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The term Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) was coined in the 1930s by the professors of Harvard University, A.A. Berle and C.G. Means (Klempner, 2006). But the concept of Social Responsibility was first defined by Howard R. Bowen (popularly known as father of CSR) in his book titled “Social Responsibilities of the Businessman” in 1953. He emphasized that social responsibility of business is to follow those courses of actions, to make those resolutions and to perform those actions which are advantageous for the company as well as for the society (Bowen, 1953). Since then, it has developed in several aspects with the contributions of numerous researchers (Moura-Leite and Padgett, 2011). CSR is referred by different terminologies by different researchers as Social Responsibility, Corporate Citizenship, and Strategic Philanthropy (Rangan et al., 2012).
Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing obligation of organization to increase its profits along with the development of its employees, welfare of the society and community (The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) et al., 2000). It is the obligation of business to work towards meeting the needs of its stakeholders (Clarkson, 1995). CSR activities of companies may lead to long-term sustainability, competitiveness, and success of the company (KPMG CSR Survey, 2015).
With the development of CSR, the companies are increasing their focus towards the welfare of society along with their motive of profit maximization. Nowadays companies consider their CSR activities as indispensable part of their business activities (Yuan et al., 2011). Hence CSR is not taken as corporate philanthropy but as strategic CSR which will not only lead to the benefit of society but also the organization itself (Burke and Logsdon, 1996). However Oluwafemi and Oyatoye (2012) emphasized on a rational decision in prioritizing the activities of CSR to give back to society.
There should be an alignment of firm's CSR program with the main goal of business. Fernandez and Rajagopal (2014) propounded the CSR and business growth convergence model which shows that CSR activities benefit the society and organization both and there should be an integration of CSR activities in the company’s strategy. Teimouri et al. (2018) in their study finds that lack of proportionality among organizational strategy and environmental changes is one of the challenges in the field of organizational strategy in petrochemical industry. Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility refers to the planning of CSR programs in such a way that will not only lead to the fulfilment of objectives of carrying out these programs but is also beneficial for the firm itself and will help in the long-term survival of business (Samy et al., 2010). Gunasekaran et al. (2015) explain the way of collaboration of companies to become greener through the reward system and incentive structure in the supply chain. However Gupta et al. (2017) through their study stimulates the industry for adopting sustainable management practices in their operations. Further, Burke and Logsdon (1996) emphasized that Strategic CSR can support stakeholder's interest along with financial interest of company.
Burke and Logsdon (1996) mentioned strategic CSR dimensions that include specificity, centrality, proactivity, visibility, and voluntarism.
The strategic CSR dimensions are discussed below: