute to its stability, strength, and harmony" (Drucker, 1954).

DEFINITIONS AND DIMENSIONS UNDERPINING CSR SINCE 1950

During the 1950s, society, including the media, became aware of, and concerned about, the immense power that businesses possessed (Post, et al., 1999). At this time large corporations were accused of "antisocial and anticompetitive practices" (Post, et al., 1999, p. 59) and this corporate misconduct led people to believe that "capitalism, if left unchecked, would be destructive and exploitative in its 'blind' pursuit of profit" (Bakan 2004; Solomon 1992, cited in Bohdanowicz & Zientara, 2008, p. 273). So at this point, an increasing number of large corporations began using their power to address societal and environmental issues in order to curb society's distrustful views, and from here, CSR became more widespread. Bowen (1953, cited in Carroll, 2008) explained that CSR is not a solution for all social problems, but that it is important and should guide business practices in the future. Carroll (2008) explains, that even with a growing understanding of CSR amongst business leaders, the 1950s was a time of more talk than action. At this time, the act of corporations giving gifts and contributions to benefit non- profit community organisations, known as 'corporate philanthropy', was about the only corporate act being undertaken demonstrating CSR (Carroll, 2008).

Levitt's (1958) criticism,CSR grew in popularity in the 1960s due to the social movements of the time and various academics who sought to further identify what benefits CSR could bring to business overall. Most of these movements took place in the US and included the environmental movement, consumer rights, rights of women as well as the civil rights movement (Carroll et al. 2010). CSR evolved as a result of these various movements, as activists applied increasingly greater amounts of pressure on companies to start implementing initiatives to address the attitudes, practices and policies in regards to their social responsibility. The 1960s saw a growth in attempts to define CSR. Davis, Frederick and Walton were three prominent writers who similarly defined CSR as the management of businesses in such a way that decisions made go beyond management interests to address social issues (Carroll, 2008). Walton (1967, cited in Carroll, 2008) added that these acts must be voluntary, other voluntary organisations should be involved and costs may be incurred for which economic returns may not result.

Early in the 1970s criticism from one of CSR's greatest sceptics emerged. The New York Times Magazine published an article by Milton Friedman in which he stated that "there is one and only one social responsibility of business - to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud" (Friedman, 1970, reproduced in 2008, p. 89). Despite Milton's infamous argument, CSR continued into the 1970s and beyond.

Especially the 1960s and 1970s were distinguished by the rapid growth of social movements advocating labour rights, consumer protection and environmental preservation. During this period, labour issues underwent a transition from special interest status to the subject of formal government regulations. In line with Samuelson (1971) in Love that corporation, Mountain Bell Magazine., who argued in favour of the role of CSR, Davis (1973) concluded that CSR refers to "the firm's consideration of and response to issues beyond the narrow economic, technical and legal requirements of the firm" (pp. 313-321).

Johnson (1971) also proposed that instead of striving only for larger returns to its shareholders, a responsible enterprise takes into account the interests of employees, suppliers, dealers, local communities and the nation as a whole. It is noteworthy that he pioneered the stakeholder theory with a framework which identified key stakeholders for business, and thus for CSR. One of the notable contributions to the development of CSR at that time was made by the Committee for Economic Development (CED) of the United States, which defined CSR, in 1971, as a business function to serve constructively the needs of society (Carroll, 2008). In its 1971 publication, Social Responsibilities of Business Corporations, the Committee for Economic Development (CED) noted how the perception of the social contract by society was becoming more liberal and that companies that responded favourably to this would fare well. This was typical of CSR views of the time as Carroll noted that the CED, "...is composed of business people and educators and thus reflects an important practitioner view of the changing social contract between business and society and businesses' newly emerging social responsibilities" (Carroll, 1999; p. 275).The CED argued that businesses should have broader responsibilities to society reflecting the changing social contract between business and society (or the nation) in general.

The 1970s saw the first widely accepted definition of CSR emerge - Archie Carroll's 4-part concept of economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities, later depicted as a CSR pyramid (Carroll, A. B: 1979) as well as the first CSR code, the Sullivan Principles.

Wherein, Carroll (1979) constructed a framework to integrate all dimensions of social responsibility into a firm's corporate culture and decision making process. The four dimensions of the defining model are categorised as economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary (or philanthropic). Carroll's categorisation has met with some criticism, particularly the ethical and discretionary dimensions, which are not easily accessible and are thus difficult to test (Clarkson, 1995).

During the 1970s the term 'corporate social performance' (CSP) came about. CSP depicts three categories of a company's intensity of engagement with CSR (Hodgetts, 2001). These three categories are: social obligation (corporate behaviour responding to "market forces or legal constraints"); social responsibility (corporate behaviour that matches the "prevailing social norms, values, and expectations of performance"); and social responsiveness ("the adaptation of corporate behaviour to social needs") (Sethi, 1975, cited in Carroll, 2008, p. 31). This is important to note as these terms continued to be used in the 1980s and 1990s, a period when the focus on CSR shifted to complementary themes and concepts.

