Definition of CSR

The pressure group Business for Social Responsibility defines corporate and social responsibility (CSR) as 'it generally refers to business decision making linked to ethical values, compliance with legal requirements and respect for people, communities and the environment'.

Carroll provided the following definition of CSR:

‘CSR encompasses the economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic expectations placed on organisations by society at a given point in time’.

In many companies, therefore, CSR is viewed as having policies in place that support the CSR objectives of the organisation. The company has a statement that it will, for example, trade ethically, and has policies in place to ensure that this actually happens.