ABSTRACT
But what is meant by corporate social responsibility (CSR)? Responsibility for what and to whom and who is calling for firms to be socially responsible? This article
examines the broad development of the ideas behind CSR within the literature and some of the current attempts to define the social responsibilities of business. It starts by examining the debate about the nature of corporate social responsibility and current attempts to define CSR. It then looks at some theories to explain how and why business might undertake CSRstakeholder theory, social contracts theory and legitimacy theory. The article concludes by describing ways of assessing corporate social performance - from industry and also from the academic literature.
