An Insight into Essential Issues in Corporate Social Responsibility: An Introduction

This in my view is a complex book. In order to unfold such complexity, let us first review each contribution in detail, then we will develop some general considerations. The book opens with a chapter that extends CSR to the core business of educational institutions: second chapter, “Current Approaches and New Paradigms in Educational Institutions’ Social Responsibility”, by Claudiu George Bocean, Catalina Soriana Sitnikov, Dalia Simion, Sorin Tudor and Monica Logofatu. This chapter presents the current approaches and new paradigms on models of integrating competences on social responsibility in the subjects taught by educational institutions as well as the role of actors that educational institutions can play in the area of social responsibility. Educational institutions need to transcend from a philanthropic culture of social responsibility, specific to CSR 1.0, towards a strategic culture of social responsibility, specific to CSR 2.0, or even better, towards a catalytic culture of social responsibility, specific to CSR 3.0. The catalytic culture is a stage of social responsibility which corresponds to the sustainability stage. At this stage, organizations adopt the collective paradigm (by renouncing the individualist paradigm) by working with other actors in all areas of society to better identify the root causes of social problems, identify effective partnerships, use resources more efficiently, and find solutions which have a major impact on society.