Business ethics and corporate social responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a mainstream business practice, attracting broad attention from business, consumers, academics, and policymakers, leading firms to account for the social and environmental footprints of their activities. The aim of this paper is to present recent advances on CSR, regarding its incentives and its market and societal effects. The analytical approaches surveyed highlight various ways through which CSR creates value for firms and stakeholders. The paper looks on the CSR of multinational enterprises as well and concludes with issues related to international initiatives for the inclusion of CSR in policy agendas towards sustainable development.