What is corporate social responsibility

What is Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be defined as the "economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary expectations that society has of organizations at a given point in time" (Carroll and Buchholtz). The concept of corporate social responsibility means that organizations have moral, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities in addition to their responsibilities to earn a fair return for investors and comply with the law. A traditional view of the corporation suggests that its primary, if not sole, responsibility is to its owners, or stockholders. However, CSR requires organizations to adopt a broader view of its responsibilities that includes not only stockholders, but many other constituencies as well, including employees, suppliers, customers, the local community, local, state, and federal governments, environmental groups, and other special interest groups.
Corporate social responsibility is related to, but not identical with, business ethics. While CSR englobes the economic, legal, ethical responsibilities of organizations, business ethics usually focuses on the moral judgments and behavior of individuals and groups within organizations.
Organizations are expected to be efficient, profitable, and to keep shareholder interests in mind. Organizations have thousands of legal responsibilities leading almost every aspect of their operations, including consumer and product laws, environmental laws, and employment laws. The ethical responsibilities concerns societal go beyond the law, such as the expectation that organizations will conduct their affairs in a fair and just way. This means that organizations are expected to do more than just comply with the law, but also make proactive efforts to anticipate and meet the norms of society even if those norms are not formally enacted in law. This may involve such things as philanthropic support of programs benefiting a community or the nation. It may also involve donating