IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/reorpe/v47y2015i4p608-624.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From CSR to RSC

Author

Listed:
  • Marisol Sandoval

Abstract

The task of this paper is to trace the academic discourse on corporate social responsibility (CSR) by discussing how CSR approaches and models relate profit goals and social goals of the corporation. I show that CSR approaches that dominate the academic discourse either instrumentalize the social, idealize the corporate, or separate the corporate from the social. Based on a critical political economy perspective I argue that it is necessary to consider mutual interrelations between profit goals and social goals. This perspective reveals an antagonism between the corporate and the social that points to the impossibility of CSR. Critical CSR research thus far has failed to draw the necessary conclusions from its own analysis: despite acknowledging the structural flaws of the concept of CSR, critics have hardly made any attempts to overcome it. I argue that despite its ideological character CSR contains a rational element. Realizing this rational kernel however requires going beyond CSR. I therefore suggest a new concept that turns CSR off its head and places it upon its feet.

Suggested Citation

  • Marisol Sandoval, 2015. "From CSR to RSC," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 47(4), pages 608-624, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:47:y:2015:i:4:p:608-624
    DOI: 10.1177/0486613415574266
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0486613415574266
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0486613415574266?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carroll, Archie B., 1991. "The pyramid of corporate social responsibility: Toward the moral management of organizational stakeholders," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 39-48.
    2. Falck, Oliver & Heblich, Stephan, 2007. "Corporate social responsibility: Doing well by doing good," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 247-254.
    3. Freeman, R. Edward, 1994. "The Politics of Stakeholder Theory: Some Future Directions1," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(4), pages 409-421, October.
    4. Davis, Keith, 1967. "Understanding the social responsibility puzzle," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 45-50.
    5. Preston, Lee E, 1975. "Corporation and Society: The Search for a Paradigm," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 13(2), pages 434-453, June.
    6. Duane Windsor, 2006. "Corporate Social Responsibility: Three Key Approaches," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(1), pages 93-114, January.
    7. Edward Freeman, R. & Phillips, Robert A., 2002. "Stakeholder Theory: A Libertarian Defense," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(3), pages 331-349, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sergiy D. Dmytriyev & R. Edward Freeman & Jacob Hörisch, 2021. "The Relationship between Stakeholder Theory and Corporate Social Responsibility: Differences, Similarities, and Implications for Social Issues in Management," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(6), pages 1441-1470, September.
    2. Boeddeling, Jann, 2011. "Corporate Social Responsibility: Fundamentalstellung für Kapitalismus und Wirtschaftssoziologie," Wittener Diskussionspapiere zu alten und neuen Fragen der Wirtschaftswissenschaft 17/2011, Witten/Herdecke University, Faculty of Management and Economics.
    3. Jared Peifer, 2014. "Fund Loyalty Among Socially Responsible Investors: The Importance of the Economic and Ethical Domains," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 121(4), pages 635-649, June.
    4. WANG Jifu & GUPTA Vipin & LYBOLT Liza & WANG Xiuli, 2022. "Corrected Game Model In Csr: Mnc Strategies And Chinese Practice," Studies in Business and Economics, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 17(3), pages 269-287, December.
    5. Vincenzo Formisano & Bernardino Quattrociocchi & Maria Fedele & Mario Calabrese, 2018. "From Viability to Sustainability: The Contribution of the Viable Systems Approach (VSA)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-17, March.
    6. Jill Brown & William Forster, 2013. "CSR and Stakeholder Theory: A Tale of Adam Smith," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 112(2), pages 301-312, January.
    7. Lei Wang & Heikki Juslin, 2011. "The effects of value on the perception of corporate social responsibility implementation: A study of Chinese youth," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(4), pages 246-262, July.
    8. Muhamad Azrin Nazri & Nor Asiah Omar & Aini Aman & Abu Hanifah Ayob & Nur Ainna Ramli, 2020. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Performance in Takaful Agencies: The Moderating Role of Objective Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-18, October.
    9. Nina Evans & Janet Sawyer, 2010. "CSR and stakeholders of small businesses in regional South Australia," Social Responsibility Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 6(3), pages 433-451, August.
    10. Brian R. Johnson & Eric Connolly & Timothy S. Carter, 2011. "Corporate social responsibility: the role of Fortune 100 companies in domestic and international natural disasters," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(6), pages 352-369, November.
    11. Yanica P. Dimitrova, 2020. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Innovation – the Meaningful Connection," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 4, pages 89-108.
    12. Beck, Donizete & Ferasso, Marcos, 2023. "How can Stakeholder Capitalism contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals? A Cross-network Literature Analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(PA).
    13. Lebano, A., 2010. "The concept of corporate social responsibility," ISS Working Papers - General Series 21243, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    14. Jung-Fa Tsai & Phi-Hung Nguyen & Ming-Hua Lin & Duy-Van Nguyen & Hsu-Hao Lin & Anh-Tuan Ngo, 2021. "Impacts of Environmental Certificate and Pollution Abatement Equipment on SMEs’ Performance: An Empirical Case in Vietnam," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-17, August.
    15. Marc Orlitzky, 2017. "How Cognitive Neuroscience Informs a Subjectivist-Evolutionary Explanation of Business Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 144(4), pages 717-732, September.
    16. Allen Kaufman & Ernie Englander, 2011. "Behavioral Economics, Federalism, and the Triumph of Stakeholder Theory," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 102(3), pages 421-438, September.
    17. Mª Del Mar Ramos-González & Mercedes Rubio-Andrés & Miguel Ángel Sastre-Castillo, 2017. "Building Corporate Reputation through Sustainable Entrepreneurship: The Mediating Effect of Ethical Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-19, September.
    18. Francesco Gangi & Jérôme Méric & Rémi Jardat & Lucia Michela Daniele, 2019. "Business for society," Post-Print hal-02382307, HAL.
    19. Nick Lin-Hi & Igor Blumberg, 2018. "The Link Between (Not) Practicing CSR and Corporate Reputation: Psychological Foundations and Managerial Implications," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 185-198, June.
    20. Bodo B. Schlegelmilch & Ilona Szőcs, 2015. "Corporate philanthropy and ethicality: two opposing notions?," Chapters, in: Handbook on Ethics and Marketing, chapter 16, pages 317-353, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    corporate social responsibility; critical political economy; communism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • P12 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Enterprises
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:47:y:2015:i:4:p:608-624. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.urpe.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.