What is Strategic CSR

CSR has been a widely-researched concept during the last three decades. However, there is no agreement on its definition or its dimensions; antecedents and consequences and there is no comprehensive model for its analysis. The origins of CSR lie in philanthropy and the highest level of CSR is considered to involve philanthropic actions. CSR is a people-caring concept that is incorporated in firms' strategy. Strategic CSR is based on stakeholder theory and is used to provide competitive advantages through product or brand differentiation. Although there have been many efforts to measure the effectiveness of CSR, there is no single way of assessing CSR performance. Also, effective CSR communication is a very important matter for firms and although there is a lot of research on this subject, the debate is still on regarding what to say; through which channels, and how to say it in order to avoid consumer scepticism and reap strategic benefits. Based on this analysis, emergent themes of research are identified in this chapter and areas of further research are proposed.