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Authenticity: Is Corporate Social Responsibility the Key to Overcoming Crisis?

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Corporate Social Responsibility in Times of Crisis

Part of the book series: CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance ((CSEG))

Abstract

Adopting a theoretical and normative perspective the work focuses on authentic CSR-driven strategies and the origins of entrepreneurial and managerial behaviors that have contributed to the crisis and hence need for a profound rethinking. In the first part of the paper a critical review of the Encyclical Letter (Laudato Sì May 24th, 2015) on the care of “our common home” is presented, with the aim to emphasize the complexity of the crisis and to suggest a path to overcoming it through a renewed environmental, economic and social ecology and a radical change of the businesses conduct. In the second one a series of business cases are briefly presented and subsequently discussed. The case studies are related to Italian companies whose strategic and operational behaviors are based on a durable CSR orientation and a genuine responsible decision-making process. Moreover, they are examples of how entrepreneurs/managers—who in “hard times” voluntarily persist in investing in CSR—can promote cultural reorientation, helping others to unlearn the bad habits inspired by the ‘turbo-capitalism’ and valorize humanity, relationships, and the local/global human community. Accordingly, the work highlights that both within the scientific and managerial world a creative response to the deep economic, social and anthropological crisis can be experienced and testified.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The common good is “the sum of those conditions of social life which allow social groups and their individual members relatively thorough and ready access to their own fulfillment” Encycl. Letter, 156, p. 112) “Underlying the principle of the common good is respect for the human person. It has also to do with the overall welfare of society and the development of a variety of intermediate groups, applying the principle of subsidiarity” (Encycl. Letter, 157: 116–117).

  2. 2.

    www.brunellocucinelli.com/it/filosofia#/page1

  3. 3.

    For a more detailed analysis of this case, see: Del Baldo (2010b).

  4. 4.

    For a more detailed analysis see: Del Baldo (2013a).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino, Italy

    Mara Del Baldo

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  1. Mara Del Baldo
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Correspondence to Mara Del Baldo .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Guildhall School of Business and Law, London Metropolitan University, London, United Kingdom

    Samuel O. Idowu

  2. School of Applied Social Studies, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, United Kingdom

    Stephen Vertigans

  3. Economics and Business Administration, University of Craiova, Craiova, Romania

    Adriana Schiopoiu Burlea

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Del Baldo, M. (2017). Authenticity: Is Corporate Social Responsibility the Key to Overcoming Crisis?. In: Idowu, S., Vertigans, S., Schiopoiu Burlea, A. (eds) Corporate Social Responsibility in Times of Crisis. CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52839-7_2

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