Corporate Social Responsibility vs. Corporate Sustainability: Different Concepts for a Common Goal

Introduction

This research presents the main proposals in the academic literature to address the study of social responsibility and sustainability in organizations. Through the review carried out, the study shows the importance of social and environmental issues for companies, as well as the intensification of their study and relevance in recent decades.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is discussed at the international level and many initiatives have been developed to promote corporate behavior that goes beyond the simple generation of profits and incorporates social and environmental aspects into business strategy. Most of these initiatives have arisen in developed countries, with the aim of promoting certain behaviors on the part of multinational companies, which, although they may have operations in developing countries, their corporate policies are designed in their parent companies according to the needs and demands of their stakeholders in these markets.

The debate on the requirements of social responsibility has been framed by two competing views of the role of business in society: (1) the classical or market view and (2) the socio-economic or broader view. According to the first view, attributed to Friedman (2000), the only social responsibility of business is to maximize profits. Profit maximization is constrained by “the rules of the game”, which requires compliance with laws and other social norms. Thus, “the rules of the game” identify the social responsibilities of the firm. According to Friedman (2000), firms must act in open and free competition without deception and fraud, according to the norms of society. Under this view, companies have to meet a responsibility that is demanded by society and nothing else. The socioeconomic view offers a broad consideration of social responsibility. According to this view, companies have obligations that go beyond the pursuit of profit and include protecting and improving society.

The socio-economic vision approach is related to how society believes companies should behave, and for this reason, it is a normative vision. Society identifies what companies are expected to do beyond making a profit, and this varies over time and is becoming more demanding. These are socially controversial demands and should not be confused with what is morally required. The reason society can make demands on companies is because companies operate with public consent and their purpose is to serve society. Because society expects companies to demonstrate genuine social responsibility, and stakeholders' expectations receive much public attention, there are prudent reasons for companies to take their social responsibility seriously.

Given the pervasiveness of social and environmental issues, definitions and key concepts of CSR and Corporate Sustainability (CS) have proliferated over the past decade, increasing uncertainty for managers. Ambiguous definitions and concepts can prevent managers from identifying CSR and CS objectives for their companies. The challenge is even greater for researchers, given that in order to produce reproducible results, it is important that well-defined, clearly delimited and commonly agreed upon constructs exist. Historically, research on social issues has been based on CSR and research on environmental issues on CS. However, in recent years, CSR - which includes social and environmental issues - has seen its boundaries blurred with other concepts. Although CSR and CS have evolved from different fronts, they are pushing towards a common future. Both share the same vision, which aims to balance economic responsibilities with social and environmental ones.