Author Description

By and large, corporations of the 21st century have come to realise that their obligations to societies in terms of corporate social responsibility are fourfold: economic, ethical, altruistic and strategic. Meeting these four responsibilities is crucial to their survival in their various markets and industries; it also requires them to rewrite their previously less socially responsible business models in order to do so. All indications continue to suggest that it is those organisations that are perceived to be socially responsible by stakeholders in modern markets that survive and prosper. Corporations have equally realised that by being innovative in all things - including their CSR activities and initiatives - they will add value to the so-called bottom line, to the positive contributions they make to society and to how they are perceived by their key stakeholders. However, many criticisms have been made of CSR in its current form, often related to the lack of value that it generates within the enterprise and the fact that it offers only a partial and short-term response to the full challenges of sustainable development. The time has come to shift the CSR focus away from risk management towards a more progressive and entrepreneurial approach that seeks to create value and identify sustainable opportunities for strategic innovation. This book aims to explore, inspire and support creative, innovative and strategic CSR. "Innovation" in this book means new products, services and technologies and, in addition, new organisational and institutional systems, structures and new business models that empower the organisation to advance strategically in an ever more competitive business world. Both research and practice show that CSR has mainly been approached in terms of value protection and risk management, where the main objective has been to protect companies' existing assets or avoid scandals. Therefore, in many cases where CSR remains at the fore