Corporate Social Responsibility: Analytical Study of Global and Indian Perspectives and Practices

Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has occupied a prominent room in the domain of Management, Law, Sociology, Philosophy and Economics during last seventy five or more years. CSR is also known as Corporate Citizenship, Corporate Responsiveness. CSR has become a subject of serious research after A. B. Carroll’s invention of CSR Pyramid during early 1980s. The fundamental theory of CSR is based on the premise that there is a symbiotic relationship between business and society. Society is the owner of all the factors of production and business acts as the agent of the society for converting the inputs into output. Primarily the business has to earn profit since profit is the oxygen of business without which no business can sustain. Next comes, business has to abide by the law of the land. Thirdly, ethics is the guide for decision making by the business under different situations and finally, business has to undertake philanthropic activities so that overall well being of the society is delivered. In India, the Companies Act, 2013 provides that certain categories of companies within the meaning of the said law are to mandatorily spend certain percentage of profit on CSR activities. CSR Reporting is compulsory in many countries in the globe which include Canada, Australia, Sweden, France, South Africa etc. This paper aims at throwing lights on the issues concerning meaning, scope and performance of CSR in the context of Multinational Corporations. It gives an outline of the meaning and significance of CSR initiative.