Corporate Social Responsibility ― Definition, Core Issues, and Recent Developments

Defining CSR is not merely a descriptive exercise. It is not as simple as attaching a linguistic label to a particular business practice, as is the case with many other concepts in strategic management. It is a normative exercise in the sense that defining CSR requires enumerating what businesses should be responsible for in society. Taken far enough, defining CSR is also a political or ideological exercise that describes how a society's political economy should be structured, bounded, and ultimately, controlled. Given its nature, it is not surprising that there is little agreement on the specifics. The Beal supplement is designed to allow strategy faculty to bring these ideas into a strategy class and debate them.