Corporate Social Responsibility and Competitive Advantage

What does corporate social responsibility (CSR) cover? How should firms approach CSR and what should they take into consideration while developing their CSR policies? How do stakeholders relate to CSR and what could be expected from CSR practices? In the light of increasing debates on CSR both in business and in civil environments, this book aims to handle CSR issues within its theoretical framework and points out the practical implications of CSR. It integrates CSR's theoretical development with the market's perception of CSR. In doing so, strategic role of CSR is questioned. This work is particularly concerned with presenting competitive advantages that CSR can provide to companies. In this context, an experimental research was designed for consumers to examine their evaluations of various CSR practices of firms. Results demonstrate that consumers' evaluations of a company vary with respect to different dimensions of CSR that the company adopts.