Abstract
This chapter describes the concept Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in detail. We define CSR as the moral responsibility that companies have that goes beyond the bare minimum (abiding by minimal market morality), but that is nevertheless morally required. Because CSR is required, and not optional, it is different from philanthropy. The first part of this chapter presents the position of the proponents of CSR but also a view that denies that corporations are morally required to do more than the bare minimum: the Friedman-Homann doctrine. The chapter describes the debate between these two positions. In the second part, we discuss four operationalized approaches that companies can use to make moral choices in practice: the shareholder approach, the stakeholder approach, the corporate citizen approach, and the market failures approach.
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Notes
- 1.
Heath’s theory is based on a orthodox understanding of market failures. Some heterodox schools, like the Austrian school are less prone to argue that the problems that Heath highlights are actually market failures. This goes in particular of information asymmetries but also for the other problems.
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van der Deijl, W., Dubbink, W. (2023). Different Views on the Social Responsibility of Corporations. In: Dubbink, W., Deijl, W.v.d. (eds) Business Ethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37932-1_6
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