Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility is a topic that can mean and be differentiated by a company's regional location, between companies or by the product or service that is supplied. CSR does not have a specific definition that can be given. Instead, it is defined by a company that practices this responsibility depending on that kind of work they do. Because there is no one specific task that all companies use when practicing CSR, each company may establish their own CSR policies that can be of both relevance to what the company does and of benefit. According to the website, corporatewatch.org , CSR can be thought of as the practice of managing the social, environmental and economic impacts of the company being responsive to stakeholders' (those who are affected by a business operation) and behaving according to a set of values which are not codified in law.

The question of how a company can perform activities in CSR can depend on the company itself. For example, if a company that practices CSR releases a toxin into the environment it may have its own policies on how to deal with that situation. This company may establish a goal to limit its release of the toxin or it may simply donate to charity. There are different types of activities that a company may undertake in an attempt to be seen as socially responsible which include: Corporate philanthropy, cause-related marketing, sponsoring awards, codes of conduct, social and environmental reporting, stakeholder engagement, community investment, eco-efficiency and Investing in socially focused companies (corporate watch) .

Corporate philanthropy is a way for a company to donate to a charity and allow it to save its reputation. This type of activity is also a way to put a form of value on its corporate social responsibility. In the aspect of a company, this type of responsibility allows for a company to save its reputation after an ethical dilemma. When a company donates money, the donation is a type of PR which then allows for a company to keep its positive name, keep their profits up and potentially fix their ethical dilemma (Corporate watch). Cause-related marketing is an agreement between a company and a charity. The company donates some form of monetary or material possession to allow the company to use the charities' logo. This is a great tactic because if a company that is polluting the environment markets the fact that they are supportive of a particular charity, it will be seen as being a positive influence despite its lack of responsibility. Sponsoring awards is another way that a company can hide its lack of responsibility. Giving or receiving an award is typically viewed as being a positive thing; therefore, if a company sponsors a human rights award or another type of influential recognition it allows for the firm to appear as if it is behaving ethically correct. Another activity that is starting to become popular among today's large