Corporate Social Responsibility: A New Management Paradigm?

Abstract

CSR has developed from a purely selective, single-issue engagement (sponsoring and donations) and legal compliance measure to explicit responsibility management in the core business of companies, taking into account the three pillars of economy, social issues and ecology (CSR 2.0). The central point is no longer the question of how profits will be put to use, but rather how they are made in the first place. With the next step, the general question of companies’ contribution towards social innovation comes into focus. This conscious strategic positioning in society (business in society) aims to increase both the social and the business added value at the same time (shared value). Businesses as “responsible corporate citizens” are therefore no longer seen as the problem, but rather provide solutions for the most pressing challenges of our time. This reorientation (in the sense of sustainable entrepreneurship = CSR 3.0) is the actual and fundamental contribution of business to a sustainable development of our society. It is an investment both in the competitive ability of our companies and in the future of the coming generations.

This article is based on Schmidpeter (2013) Unternehmerische Verantwortung - Corporate Social Responsibility als Paradigmenwechsel im Management?! In: WKO (Ed.) Wirtschaftspolitsche Blätter: Unternehmertum und Werte, 60 Jg., 01/2013. Manz, Austria.