Corporate Social Responsibility

The CECOD seeks to contribute to the debate on corporate social responsibility by encouraging academic and literary work on this issue.

In 1987 the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) issued its report “Our Common Future”. The report developed the theme of sustainable development, the type of development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. From then on, “sustainability” has been an often-used term in political, academic and business discussions. 

In the business world, another concept related to sustainability has arisen: corporate social responsibility (CSR). Arguments as to the scope of this obligation range from those who claim that in a free-market economy a company’s only responsibility is to maximize profits without breaking laws or commercial customs, to those who employ ethical arguments that advocate that businesses have a responsibility that extends further than the interests of their shareholders.

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