Corporate social responsibility

Abstract

This chapter provides a comprehensive and timely definition of corporate social responsibility (CSR). It discusses about business ethics concepts, value-based theories and notions as well as on the companies’ strategic motivations for CSR. It identifies international institutions and organizations that are promoting ethical behaviours and/or raising awareness about the business case for CSR. Afterwards, it elaborates about the rationale for corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives and pro-poses a new model that clearly illustrates the ESG dimensions of CSR. This contribution postulates that there is scope for the businesses to communicate about their ESG performance to im-prove their image and reputation among stakeholders. It indicates that report preparers may avail themselves of extant frameworks like the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), among others, to publish reliable, dependable and comparable ESG disclosures. It commends that such corporate re-ports ought to provide relevant details about the companies’ ESG performance for assurance exercises by independent auditors. In conclusion, it implies that companies are ex-pelted to be accountable and transparent about their organizations’ environmentally sustainable activities, stakeholder engagement credentials and adherence to corporate governance codes of conduct, to prove their social licence to operate their business.