Thoughts on corporate responsibility. Identity can exist without CSR, but CSR cannot exist without identity

Abstract

This paper proposes an analysis of corporate social responsibility (CSR) from the standpoint of corporate strategy with a view to considering its internal and external influence. The author hypothesises that firms should take CSR into account in their business strategies as an integral part of their corporate development in order to progress in harmony with the environment and the society in which they are set. This is an approach that should be integrated into the core of the organisation and that should become a part of its corporate identity. Applied as a solid strategy that is consistent and sustained over time, it provides intangible benefits that increase the organisation’s value. A commitment to this value as the primary identificatory trait in presenting oneself as a company to stakeholders is a strategy deployed in a very clean and original way by some enterprises, as opposed to others whose attitude is not on a par with their identitary definition, which they consequently have not internalised.

KEYWORDS: corporate social responsibility, strategy, corporate identity, communication.