Quote:
Originally Posted by ethics01
I would like to begin the discussion by asking:
What does the term Corporate Social Responsibility mean to you?
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Hello Linden, and welcome to the forum.
There is a vast amount of information and definitions as to what "Corporate Social Responsibility" is supposed to mean in theory (internalising externalities......, etc) and operational practice.
But its real world meaning or significance is more about "business survival" - i.e., adaptation by the corporate entities to what they may see as emerging consumers expectations, most recently "green market" as a consumer response to the most recent re-emergence of concern for environment, climate change, ethics etc. and the closely-related worsening of resource issues such as food prices, energy crisis etc.
The whole idea of social responsibility reporting by corporations is nothing new, it has been around (by one name or another) since the 1970's. But in the past, the element of less public pressure (as well as less-defined legislation) restricted the scope of these activities / reports.
A very interesting element is that there are reports of increasing consumer skepticism towards advertising of "green products and services". So hopefully all these new CSR initiatives will assist some of these companies in addressing those developments, since they seem to represent higher skepticism to the corporate "environmental messages" as opposed to an actual lessening of concern for environment.
Anyway, have a look around the forums here, I am sure you will find much information and discussions of interest to your field of study.
Regards,
Karl