Strategic corporate social responsibility: from side activity to core business – nine value creating strategies

Broad definitions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) contribute to obfuscating its relevance in strategic management. Moreover, they make it difficult for business leaders to distinguish between CSR that is strategic and CSR that is of more philanthropic character. In this paper, CSR is seen as a strategic management tool that is relevant to the success and failure of companies. The author presents a review of the CSR literature before outlining nine value creating CSR strategies. Seventeen mini-cases are provided from business to illustrate these strategies, represented by companies such as Alcoa, Unilever, Siemens, and Nike.