Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Sustainability

TLDR

Management literature conflates CSR and CS, lacking a clear distinction between the terms. The article reviews evolving definitions of CSR and CS to highlight their differences and similarities, and proposes opportunities to foster collaboration among scholars. The author quantifies CSR and CS publications across general and specialized journals and summarizes their definitions to pinpoint definitional differences. The study identifies opportunities to reshape the field by promoting collaboration among CSR and CS scholars.

Abstract

This article reviews the different definitions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate sustainability (CS) used over time to reveal points of difference and congruence between the two terms. Management literature uses both CSR and CS to refer to social and environmental management issues, but there is no clear distinction between the two terms. First, the author quantifies the articles published about CSR and CS in both general management and specialized journals. Second, the author summarizes the different CSR- and CS-related definitions to identify the definitional differences between CSR and CS. Finally, the author identifies opportunities to reshape a rapidly changing field by enhancing collaboration among scholars devoted to studying CSR and CS issues.