Introduction

Citation

Crowther, D. (2014), "Introduction", Social Responsibility Journal, Vol. 10 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/SRJ-06-2014-0070

Introduction

Article Type: Editorial From: Social Responsibility Journal, Volume 10, Issue 3

It seems to have become widely accepted now that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an essential part of the repertoire of corporate activity must be built into the strategic planning of all corporations. Consequently, the nature of CSR research is tending to change. Now there is less research about CSR in large corporations, and attention is turning towards small and medium enterprises as a focus of attention, reflecting the fact that CSR is increasingly being seen as necessary to all organisations regardless of size. Also of interest to CSR researchers are the questions as to what form CSR takes in different organisations – and of course why – and what causes an interest in CSR initially and how does this lead to its development and implementation. These are topics which are of concern to the authors in this issue of the journal. Thus, the nature of research in CSR continues to change as different issues come to the fore as topics for investigation; the field is definitely vast, with many issues to be explored and developed. This is perhaps inevitable given both the ubiquity of the topic and its centrality to both business and social behaviour. At the same time, it has become apparent that governance is integrally related to CSR and that there are many problems which need to be addressed.

The economic problems of the world, stemming from the financial crisis of the past few years, continue to exist, of course and continue to affect every country in the world – a continuing reminder of the global environment in which we live. Much has been written about these economic problems while much more remains to be written, but this can be seen to be not the only focus of attention. Certainly, social issues, human rights issues, environmental issues and climate change are all causes of concern and have been reflected in past issues of the journal. They will feature prominently again in future issues. Issues regarding social responsibility are significant at the macro level of the economy, at the corporate level and also at the micro level of individual behaviour. As a journal, SRJ has room for all of these aspects, and all feature in the papers we publish.

This journal is the official journal of the Social Responsibility Research Network – http://www.socialresponsibility.biz – a network of scholars interested in various aspects of social responsibility. Currently, there are around 1,000 members of the Network, and this number is continuing to increase. Members hail from all over the world reflecting the commonality of concern for the subject matter which is truly global. Equally global is the range of authors who contribute to the journal, and this issue is no exception – a reflection of the fact that it is not only crises which have a global impact. So too does a concern with social responsibility.

The Network is interdisciplinary, and this journal is also interdisciplinary in its focus and international in its outlook – and this is reflected in the papers in this volume. What is apparent, however, is the commonality of concern, as different papers from different parts of the world address similar issues and concerns – reflecting the global nature of our concerns and our research. All papers have the commonality that they investigate an aspect of social responsibility – and one feature of social responsibility is that it is a very wide and very interdisciplinary field. With that we leave you to read the papers, hoping that this will inspire you to contribute to a future edition.

David Crowther