Indagación sobre el origen del concepto de responsabilidad social empresarial

Through the exploration of two current approaches to the concept of corporate social responsibility, this paper has three main objectives.

First, it presents the origin of this concept, which is a theoretical construct that has had different meanings, definitions and interpretations. Second, it seeks to explain three basic understandings of corporate social responsibility in three areas of current discourse: management reports, advertising guidelines and theories of management. These understandings are strategic, sociopolitical and ethical; this last viewed as a response to the various interactions between society and corporations. The third objective is to show the complex nature of the concept of corporate social responsibility, the needs within organizations that this concept has generated and possible objections to its theoretical foundations.

This research emphasizes the need to consider corporate social responsibility in an integrated manner, so that different understandings of corporate social responsibility can be developed within the management of corporations in order to generate a positive impact as much for the communities which they are a part of as for the corporations themselves.

Finally, this research highlights a number of considerations that are epistemological, ethical, educational and political: epistemological, regarding the characteristics of administrative knowledge; ethical, with respect to self-interest as limiting the discourse of corporate social responsibility; educational, in regard to the challenges this concept poses to business schools, and political, relating to the limits the concept places on the power of organizations.