CSR for Purpose, Shared Value and Deep Transformation

The New Responsibility

Virginia Munro

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781800430389, 9781800430365
• eBook ISBN: 9781800430372
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

As we enter the Fourth Industrial Revolution and usher in Globalization 4.0, it is more urgent than ever to commit to social and environmental goals such as those outlined in the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The theory, research, and practice of concepts such as shared purpose, shared value, and corporate social responsibility have evolved rapidly in order to respond to change and transformation in society, but only in a scattershot, poorly understood way, with no single study offering an integrated view of these dramatic transitions.

Emphasizing a global perspective, CSR for Purpose, Shared Value and Deep Transformation takes long-overdue stock of how such transformations are integrated within the trajectory of CSR's core concepts. Taking a deep dive into social entre- and intrapreneurship, innovation, shared value, social impact, stakeholder engagement, and the development of the UN SDGs beyond 2030 Virginia Munro provides a framework for understanding the evolving role of the corporate dollar in the pursuit of a global ecosystem that is more inclusive of all stakeholders.

For its theoretical rigor as well as its easily digestible case studies, this book is a must-read for both researchers and students of innovative 'preneurship' and CSR-related concepts, and for those struggling to understand the 'new normal' in a setting for 'new responsibility'.

The foreword for this book is written by acknowledged CSR guru and Emeritus Professor Archie Carroll. Additional endorsements supporting this book are supplied by various practitioners and academics including ex-Deputy-Director General of UNESCO and Emeritus Professor Colin Power.

Chapter 1

CSR Historical and Emerging Themes and Related Terms

Abstract

To determine the new responsibility and new form of CSR required in an evolving ecosystem, this chapter covers the historical evolution of CSR including the various additional labels CSR has attracted, and its many surrogate, complementary, and alternative terms and themes. Some parties still view CSR as just a form of Philanthropy; however, current definitions for CSR involve many components, which have adapted over time. The new CSR definition provided by the European Commission in 2011, for example, mirrors some of the changes created by the inclusion of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in 2015. The creation of shared and integrated value and the ongoing development of the social enterprise industry are further developments, alongside the growing trend toward B-Corp registration, the increasing emphasis on ‘business-for-purpose’ and the rise of the ‘be the change’ movement. This chapter discusses this journey and reveals how CSR has followed a cycle of social movements through several industrial revolutions. As we head toward the Fourth Industrial Revolution and usher in the new era for Globalization 4.0, this requires new business models, new labels, and new adaptations of CSR. These concepts are introduced in this chapter and developed further in later chapters.

Introduction

First, we need to remind ourselves that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has a long history. In fact, CSR is centuries old and punctuated with consistent change. With any journey of time there is evolution – and therefore continued growth, expansion, threat, and opportunity. Different phases and different centuries inevitably provide different contexts over time, with many ways to perceive, define, and refine original concepts. Regardless of how you label and define CSR, society provides various challenges, checks, and balances to make sure CSR, or any term, for that matter, keeps pace with modern times. The ‘be the change’ movement provides one example of this, whereby the term may cease to exist when everyone is actioning ‘change.’ ‘Change,’ as a term is then integrated into society and morphed into other variants or adaptations of what has gone before. It is the same for CSR. New visions of CSR are recycled and revolutionized as social movements come and go. The era of Globalization 4.0 and the Fourth Industrial Revolution is the next social movement and cycle of innovation to arrive.

To understand this further, a quote comes to mind from CSR guru Archie Carroll, who has been studying CSR for more than 47 years. His first paragraph in his first ever published paper in 1974, provides an excellent illustration of ‘time’ and social revolutions that come and go:

“Social revolution has been characterized by some as being paradoxical. It is paradoxical in the sense that it simultaneously casts the business institution in the role of villain and saviour. While on the one hand business organizations are thoroughly chastised for their philosophy, structure, and mode of operations, they are at the same time acknowledged to be an increasingly beneficial force in society” (Steiner, 1972, cited in, Carroll, 1974, p.75).

To illustrate this point further, Carroll takes a quote from the 1971 David Rockefeller (Jr) speech addressing the Advertising Council, and reported in the Los Angeles Times:

“It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that right now American business is facing its most severe public disfavor since the 1930s. We are assailed for demeaning the worker, deceiving the consumer, destroying the environment and disillusioning the younger generation” (Rockefeller, 1971, cited in Carroll, 1974).

Roll forward to 2020, and it could be argued we still have the same disbelief or disfavor, albeit somewhat more magnified. Discussions of this nature have moved on to the Fourth Industrial Revolution and topics such as race and gender inequality, automation of jobs, rapid innovation, the development of a circular economy, implementing the sustainable development goals (SDGs), formalizing social enterprises through social entrepreneurship, and multilayered collaborations through partnerships and co-creation. This book covers many of these themes with this chapter introducing the evolution of CSR terminology, followed by the development of these themes.

Our choice of words and phrases to define an issue has a large impact on how we see and evaluate that issue (Hipsher, 2018; Imai, Kanero, & Masuda, 2016; Tamariz & Kirby, 2016). Initially corporate philanthropy, for example, was core to the CSR definition (e.g., Austin & Reficco, 2009), and this seems to have stayed in people's minds. However, from the various definitions of CSR later this chapter, it is clear discretionary activities and/or corporate philanthropy are just one of the many components of CSR. When the general business public and interdisciplinary academics from different fields, look at CSR with a less detailed lens, they still conjure up images of philanthropy and cash or cheque “giving” as the only form of CSR, forgetting its legal, ethical, environmental, and social components and subsequent developments.

