The Treacherous Path of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the Role of Information Systems in Its Implementation

Abstract

Despite alleged widespread adoption of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and responsible business practices by organisations worldwide, questions still remain on the motives for such adoption; effects and/or benefits of CSR adoption as well as how stakeholders can tell genuine responsible businesses from those paying lip service and using the CSR tag as a ‘means-to-an end'. The litany of jargon often used interchangeably including such terms as CSR, sustainability, sustainable marketing, responsible business practice and sustainable development among others further lead to scepticism on organisations' commitments to CSR and the resultant allegations of greenwashing and CSR tokenism. This undermines genuine attempts to be corporately-responsible, fuelling confusion for any new players wishing to adopt responsible business practices. This chapter uses the Information Systems (IS) landscape as a lever to dissect issues in both CSR theory and practice, offering some practical guidelines for implementation and operationalisation, while raising further questions for research.