The 1980s witnessed the emergence of environmental legislation in the UK and USA. Interest in this period was mostly focused on conservation and sustainable development. The term first coined by Brundtland Commission publication, Our Common Future, in 1987. Bruntland Commission defined sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (United Nations General Assembly, 1987, p. 43).

In the 1980s complementary themes such as stakeholder theory, business ethics, sustainability and corporate citizenship received significant attention. Stakeholder theory, possibly the most significant of these complementary themes, surfaced as a result of ethical scandals and corporate wrong-doings (Carroll, 2008). Stakeholder theory takes as its premise that companies should consider not only those individuals and groups who have shares in the company, but also any individuals or groups that have a 'stake' in the company (Mele, 2008). This has more recently become one of CSR's key dimensions.

Until the early 1990s, most researches conducted on CSR focused on large corporations, which, given the origins of the concept of CSR. In 1991, Thompson and Smith reviewed the literature on CSR in SMEs and found that there were only eight significant publications on the matter at that point of time, which led them to make suggestions for further research on the topic. The reason they saw CSR in SMEs as an important issue was that SMEs made up a significant proportion of all businesses at the time (95.3% of businesses in the United States employed fewer than 50 people), and so their accumulative impacts on society and the environment were considered significant (U.S. Department of Commerce 1987, cited in Thompson & Smith, 1991). From this time, an increasing number of publications about CSR in SMEs have been published.

Ranganathan (1998) pointed the confusion about definitions and terminologies of CSR despite the recent awakening of interest of many businesses to pursue it. According to Ranganathan, terms such as corporate citizenship, ecojustice, business ethics, and stakeholder relationships, abound. Simply stated, business social performance measures the relationship of business with its different stakeholder groups. This definition makes social performance more readily understandable; since most businesses already have measures and accountability mechanisms for certain key stakeholder groups such as shareholders and customers.

The new social performance measurement challenge is to define business performance in relation to its impact on other stakeholders - communities, employees, developing countries, suppliers, etc. This will include issues of business ethics, such as participatory decision making, community commitment, bribery, honesty and corruption.

The end of 20th century observed unprecedented prominent changes in corporate strategy and management towards sustainable thinking - the emergence of sustainability as corporate strategy, and making sustainability an integral part of a company's business strategy in order to obtain the bottom-line benefits (Enquist et.al., 2007a; Epstein 2008).

But, this is requires a dramatic changes in the organizations' performance against the economic, social and environmental (triple) bottom lines (Elkington, 1998), and paying more and more attention to their values and responsibility (Enquist et.al. 2006). Sustainability is also necessitates the transformation of mindset and commitment of the leadership and organizational performance to include key stakeholders (Laszlo, 2003; Waddock and Bodwell, 2007).

Managing sustainability holistically is challenging and requires a sound management framework that integrates environmental and social performance with economic business performance (Johnson 2007; Schaltegger and Wagner, 2006; Epstein and Roy, 2003).

In the early 2000s, the business community became fascinated with the notion of sustainability, or sustainable development, and this theme became an integral part of all CSR discussions (Carroll, A., Shabana, K., 2010). Mate (2002) sees CSR as having five themes (human rights, worker rights, environmental impact, community involvement, and supplier relations & monitoring). These themes reflect in company's core values and impinge on its policies, strategies, decision-making and operations. In addition, different corporate entities tend to come with their own concepts of CSR which is reflected in their core values and their CSR interventions.

This era focused on the CSR best practices that became evident, wherein Kotier and Lee (2005) catalogued examples of CSR best practice into six groups: cause promotion; cause-related marketing; corporate social marketing; corporate philanthropy; community volunteering; and socially responsible business practices. This increased interest in CSR in the 2000s which was characterised by the growth of the CSR consultancy industry, interest in investment in communities, increased staff dedicated to CSR in companies, an increase in social reporting, incorporation of CSR into corporate systems via codes and standards and a growth in partnerships between companies and governmental and non-governmental organisations (Carroll, 2008).

In this context, the definition of CSR was revisited by scholars like Dahlsrud (2008), through content analysis, analysed thirty-seven definitions of CSR from twenty-seven authors and covered a time span from 1980 to 2003. He was able to develop five dimensions of CSR (i.e., environmental, social, economic, stakeholder and voluntaries). While Rahman (2011) posited a similar view stating- the CSR definitions throughout its history during last few decades, several dimensions of CSR appeared. These dimensions are presented as below : (i) Obligation to the society (ii) Stakeholder's involvement (iii) Improving the quality of life (iv) Economic development (v) Ethical business practices (vi) Law abiding (vii) Voluntariness (viii) Human rights (xi) Protection of Environment (x) Transparency & Accountability

Conclusion

CSR interventions involves the investment of the firm's resources in pro bono work, philanthropy, support for community education and health, and protection of the environment that are seen as parts of the company's social performance. Carroll (2006) provided a rich historical account of the evolution over the last fifty years of businesses' approach to societal responsibilities. Over the past two decades, the traditional concept and practice of corporate philanthropy has undergone a significant evolution into Corporate Social Responsibility with a variety of labels. It can be concluded that, the term CSR is viewed as an umbrella concept and is still searching for a universally accepted definition, which covers all the concepts related to sustainable, responsible, and ethical business behaviour.

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