Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning pdf ebook

CSR as social obligation: Since the 1950s onwards, there has been a strong link between 
CSR and the alignment of corporate actions with the objectives and values of society. 
This ethos is still found in contemporary marketing studies, particularly regarding the 
potential for both positive and negative consumer reactions to CSR initiatives of this 
type (Sen and Bhattacharya, 2001). Classically, Carroll (1979) distinguishes social obli-
gations as: economic obligations – to be productive and economically viable; legal and 
ethical obligations – to follow the law and accepted values and norms; and philanthropic 
obligations – to actively give back to society.
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CSR as stakeholder obligation: The 1990s saw the emergence of the view that CSR as 
social obligation was too broad to allow the effective management of CSR (Clarkson, 
1995), and the argument that businesses are not responsible to society as a whole, but 
only to those who directly or indirectly affect, or are affected by, the firm’s activities – 
that is, the firm’s stakeholders (Donaldson and Preston, 1995). Accordingly, stakeholders 
can be grouped into: organisational – employees, customers, shareholders, suppliers; 
community – local residents, special interest groups; regulatory – local authorities, legal 
controls; and media stakeholders (Henriques and Sadorsky, 1999).
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CSR as ethics-driven: Viewing CSR as either a social or stakeholder issue suggests that 
CSR is motivated only by corporate self-interests, enabling business to gain legitimacy 
with important external parties. It has been argued that such views fail to account for 
actions by companies that represent a positive commitment to society’s interests that dis-
regard self-interest and are genuinely altruistic (Swanson, 1995). Indeed, if CSR reflects 
only obligations, then it becomes difficult to evaluate whether business practices are or 
are not socially responsible, as opposed to simply reciprocal (Jones, 1995). An ethics-
driven view of CSR is concerned with the rightness or wrongness of specific initiatives, 
independently of any social or stakeholder obligation. For example, justice-based ethics 

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DRIVERS OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY INITIATIVES
would lead a company to attempt to systematically favour decisions that stimulate equal-
ity and fairness for its partners and associates.
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