Chapter 6: Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Sustainability: How Are They Related?

The evolution of companies’ perspectives over recent decades contributed to the creation of a new awareness in the civil society about what goals they may advance via their engagement with companies (Adizes & Weston, 1973; Ansoff, 1984). This change has prompted some businesses, initially the large ones, to achieve adaptations adequate to the social pressure, at first, with reference to the issues of saving the planet from pollution, then in relation to a wider spectrum of intervention (Ansoff, 1984). The natural evolution of the new attention to social needs has led to the emerging role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) (Caroll, 1999). Subsequently, Corporate Social Responsibility assumed increasing relevance both in the academic sphere and in organizational practice, also by giving attention to small and medium-sized companies (Carroll & Shabana, 2010).