ABSTRACT
Concepts of corporate social responsibility have been evolving for decades. As early as the 1930s, for example, Wendell Wilkie "helped educate the businessman to a new sense of social responsibility" [Cheit, 1964, p. 157, citing historian William Leuchtenburg]. The modern era of social responsibility, however, may be marked by Howard R. Bowen's 1953 publication of Social Responsibilities of the Businessman, considered by many to be the first definitive book on the subject. Following Bowen's book, a number of works played a role in developing the social responsibility concept [Serle & Means. 1932; Cheit, 1964; Davis & Blomstrom, 1966; Greenwood, 1964; Mason, 1960; McGuire, 1963]. By the mid-1950s, discussions of the social responsibilities of businesses had become so widespread that Peter Drucker chided businessmen: "You might wonder, if you were a conscientious newspaper reader, when the managers of American business had any time for business " [1954].
