Corporate Social Responsibility: Three Key Approaches

Abstract Corporate social responsibility remains an embryonic and contestable concept. This paper assesses three key approaches and offers a perspective gauging little prospect of theoretical synthesis. Ethical responsibility theory advocates strong corporate self‐restraint and altruism duties and expansive public policy strengthening stakeholder rights. Economic responsibility theory advocates market wealth creation subject only to minimalist public policy and perhaps customary business ethics. These two viewpoints embed competing moral frameworks and political philosophies. Any theoretical synthesis must discover some subset of ethical principles yielding corporate competitive advantage. Corporate…