Towards a strategic Corporate social responsibility (CSR): A constraint to stimulate innovation

Growing environmental and societal challenges leave organizations no choice but to assume their social responsibility. Despite recent advances in research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) showing its positive contribution to both business performance and innovation, it is often considered as an additional cost to the company. In this exploratory paper, we seek to go beyond this vision by conceptualizing CSR as a true strategic tool for organizations. A qualitative cross-sectional study of 7 European organizations shows that CSR allows both to consolidate the resources available to organizations and to encourage teams to innovate in order to differentiate themselves from the competition. This allows us to articulate a conceptual framework that aligns the three dimensions of CSR with the internal and external challenges of the organization in order to build an innovation strategy oriented towards long-term development.
JEL Codes: O350, M1, M14