As touched on above, over time CSR has gained additional labels and surrogate and competing terms, such as: ‘purpose,’ ‘be the change’, corporate citizenship (CC), corporate social performance (CSP), triple bottom line, sustainability, conscious capitalism, business ethics, corporate social entrepreneurship (CSE), creating shared value (CSV), integrated value creation (IVC), and other adaptations such as: Responsive CSR, Strategic CSR, Systemic CSR, among others (Carroll & Brown, 2018; Googins, Mirvis, & Rochlin, 2007; Porter & Kramer, 2011; Visser et al. 2007; Zadek, 2001).

To honor this perspective, key terms such as these are discussed in this chapter alongside the various social movements and activities moulding CSR through transition and change. Particular movements are introduced in this chapter and discussed further in the innovation chapter (Chapter 5), the SDG chapter (Chapter 3), and the CSV chapter (Chapter 4). Research opportunities are also identified as this chapter discovers ongoing gaps in the literature for CSR. In later chapters and also later this chapter, we discuss additional social revolutions and new innovations and trends, but to appreciate the overall evolution of CSR we must first revisit its historical past.

Historical Overview

The academic literature often commences historical discussions of CSR from the middle of the Industrial Revolution or during the time of the fallout post World War II. This chapter commences the journey of CSR from the fifth to fourth century BC and continues to contemporary times and to current deadlines expected for 2030, and beyond.

As stated in the introduction to this chapter, CSR has a centuries-long history and reflects a progression through various social movements to its current form, where some authors today still talk about what is yet to come, and “unleashing the ‘long tail’ of CSR” (e.g., Visser, 2011). The historical growth of CSR has been covered extensively in a number of books and papers and so a brief summary of the development of CSR will be covered here before moving on to newer and additional terms which, as stated above, can be alternative or surrogate terms, or as stated by Carroll and Brown (2018), complimentary and competing themes.

Unlike most academic literature therefore, the discussion on the history and development of CSR commences here from the fifth to fourth century bc.

Fifth and Fourth Century bc

The first written notions by CSR authors such as Eberstadt (1973) cite the origins of CSR back to the Classical Greek era in the fifth century (500 bc to the last day of 401 bc) to fourth century bc (400 bc to the last day of 301 bc). Business at this time was expected to be of social service to the community. During the medieval era from approximately 1000–1500 ad, businesses were expected to be honest and adhere to moral and legal obligations under the influence of the Catholic Church (Prafitri, 2017). During the Mercantile period from 1500 to 1800 ad and the Industrial Revolution in Europe from 1815 to 1848, the social obligation of business was to provide public service, with businessmen gaining respectability, dignity, and privileges for their services (Eberstadt, 1973; Prafitri, 2017). Businesses were also punished if they failed to provide social benefits to society (Prafitri, 2017). However, there was also exploitation of foreigners and unethical profit maximization (Eberstadt, 1973; Prafitri, 2017) leading to the era of “ethical business” arising from Bowen's work in the 1950s (Prafitri, 2017), with the publication of The Social Responsibilities of the Businessman (Bowen, 1953).

Pre-industrial Revolution to World War II

While much of the academic literature cites the history of CSR as commencing somewhere just prior to the middle of the First Industrial Revolution in Britain (1780–1850), many authors of modern-day CSR tend to cite World War II as the seed of CSR, and this is typically where academic papers commence a historical overview of CSR. Those quoting the beginning of CSR at the time of the First Industrial Revolution connect this with the transition to new manufacturing processes in the early 1700s–1840s. Some believe this to be the Western beginning of a documented and publicly demonstrated form of CSR. One example is the time of the Cotton Mills in Manchester, Northern England, providing community and staff with additional resources beyond that of the factory job. On a visit to the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, I came across an entire exhibit explaining how one of the mill owners at this time had set-up additional facilities for workers and families in the mill and in the community where the mill resided. This gives an early indication of what CSR or at least ‘social responsibility’ was at this time.

Actual formal writing on CSR, however, is traced to the mid-to-late 1800s around the time of the Second Industrial Revolution. Industrialists such as American John H. Patterson of National Cash Register who started the industrial welfare movement is acknowledged at this time alongside well-known philanthropists such as John Rockefeller who set-up The Rockefeller Foundation, similar to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today (Visser, 2012).

As part of this evolution of CSR and its complimentary themes, Wayne Visser, Professor of Integrated Value at Antwerp Management School and Fellow of Cambridge University's Institute for Sustainable Leaderships, authored a two-stream development approach to CSR, with his colleague Kymal (Visser & Kymal, 2015). The two streams they document evolving over time are: responsibility and sustainability. The responsibility stream they refer to originated in the 1800s, with industrialists Rockefeller and Carnegie promoting community philanthropy, followed by the employee welfare movement (Visser, 2017). The sustainability stream started with air pollution regulation in the UK and land conservation in the US in the 1870s (Visser, 2011) and moved on to the first Earth Day, Greenpeace and the first UN Stockholm meeting in the 1970s. As the two movements grew, so did the connection and integration between the two terms (Visser, 2011). This is discussed later this chapter.

In general, it is more common for Western authors to refer to CSR as a product of the twentieth century (January 1901–December 2000). However, if we dig deep into Eastern culture and developing countries, we may find examples of ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsement
• Title
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknoweldgements
• Introduction
• 1. CSR Historical and Emerging Themes and Related Terms
• 2. The Emergence of CSR Social Initiatives in a Research Setting
• 3. The Universal Sustainable Development Goals for Purpose and Change
• 4. Creating Shared Value for Social Initiatives and Shared Purpose
• 5. Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Solving Wicked Challenges through CSR and CSV
• 6. The Future of CSR and the New Ecosystem for CSR 4.0
• 7. Overall Summary and Conclusion
• Index