Conceptual Framework of Corporate Social Responsibility and Its Basic Roots

Introduction

The production capacity, which has increased rapidly with the industrial revolution, and the production that has accelerated with the point that technology has reached today, and the damages caused by the consumption habits that develop along with it, appear in different aspects every day. In a sense, our planet, which sends us warnings with various signals, wants us to see how much this increase in production and consumption increases resource consumption. The awareness created in this direction is gaining importance day by day under the concept of sustainability and it is observed that it permeates our daily activities. Within the scope of this section, the sustainability concept of enterprises, which are important parts of society and which are the locomotive of societies in the context of production and consumption, has been examined within the framework of CSR. CSR covers the responsibilities of businesses towards all their stakeholders. In the period of the beginnings of the history of business, the responsibility of the companies was taken into consideration only in order to satisfy the shareholders, but today they are obliged to create value for all stakeholders, whom they directly or indirectly affect and are affected by.

CSR applications have obtained a vital place in business life at this stage, serving as the primary driving force for short, medium and long-term activities, primarily in large enterprises. On the other hand, important studies within the scope of CSR are included in the academic literature, especially in the context of business management practices. In line with the increasing awareness about CSR, the importance of the concept is increasing visibly. Within the scope of this study, it is aimed to contribute to the book “Enhancing Sustainability Through Non-Financial Reporting”, which tries to base the relationship between non-financial reporting and sustainability, by gathering the conceptual framework of CSR.

Nonfinancial reporting is the reporting of non-financial social activities of institutions and presenting them to the relevant people (Özbay, 2019). Increasing the awareness of sustainability and the activities that will come with it are related to the awareness and implementation of the responsibilities of the institutions in this sense. The realization of non-financial reporting is possible with the adoption of CSR practices by institutions. First, CSR activities must be carried out so that a report can be created in this direction. In this sense, the concept of CSR appears as a prerequisite for the realization of financial reporting and the enhancement of sustainability in this direction.

The relationship between CSR applications and social activity reports has been mentioned in many studies and its importance has been emphasized (Perrini, 2006; Di Vaio et al, 2022, Ortiz-Martínez et al, 2022). Establishing a relationship between concepts in academic studies is possible by first revealing the conceptual framework of the concepts to be associated. This chapter has a unique value in terms of the definition of the concept of CSR, its principles, historical development, and grounding in the context of stakeholder theory in order to form a basis for the relations to be established between concepts in the context of the book in other chapters.

Within the scope of the chapter, firstly, definitions of the concept of CSR were given, and then the evolution of the concept from the Middle Ages to the present was revealed. Within the scope of its theoretical framework, the intricate relationship with stakeholder theory, classical and modern approaches to the concept, and basic models for framing the concept of CSR are included.