Is CSR crowding out charity? A case study of CSR implementation in a german company

Abstract

Based on the argument of Matten and Moon (Acad Manag Rev 33(2):404–424, 2008) and their distinction between implicit and explicit Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), we analyze the process of implementing the strategic-explicit version of CSR in a company that was traditionally committed to a more implicit and philanthropic understanding of social activities. In our two-year case study, we show that the company reorganized its entire social engagement and set new rules to meet the CSR business case. The effect is that the old philanthropic activities were replaced, and the company reduced the variety of its social engagement. Our case study highlights that the implementation of CSR does not necessarily lead to greater attention to ethical and social behavior. On the contrary, it may lead to a crowding out of charity.