A review of the development in defining corporate social responsibility

Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibility (hereafter CSR) has recently become the debated concept in both academic and practical controversial as well. The reason used to explain is that there is the lack of clear definition of CSR (Wan-Jan 2006) which could be applied in CSR research. This paper is to review the development in defining the concept “Corporate Social Responsibility” from the decade of 1950 to now. The method to review is to examine definitions as well as studies on defining CSR in order to identify the key themes concerning what CSR is in each decade. The review shows some salience points. First, CSR has a very long development history, but it has been officially documented from 1950. Second, researchers tried to define CSR and involved issues by explaining the scope business should be responsible. Last, among reviewed definitions, Carroll’s one is more comprehensive than others and widely-used in research.