CSR or RSC? (Beyond the Humpty Dumpty Syndrome)

Abstract

CSR has often been presented as a challenge for management. This is due to the fact that the CSR debate has been associated with the business practices that are linked to it. But CSR is also an approximation to the business practices that require us to question the underlying corporate business model. Therefore, as it deals with a company’s business model, the term CSR at once reveals its potential and its limitations. The ambiguity of the term ‘social’ and the risk of not combining this with the term ‘economic’ is by no means less significant: neither is the diversity of interpretations and approaches allowed by the term ‘social’. Using the words of the Lewis Carrol character, Humpty Dumpty, as a metaphor - according to which a word’s meaning depends on the power of the person who uses it - we propose a shift away from talking in terms of CSR (corporate social responsibility) to talking in terms of RSC (responsible and sustainable corporation).

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Responsible and Sustainable Corporation (RSC), stakeholder, strategy