Editorial

Citation

Aras, G. and Crowther, D. (2011), "Editorial", Social Responsibility Journal, Vol. 7 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/srj.2011.36807baa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Social Responsibility Journal, Volume 7, Issue 2

It used to be considered that corporate social responsibility (CSR) was an extra cost for a business rather than an investment in the future of that business which would result in enhanced financial performance. Thus it used to be argued that CSR was an optional extra for companies – that they would pay attention to socially responsible activity when they were in a secure economic environment with sufficient profitability and sufficiently robust plans for growth and development. The corollaries of this, of course, are that companies that are less secure cannot afford to bother with CSR and that when economic conditions deteriorate then firms will cease to have a concern for CSR and will focus on economic performance. This view casts CSR as a luxury and provides a legitimation for many smaller businesses and new businesses to claim that they cannot afford to be concerned with CSR as they have to focus on financial performance. Such a view predominated only a very few years ago.

If this view had any credence then what we would expect to see during the current recession is that companies would be abandoning their CSR activities – claiming that they could no longer afford the time, effort and financial resources – and returning to a focus upon their core economic and profit making activities. It is fortunate therefore that members of the general public understand business reality much better that these self-styled experts. The general public understand that CSR is not a voluntary additional activity for business to be undertaken or abandoned as the needs of the time dictate. They understand full well that it is a core business driver which permeates all business activity and decision making. Moreover they increasingly base consumer decisions on how it is implemented in business.

It is equally fortunate that business managers also understand economic reality and therefore understand that the way to survive and prosper during the recession is not to abandon CSR but to do the opposite. So during the recession we are witnessing businesses focuses upon CSR as a way to manage through the recession; and we are seeing businesses which do this prosper while others fall by the wayside. So rather than seeing a reduction in concern for CSR we are actually seeing the opposite – an increasing concern. This is of course good news and implies that we are winning the battle to promote CSR as being beneficial for everyone – a truly win – win situation. These are issues that are addressed by some of the contributors to this issue. Others show the importance of understanding history as a means of affecting the present.

Social Responsibility Journal is of course the official journal of the Social Responsibility Research Network (SRRNet) – www.socialresponsibility.biz Producing it is one of the main activities which the Network undertakes. All papers in this issue, as in all others, have the commonality that they investigate an aspect of social responsibility – and one feature of social responsibility is that it is a very wide and very interdisciplinary field. With that we leave you to read the papers, hoping that this will inspire you to contribute to a future edition.

Güler Aras, David Crowther