Title: A new taxonomy on CSR practices as basis for a new theory on CSR

Authors: R.P.J. Schipper; A.J. Gilbert Silvius

Addresses: Van Aetsveld, Maanlander 47, 3824 MN Amersfoort, The Netherlands ' LOI University of Applied Sciences, Leidsedreef 2, Leiderdorp, The Netherlands

Abstract: The role of business within the society is a topic of discussion between academics and practitioners since early 1950, resulting in numerous theories and various taxonomies on CSR practices without consensus. The article provides an overview on existing CSR theories and a literature review of 11 CSR practice taxonomies. Taxonomies derived from empirical studies suffer limitations such as single country or single industry base. In order to overcome these limitations, an inductive qualitative multi-country and multi-industry study was performed to derive a new taxonomy on CSR practices. Our findings revealed 15 categories of CSR practices. The categories in the taxonomy are not fully similar to existing taxonomies, and some practices are not addressed by existing taxonomies. Discussion of the findings revealed that the proposed CSR taxonomy 'borrows' from many theories on CSR, thereby suggesting it can be the base for a new holistic, founded on empirical grounds, theory on CSR.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility; CSR; CSR practices; CSR theory; taxonomy; CSR implementation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSM.2017.089124

International Journal of Sustainable Strategic Management, 2017 Vol.5 No.4, pp.275 - 301

Received: 02 Apr 2016
Accepted: 28 Mar 2017
Published online: 07 Jan 2018 *

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