ABSTRACT
For many centuries, the responsibility for addressing social problems has been mainly the task of governments. However, concerned businessmen started to take the initiative to address social issues in the late 18th century. The initiatives by corporations for addressing and tackling social issues are generally termed as corporate social responsibility (CSR). This chapter describes the evolution of the CSR concept. The concept of CSR describes a fundamental morality in the way corporations should behave towards society. It prescribes how corporations should behave towards the various stakeholders and fully observe and recognise the requirements of the law and other related regulatory requirements. The debate on CSR goes back to the early twentieth century. However, the idea of CSR gained momentum in the late 1950s and 1960s with the expansion of large conglomerate corporations and became a more popular topic in the 1980s. CSR once again became a centre of debate in evaluating corporate behaviour during the period of the financial crisis in 2008–2010.
