Social responsibility is an ethical or ideological theory that an entity whether it is a government, corporation, organization or individualhasa responsibility to society at large. This responsibility can be"negative", meaning there is exemption from blame or liability, or itcan be "positive," meaning there is a responsibility to actbeneficently (proactive stance).
Businesses canuse ethical decision making to secure their businesses by makingdecisions that allow for government agencies to minimize theirinvolvement with the corporation. (Kaliski, 2001) For instance if acompany is proactive and follows the United States Environmental Protection Agency(EPA)guidelines for emissions on dangerous pollutants and even goes an extrastep to get involved in the community and address those concerns thatthe public might have; they would be less likely to have the EPAinvestigate them for environmental concerns. “A significant element ofcurrent thinking about privacy, however, stresses "self-regulation"rather than market or government mechanisms for protecting personalinformation” (Swire , 1997) Most rules and regulations are formed dueto public outcry, if there is not outcry there often will be limitedregulation.
In research paper,critics argue that Corporate social responsibility (CSR) distracts fromthe fundamental economic role of businesses; others argue that it isnothing more than superficial window-dressing; others argue that it isan attempt to pre-empt the role of governments as a watchdog overpowerful multinational corporations (Carpenter, Bauer, & Erdogan,2009).
Source: wikipedia.org
