Integration of corporate social responsibilities and new sustainable business models

Abstract

Corporate social responsibilities (CSR) is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large (The World Business Council for Sustainable Development, 2012). Sustainable development also implies the fact that an organisation must take into account its impact on its stakeholders such as customers, shareholders, suppliers or communities. This means that on the road to sustainability, an organisation must adapt, change and innovate in order to reduce its negative effects on those stakeholders, or in the best case providing them with beneficial outcomes. In other words, organizations must set up an ethical commitment with their internal as well as their external environment. This ethical commitment involves three areas, also called the triple bottom line including a social aspect, an environmental aspect and an economic aspect (The triple bottom line – does it all add up, 2004): Organisations have to face numerous challenges to commit to CSR regarding strategic management, change in values and vision or the implementation of new processes. As the result, even though more and more companies all over the world integrate CSR strategies their integration might still be partial or may take time. The purpose of this report is first to study the way organizations integrate CSR to their development strategies and their level of integration as well as their impact. Then, a focus will be brought to new sustainable business models, which greatly or completely assimilate in a positive way the three challenges of the triple bottom line.