Why Every Company Needs a CSR Strategy and How to Build It

Year: 2012
Published in: Harvard Business School Paper
Cited as: Rangan, Kash, Lisa Chase, and Sohel Karim. “Why every company needs a CSR strategy and how to build it.” (2012).

CSR

The topic of corporate responsibility has been captioned under many names, including strategic philanthropy, corporate citizenship, social responsibility and other monikers. As the names imply, each carries with it a certain perspective on the role of business in society. Regardless of the label, for now the dominant paradigm underlying corporate social responsibility or CSR is centered on the idea of creating “shared value.” The role of business, according to this model, is to create value for its shareholders but in such a way that it also creates value for society, manifesting itself as a win-win proposition. In one fell swoop the idea aims to unite the critics of CSR from the left and the right, for the notion of CSR has had the dubious distinction of being criticized by both sides of the ideological spectrum.