Why should business companies engage in CSR?
In recent decades the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) turned out to be avital strategy for companies to survive in a ruthless market environment. In a conditionwhere market’s shift and customers’ preferences becomes more unpredictable andcomplex, adopting CSR strategy could be a powerful tool for survival.CSR-Asia defined Corporate Social Responsibility as a concept whereby companiesintegrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis. Many companies all over theworld are now starting to see the benefit of practicing CSR in their bottom lines.European countries are now seriously engaged in this concept on different levels andeven in interpretation of how the concept works.The concept is quite ambiguous for some did not see its difference from corporate philanthropy. The latter is the most popular as it is easy to comprehend and implement.Other would try to adopt the concept but their involvement limited only to their core business. This is understandable, because it is easier for companies to formulateinterventions on a concept they can easily understand and are cost-effective to them.Example, a food manufacturing company would normally prefer to implementinterventions that are related to nutrition, and call this as their CSR project, but in realityis still very similar to corporate philanthropy.