Editorial

Citation

Aras, G. and Crowther, D. (2010), "Editorial", Social Responsibility Journal, Vol. 6 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/srj.2010.36806caa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Social Responsibility Journal, Volume 6, Issue 3

It seems to have become widely accepted now that corporate social responsibility is an essential part of the repertoire of corporate activity and 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 SMEs 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 this leads 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.

The economic problems of the world, stemming from the financial crisis of 2007, 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 (SRRNet; see www.socialresponsibility.biz), a network of scholars interested in various aspects of social responsibility. Currently there are over 600 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 that have a global impact. So too does a concern with social responsibility.

Publishing the journal is one of the main activities that the Network undertakes. The other main activity of the Network is to organise an annual conference, and as this issue is published the 9th International Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility will have taken place in Zagreb, Croatia, as a collaboration between the Network and the Zagreb School of Economics and Management. So we will be making preparations for the 2011 conference to be held in New Orleans. Plans are also firm for the conferences over the next few years, following our plan to host alternate conferences in Europe and elsewhere – and we hope to see you at one of these future conferences. The conferences are designed to act as a forum for the debate and analysis of contemporary issues in the broad area of CSR but we also focus upon a particular issue (without excluding general issues) at each conference. And of course some of the contributions to the conference appear in the journal in due course, just as we have already seen papers from previous conferences appearing in issues of the journal – including this issue.

The Network is interdisciplinary and so too is the conference. This journal, just as the conference, 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 issue.

Güler Aras, David Crowther