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CSR: Evolution of Concept

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Sustainable Management

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Synonyms

Business ethics; Sustainable development; Triple bottom line

Definition

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be defined as a “concept whereby companies decide voluntarily to contribute to a better society and a cleaner environment” (European Commission 2001, p. 4). The basic notion of CSR “is the idea that it reflects the social imperatives and the social consequences of business success” (Matten and Moon 2008, p. 405). In that sense, the European Commission presented a new definition of CSR as “the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society” (European Commission 2011, p. 7).

The Communication of the European Commission at the end of 2011 underpinned the adverse effects of the economic and social crisis, as they have damaged consumer confidence and levels of trust in business and “have focused public attention on the social and ethical performance of enterprises” (European Commission 2011, p. 5).

CSR is an umbrella term overlapping with some and being...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ISCA - Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal

    Maria José Silva & Graça Azevedo

  2. Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Lisbon, Portugal

    Jonas Oliveira

Authors
  1. Maria José Silva
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  2. Graça Azevedo
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  3. Jonas Oliveira
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. London Metropolitan University, Guildhall Faculty of Business and Law London Metropolitan University, London, UK

    Samuel Idowu

  2. Cologne Business School, Ingolstadt, Germany

    René Schmidpeter

  3. College of Business, Loyola University New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, USA

    Nicholas Capaldi

  4. International Training Centre of the IL, International Labor Organization, Turin, Italy

    Liangrong Zu

  5. Department of Economics, Society and Politics, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino, Italy

    Mara Del Baldo

  6. Instituto Politécnico da Guarda, Guarda, Portugal

    Rute Abreu

Section Editor information

  1. Cultural Mediation - SLLC, University of Naples L'Orientale, Naples, Italy

    Fabiana Sciarelli

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Silva, M.J., Azevedo, G., Oliveira, J. (2021). CSR: Evolution of Concept. In: Idowu, S., Schmidpeter, R., Capaldi, N., Zu, L., Del Baldo, M., Abreu, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sustainable Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02006-4_740-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02006-4_740-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-02006-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-02006-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Business and ManagementReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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