These days Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a buzzword across the corporate circle. It remains a point of debate whether corporates should shoulder such a cause. People expect the organization to act as a good citizen. In keeping with these expectations, corporate entities are pronouncing their generosity by extending its activity to the social cause by moving beyond the bottom line consequence. If the governance issue of CSR is properly addressed, the organization could be benefited by harvesting the investment on CSR as it helps in building good corporate branding and competitive advantage for long-term sustenance.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities are intended to establish and reinforce a positive reputation and brand image in the public eye through good socially relevant work that yields a competitive edge while at the same time contributing to others, who essentially are not the shareholder of the firm. It demands that organizations shift its focus from solely profit-making to promoting social responsibility, environmental issues, community development, sustainability, etc. Every business house has an impact on the communities in which it operates, and the operation depends on a generic set of social conditions ranging from rightly skilled workforce, natural resources availability, basic health amenities, and a corruption free visionary government. All these are imperatives for a firm to operate, compete, grow and contribute to the GDP of the nation. The economic betterment and social welfare of the population is largely dependent on having a firm that can sustain the local economy. Globalization has its own impact on the society and has increased the global interdependence, to the extent that borders do not count much and local communities are increasingly affected by things that happen a long way from their home turf. CSR remains as a way to respond to some of these issues, both locally and globally.

The concept is not restricted to the corporates specifically but rather has generic presence such as associations, trade unions, organizations that serve the community for scientific, educational, artistic, public health or charitable purposes, and governmental agencies. Increasingly, the organizations are adopting CSR as new strategic initiative to garner attention. Once seen as a purely charitable activity, a cause of general goodwill, with hardly any bottom line consequence, CSR appears to be taking center stage as the firms prefer to promote such issues to project its competitive advantage and organizational supremacy amongst the other players of the industry.

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