Five Theses on Corporate Social Responsibility

Cotopaxi's "Do Good" mission is publicized at a Questival event

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is any business action that addresses widespread social, community, environmental, or other issues by utilizing company resources (usually in the form of profits). Especially in the 21st century, the emergence of CSR programs in more and more businesses has led individuals to question what the role of business should be when approaching social issues. In my “Hot Spots in Business” post, I discussed “give-back” programs and arguments that CSR goes beyond the scope of what business should be. In my next “Historical and Communication Connections” post, I looked at ways CSR programs are tied to era and rhetorical themes. Historical connects include the increased empathy for the plight of others found in the Romantic Era, and communication connections include the ways that companies represent their CSR programs through different mediums to boost their company’s ethos. Read more to see five claims surrounding corporate social responsibility. 

1. [Policy Claim]
   Despite arguments that CSR programs go beyond business’ role, companies should have some form of corporate social responsibility program because both businesses and stakeholders will see benefits from CSR activity. 
   Companies such as Cotopaxi have seen significant increased profits for all shareholders as their CSR program creates an authentic “do-good” brand, which in turn attracts customers. Have any of you ever bought products from a company because you know the company is socially responsible?
2. [Definition Claim]
   Although CSR programs have typically been used to show if a company is being responsible or altruistic, a company is not inherently “good” simply because they have a CSR program if their core business model has negative effects. 
   Companies cannot simply throw money at a social cause to be considered good; other factors that must be considered under a “good” core business model include a company’s product mix, customer interactions, environmental effects, and honest business activity. The traditional role of capitalist business might be interesting to further study here.
3. [Comparison Claim]
   Although CSR programs are often genuine efforts of business people to improve the world, ingenuine CSR programs are like PR smokescreens because they mask poor company habits by heavily publicizing the “good” the company is doing.
   When a CSR program is ingenuine, it is often a sign that the company is compensating for something. Usually, the base business model is not accomplishing enough good on its own, so companies use ingenuine give-back programs to improve their perceived ethos.
4. [Evaluation Claim]
   Although it often good to have corporate social responsibility programs, it is inadequate to only have a CSR program if the core business is not addressing more basic issues such as sustainability or diversity of employees. 
   Programs that help socially vulnerable groups are great, but the company must first insure that their core businesses is creating positive effects for the world. For example, if a company is creating an enormous carbon footprint, giving shoes to kids in Africa constitutes inadequate business efforts. Again, this is likely just an ethos-boosting effort.
5. [Causal Claim]
   Despite the notion that CSR programs have to be a detached branch of the company, corporate social responsibility is often the result of a core company mission that seeks to do good for the world because the mission will lead the company to do good simply by existing. 
   When companies have base business models and mission statements that revolve around making the world a better place, giving-back programs will be a natural extension of that core model. For example, Cotopaxi’s base mission is “do good,” so the philanthropy that they do is a natural extension of what their business is already accomplishing. 

Image credits: Questival: Cotopaxi.com, permission requested.