1. Introduction:
Supply chain management is an area of increasing strategic importance due to global competition, outsourcing of noncore activities to developing countries, short product life cycle, and time compression in all aspects of the supply chain Management attention has moved from competition between firms to competition between supply chains. The capability to establish close and long-term relationships with suppliers and other strategic partners has become a crucial factor in creating competitive advantage. At the same time, various stakeholders, including consumers, shareholders, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), public authorities, trade unions, and international organisations, are showing an increasing interest in environmental …show more content…
The term is introduced for the first time by Bowen (1953), who defines it as businessmen’s obligations in terms of policies, decisions or actions, which are allied with society’s values. Bowen argues that social responsibilities should guide business in the future. In his book Business and Society (1963), Joseph McGuire also refers to companies’ responsibilities towards society that go beyond firms’ economic and legal obligations. Another view on CSR highlights not only companies’ social, but also their environmental responsibilitiesIndeed; enterprises should take into account all positive and negative environmental effects they …show more content…
However, the focus in this paper is on CSR in global supply chains. Although CSR is a well-established concept, there is no general consensus on the meaning of CSR in practice. According to Hill et al. (2003), an exact definition of CSR is elusive because beliefs and attitudes about the nature of the relationship between business and society fluctuate with the relevant issues of the day. Moreover, argue that the difficulties with arriving at a definition of CSR partly have to do with the problem of determining operationally the managerial implications of such a definition. This is a major problem considering companies’ differences in size, products, profitability, resources, societal impacts, etc. Another factor contributing to the confusion about the nature of CSR is the large number of concepts used to describe largely the same phenomenon. Academics, consultants and corporate executives have provided various definitions to business’s engagement in ethical issues. Among the concepts that have been used – apart from CSR – are sustainable development, corporate citizenship, sustainable entrepreneurship, the triple bottom line, and business. Broadly speaking, the construct of CSR as we know it today has two main characteristics. Firstly, it describes the relationship between business and the larger society.
Supply chain management is an area of increasing strategic importance due to global competition, outsourcing of noncore activities to developing countries, short product life cycle, and time compression in all aspects of the supply chain Management attention has moved from competition between firms to competition between supply chains. The capability to establish close and long-term relationships with suppliers and other strategic partners has become a crucial factor in creating competitive advantage. At the same time, various stakeholders, including consumers, shareholders, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), public authorities, trade unions, and international organisations, are showing an increasing interest in environmental …show more content…
The term is introduced for the first time by Bowen (1953), who defines it as businessmen’s obligations in terms of policies, decisions or actions, which are allied with society’s values. Bowen argues that social responsibilities should guide business in the future. In his book Business and Society (1963), Joseph McGuire also refers to companies’ responsibilities towards society that go beyond firms’ economic and legal obligations. Another view on CSR highlights not only companies’ social, but also their environmental responsibilitiesIndeed; enterprises should take into account all positive and negative environmental effects they …show more content…
However, the focus in this paper is on CSR in global supply chains. Although CSR is a well-established concept, there is no general consensus on the meaning of CSR in practice. According to Hill et al. (2003), an exact definition of CSR is elusive because beliefs and attitudes about the nature of the relationship between business and society fluctuate with the relevant issues of the day. Moreover, argue that the difficulties with arriving at a definition of CSR partly have to do with the problem of determining operationally the managerial implications of such a definition. This is a major problem considering companies’ differences in size, products, profitability, resources, societal impacts, etc. Another factor contributing to the confusion about the nature of CSR is the large number of concepts used to describe largely the same phenomenon. Academics, consultants and corporate executives have provided various definitions to business’s engagement in ethical issues. Among the concepts that have been used – apart from CSR – are sustainable development, corporate citizenship, sustainable entrepreneurship, the triple bottom line, and business. Broadly speaking, the construct of CSR as we know it today has two main characteristics. Firstly, it describes the relationship between business and the larger society.