Modern trends in the development of corporate social responsibility

Abstract

In today’s rapidly changing global landscape, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become an important component of the activities of enterprises striving for prosperity and maintaining a positive public image. According to the School of Classical Economics, the only task of the company is to obtain maximum profit by legal means. Within this framework, the company — by its nature — strives for economic benefits, according to which it is evaluated as successful or not, and does not seem to care about its social responsibility. However, with the development of social production and the rapid increase in the number and size of companies, much attention has been paid to the «theory of stakeholders», and it has become the subject of research. In fact, some researchers are putting forward innovative views on CSR, which is increasingly becoming a matter of serious concern, and as a result, more and more guidelines related to CSR are being implemented at the international level. Meanwhile, various coalitions, codes of conduct, valuation methods and investment standards have been developed for companies. But even though the concept of CSR is widely recognized around the world, there is still no consensus on what CSR is, what it covers and how it should be applied.