Cor­po­rate So­cial Re­spon­si­bil­ity from a Busi­ness Per­spec­tive

Cor­po­rate So­cial Re­spon­si­bil­ity (CSR) stands for the so­cially and eco­log­i­cally re­spon­si­ble ac­tions of busi­nesses geared to­wards ful­fill­ing the fun­da­men­tal idea of cre­at­ing last­ing and sus­tain­able eco­nomic ac­tiv­ity. In the long run eco­nomic suc­cess can only be achieved in a sta­ble and pro­duc­tive so­ci­ety. This in­sight is not new, but may well be the rea­son why cor­po­ra­tions are in­creas­ingly look­ing to Cor­po­rate So­cial Re­spon­si­bil­ity for an­swers, in par­tic­u­lar in the con­text of a glob­al­ized econ­omy. A grow­ing num­ber of en­ter­prises are ex­pand­ing their ap­proach from a purely com­pli­ance and spon­sor­ing-dri­ven cul­ture to a more ac­tive Cor­po­rate So­cial Re­spon­si­bil­ity strat­egy. In this re­spect, com­pa­nies see CSR as an op­por­tu­nity and re­quire­ment for eco­nomic suc­cess.

Re­spon­si­ble man­age­ment cre­ates win-win sit­u­a­tions for so­ci­ety and busi­nesses. For sus­tain­abil­ity is the com­mon foun­da­tion, on which states and re­spon­si­ble com­pa­nies base their ac­tions: mar­kets grow, wher­ever poverty di­min­ishes. Where cor­po­ra­tions can rely on a qual­i­fied and mo­ti­vated work­force, pro­duc­tiv­ity and com­pet­i­tive­ness in­crease. In places where the en­vi­ron­ment is pro­tected, re­sources can grow back and the sup­ply-re­lated risks will de­crease. In short: Swiss cor­po­ra­tions al­ready as­sume their so­cial re­spon­si­bil­ity in many dif­fer­ent ways. The role of the states lies in en­sur­ing fa­vor­able con­di­tions (in par­tic­u­lar at the ILO, OECD, UN level) and in sup­port­ing en­ter­prises in their ef­fort to as­sume re­spon­si­bil­ity, par­tic­u­larly in coun­tries with weak gov­er­nance struc­tures.

The goal of this pub­li­ca­tion is to show how busi­ness un­der­stands and lives so­cial re­spon­si­bil­ity and what it con­tributes to the sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment of so­ci­ety. This pub­li­ca­tion should also fos­ter an un­der­stand­ing for the com­plex­ity of the chal­lenges that have to be tack­led in the CSR con­text. The op­por­tu­ni­ties as well as the lim­its of Cor­po­rate So­cial Re­spon­si­bil­ity will be high­lighted. And fi­nally, the ne­ces­sity of stake­holder co­op­er­a­tion for reach­ing sus­tain­able re­sults will be em­pha­sized. The key con­cern of com­pa­nies is to be per­ceived as part­ners in the ef­forts of fac­ing the so­ci­etal chal­lenges of our times.