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an assessment would not be very difficult had there been a single, widely-held conceptualisation of CSR, a standard set of criteria andmeasures based on this conceptualisation and international benchmark for CSR in emerging economies such as India, again flowing from this conceptualisation. The issues then would mainly relate to data availability and analysis. The reality, however, is that there exist several interpretations of what the social responsibility of business is. Different assessors of firms’ social responsibility employ different evaluation yardsticks without stating the conceptual foundation from which these are derived. Often a set of criteria are subjectively chosen and firms are rated against them. What is often not seriously dealt with is the correlation between these scores and the level of social responsibility that businesses exhibit.
We propose in this paper to circumvent these problems by first developing a typology that can be used to categorise extant CSR approaches. Next, we argue the case for one of these approaches— what we call ‘Serving Society, Profitably’—as being the one consistent with the long-term interests of business as well as society. We then turn to the ground reality in India and, based on published information and our own impressions, qualitatively assess which ‘CSR types’ are prevalent in India and the extent to which the approach advocated by us is followed by Indian companies. We conclude with some reflections on the road ahead.
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF BUSINESS:
A TYPOLOGY AND CRITIQUE
What is CSR? A management scholar once remarked that there are as many definitions of corporate strategy as there are writers on the subject and the same could be true in the case of CSR too. CSR has been defined, variously and at different points in time, as obeying laws and customs; as meeting societal expectations; as balancing the interests of stakeholders; as living up to the expectations of ‘society at large’; as paying
We propose in this paper to circumvent these problems by first developing a typology that can be used to categorise extant CSR approaches. Next, we argue the case for one of these approaches— what we call ‘Serving Society, Profitably’—as being the one consistent with the long-term interests of business as well as society. We then turn to the ground reality in India and, based on published information and our own impressions, qualitatively assess which ‘CSR types’ are prevalent in India and the extent to which the approach advocated by us is followed by Indian companies. We conclude with some reflections on the road ahead.
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF BUSINESS:
A TYPOLOGY AND CRITIQUE
What is CSR? A management scholar once remarked that there are as many definitions of corporate strategy as there are writers on the subject and the same could be true in the case of CSR too. CSR has been defined, variously and at different points in time, as obeying laws and customs; as meeting societal expectations; as balancing the interests of stakeholders; as living up to the expectations of ‘society at large’; as paying
References: Friedman, Milton. 1962. Capitalism and Freedom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ———. 1970. ‘The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits’, The New York Times Magazine, 13 September. Ghoshal, S, C A Bartlett and P Moran. 1999. ‘A New Manifesto for Management’, Sloan Management Review, Spring, pp 9–20. Handy, C. 2002. ‘What’s a Business For?’, Harvard Business Review, December, pp 3–8.