An ever-increasing issue in the corporate world is corporate social responsibility. With the increasing number of scandals occurring in the U.S., companies are trying to establish a trust among their stakeholders and customers through corporate social responsibility. In an interview Avie Bennet, publisher, real estate developer and York University's chancellor has been in business for more than forty years, describes corporate social responsibility as, "the relationship of a company to its suppliers, its environment, and its customers. It's all the aspects of doing business beyond worrying about the next quarterly profit."" (Bennet) .
In the history of corporate social responsibility, there have been many models developed in an attempt to classify corporate responses to social issues. In the early stages Sethi argued a company's main goal should be to gain legitimacy in society through different strategic approaches. His model had three ways in which a company responds to social issues. The first is social obligation, in which companies only respond at the legal requirements. This is below the standards of society. The second level is social responsibility which refers to the company acting at society's standards. The final level is social responsiveness which is the company exceeding society's standards. (Labatt).
The next step in corporate social responsibility is Carroll's three-dimensional outline for corporate performance. The first dimension of corporate social responsibility deals with motivation for socially responsible activities, mainly economic, legal, discretional and ethical activities. The second dimension deals with societies concerns, like environmental and product safety issues. The third and final dimension has to do with the range of the different levels of response, going from doing nothing, to going above and beyond everyone's expectations. These two models show the degree to which a company is committed to being socially responsible.
