PRINCIPLE 4

CSR Is Not Solely a Corporate Responsibility

In brief: CSR will only work if firms are rewarded for acting and punished for failing to act. As such, while CSR includes a responsibility for a firm to meet the needs and demands of its stakeholders, the stakeholders themselves have an equal, if not more important, responsibility to hold the firm to account.

As illustrated by Principle 3, business is a collective enterprise that is defined by the firm’s relationships with all of its stakeholders. A firm that is acting responsibly is seeking to meet the needs of its broad range of stakeholders. In doing so, that firm is also acting in its own best interests, as measured over the medium to long term. But, within this complex web of ...

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