Simultaneous implementation of Sustainable Development (SD) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) within a global business context

Abstract

In the current rapidly changing, complex and multi-faceted business context companies face a diverse range of challenges on a daily basis such as financial performance pressures combined with the increasing expectations from societies that companies act more responsibly with relation to social and environmental aspects. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and Sustainable development (SD) are not new concepts and are some of the most widely recognized and used business concepts today. It seems that the implementation of both CSR and SD is needed in a modern and global business context. Although CSR and SD are regarded as different concepts, there is a clear overlap, interrelationship and interconnectedness between these concepts. It seems advantageous to at a practical level implement CSR and SD simultaneously as the tridimensional view of SD mimics the tridimensional view of CSR. It is acknowledged that although SD and CSR both include a tridimensional view and they are closely connected, there are different conceptual nuances. This paper provides an overview of the differences and similarities between CSR and SD and describes practical guidelines to implement CSR and SD simultaneously.