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Corporate social responsibility (CSR)

Business ethics is very closely connected with the corporate social responsibility. Social responsibility is the obligation a business assumes to maximize its positive effect and minimize its negative effect on society. The idea of social responsibility became prominent during the 1960s in response to changing social values. Many businesses have tried to determine what relationships, obligations, and duties are appropriate between the business organization and society. (Farrell, 1991)
Henningfeld et al. (2007) defines CSR as “undertaking business in an ethical way in order to achieve sustainable development, not only in economic terms, but also in the social and environmental sphere. The Institute for Supply Management Principles of Social Responsibility defines social responsibility as “a framework of measurable corporate policies and procedures and resulting behavior designed to benefit the workplace and, by extension, the individual, the organization, and the
community. The social responsibility principles cover seven areas (in alphabetical order):

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  Community
  
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  Financial responsibility
  
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  Diversity
  
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  Human rights
  
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  Environment
  
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  Safety
  
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  Ethics (Lallatin,2004)
  

Starbucks defines CSR as conducting business in ways that produce social, environmental and economic benefits for the communities in which we operate and for the company’s stakeholders, including shareholders. (Starbucks, 2006)
There are a lot of definitions of CSR. The Confederation of British Industry´s definition sheds light on what some of the responsibilities to stakeholders are, while that of the European Commission stresses that actions under the corporate responsibility umbrella are voluntary in nature. Finally, the ISO 26000 draft, the most recent of these definitions, refers to what companies are responsible for, reiterates the importance of stakeholder involvement and accountability, and adds that responsibility should be integrated into organizational practices. These broad definitions reflect claims about the values that companies wish to uphold such as honesty, fairness, and integrity, and these may be set out in standards or codes of practice. (Blowfield, Murray, 2011)
According to Carrol and Buchholz (2009) in Crane and Matten (2010), corporate social responsibility includes the economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic expectations placed on organizations by society at a given point in time.