Corporate social irresponsibility: review and conceptual boundaries

• Main Authors: Marta Riera, María Iborra
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Emerald Publishing 2017-07-01
• Series: European Journal of Management and Business Economics
• Subjects: Corporate social responsibility; Unethical behaviour; Corruption; Fraud; Corporate social irresponsibility
• Online Access: https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/EJMBE-07-2017-009
• ISSN: 2444-8451; 2444-8494

Purpose - he purpose of this paper is to carry out a review of the academic literature about corporate social irresponsibility (CSIR) highlighting aspects that help us to define socially irresponsible behaviour and its relationship with socially responsible behaviour. Design/methodology/approach - Through a Boolean search of studies related to terms of irresponsibility undertaken from 1956 to October 2016, the authors develop a review of the literature focussing on the main perspectives used for defining the term of CSIR. Findings - The paper provides a framework of three main dimensions for understanding the differences in the literature that defines CSIR: who defines irresponsible behaviour, an impartial observer or a specific group of stakeholders, whether it is a firm strategy or a punctual action and which is the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and CSIR, continuity vs orthogonal relationship. Originality/value - The paper provides and extensive and original review of a key construct, CSIR, and develops some insights about its antecedents and consequences. The authors try to provide light to the contradictory situation where a growing interest in CSR and the increase in voluntary commitments adopted by company leaders incorporating CSR into their strategies are, paradoxically, increasingly associated with CSIR.