Since the business purpose to serve shareholders' interests changed to a more balanced view of serving all stakeholders, companies' focus shifted towards corporate social responsibility (CSR) to meet the expectations of society. Corporations recognize that a profit-driven mission is not making them the best companies as information about unethical behavior spreads rapidly. Digital resources can be used in corporate strategy to create value for consumers and shareholders. Digital transformation impacts CSR while paving the way for digital CSR. Increasingly, companies admit the need for sustainability and proactive steps to contribute to Sustainable Development Goals. In this regard, ESG—environmental, social, and governance—issues aim to connect financial value to social responsibility. Furthermore, social entrepreneurship has received special attention worldwide as pressing social and environmental problems requiring complex solutions. Therefore, the research trends regarding CSR, ESG, sustainability, social entrepreneurship, and digitalization have been growing.
Top1. Introduction
The business purpose to serve shareholders’ interests changed to a more balanced view of serving all stakeholders. Accordingly, companies’ focus shifted towards corporate social responsibility to meet the expectations of society. Corporations recognize that reputation can be an important risk factor. Moreover, digital transformation impacts CSR while paving the way for digital CSR. Digitalization affects the organizational approach toward CSR disclosure and communication (Esposito & Ricci, 2020). Digital transformation is conceptually defined as “a process that aims to improve an entity by triggering significant changes to its properties through combinations of information, computing, communication, and connectivity technologies” (Vial, 2019). It should increase organizational performance and potential for innovation. Through digitalization, companies can influence society. Digital resources can be used in corporate strategy to create value for consumers and shareholders. Companies need to consider the possible impacts of digital technologies on CSR to implement responsible digitalization goals. Responsible digitalization takes into account digital systems and technologies to be in compliance with CSR goals (Cardinali & De Giovanni, 2022), especially when energy consumption, emissions, or privacy, are the focus of sustainability.
The field of corporate social responsibility has evolved based on the research contributing to various models and theories from voluntary social initiatives to CSR incorporated into business strategies and is relevant to the Sustainable Development Goals (Rodriguez-Gomez et al., 2020). Increasingly, companies admit the need for sustainability and proactive steps to contribute to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For this reason, policies and strategies are required to be integrated into the objective of sustainability while taking into consideration the complexity of business decisions and the interdependence of various business strategies.
Recently, CSR has been transforming into ESG - environmental, social, and governance issues, which are interconnected and aim at linking financial value to social responsibility. The analysis of 120 reports illustrated that companies use CSR to decrease their ESG and reputational risk factors (Karwowski & Raulinajtys‐Grzybek, 2021). The concept strives to balance resources, human capital, financial resources, and sustainable business decisions. Thus, sustainability measures play a significant role. KPIs and targets should be created in order to measure progress, mitigate risks, and improve performance. Appropriate metrics for the holistic performance of a company are paramount for ESG. Companies implement CSR programs to avoid ESG - Environment, Social, corporate governance and reputational risks (Karwowski & Raulinajtys‐Grzybek, 2021).
Furthermore, social entrepreneurship along with sustainable entrepreneurship has received special attention worldwide as pressing social and environmental problems requiring complex solutions. The phenomenon of Social Entrepreneurship centers on people and the planet rather than profit. The various definitions of the concept highlight innovative solutions to social problems while satisfying the needs of disadvantaged groups of society by providing them with goods and services. Social enterprises use business activities to generate profit that is used for achieving the social mission. Some scholars regard social entrepreneurship as a development of CSR (Buendía-Martínez & Carrasco Monteagudo, 2020). In spite of differences, particularly in terms of profit orientation, the concepts share notable similarities. Social entrepreneurship like CSR promotes SDGs and facilitates tackling grand challenges.
Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic as a Black Swan event has shaken the economy and society on a global scale. Values have been reevaluated and businesses reassessed their missions and purpose in this light. Therefore, the research trends regarding CSR, ESG, sustainability, social entrepreneurship, and digitalization have been growing. Digital transformation in conjunction with sustainable development goals, emerging changes in consumption patterns, and consumer behavior in the New Normal is reflected in the direction of CSR. In this respect, studying the evolution of CSR and existing management tools can enable the business sector to apply the concepts in practice.