Carroll's Pyramid of CSR: Taking Another Look
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Springer - Publisher Connector Carroll International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility (2016) 1:3 International Journal of DOI 10.1186/s40991-016-0004-6 Corporate Social Responsibility REVIEW ARTICLE Open Access Carroll’s pyramid of CSR: taking another look Archie B. Carroll Abstract In this review article, the author takes another look at the well-known Carroll's Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). In this article, he comments on the framework's popular useage and then presents a summary of the four-part definitional framework upon which the pyramid was created. He then comments on several characteristics of the model that were not emphasized when initially published: ethics permeates the pyramid; tensions and tradeoffs inherent; its' integrated, unified whole; its' sustainable stakeholder framework, and; its' global applicability and use in different contexts. The article concludes by looking to the future. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) in its modern for- adversary of social responsibility, however, is economist mulation has been an important and progressing topic Milton Friedman who argued that social issues are not since the 1950s. To be sure, evidences of businesses the concern of businesspeople and that these problems seeking to improve society, the community, or particular should be resolved by the unfettered workings of the free stakeholder groups may be traced back hundreds of market system (Friedman 1962). years (Carroll et al. 2012). In this discussion, however, the emphasis will be placed on concepts and practices Introduction that have characterized the post-World War II era. The modern era of CSR, or social responsibility as it was Much of the literature addressing CSR and what it often called, is most appropriately marked by the publi- means began in the United States; however, evidences of cation by Howard R. Bowen of his landmark book Social its applications, often under different names, traditions, Responsibilities of the Businessman in 1953. Bowen’s and rationales, has been appearing around the world. work proceeded from the belief that the several hundred Today, Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, South America, largest businesses in the United States were vital centers and many developing countries are increasingly embra- of power and decision making and that the actions of cing the idea in one form or another. Clearly, CSR is a these firms touched the lives of citizens in many ways. concept that has endured and continues to grow in im- The key question that Bowen asked that continues to be portance and impact. asked today was “what responsibilities to society may busi- To be fair, it must be acknowledged that some writers nessmen reasonably be expected to assume?” (Bowen early on have been critical of the CSR concept. In an 1953, p. xi) As the title of Bowen’s book suggests, this was important Harvard Business Review article in 1958, for a period during which business women did not exist, or example, Theodore Levitt spoke of “The Dangers of So- were minimal in number, and thus they were not acknowl- cial Responsibility.” His position was best summarized edged in formal writings. Things have changed signifi- when he stated that business has only two responsibil- cantly since then. Today there are countless business ities – (1) to engage in face-to-face civility such as women and many of them are actively involved in CSR. honesty and good faith and (2) to seek material gain. Much of the early emphasis on developing the CSR Levitt argued that long-run profit maximization is the concept began in scholarly or academic circles. From a one dominant objective of business, in practice as well scholarly perspective, most of the early definitions of as theory (Levitt 1958, p. 49). The most well-known CSR and initial conceptual work about what it means in theory and in practice was begun in the 1960s by such Correspondence: [email protected] University of Georgia, 729 Kings Road, Athens, GA 30606, USA © 2016 Carroll. Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Carroll International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility (2016) 1:3 Page 2 of 8 writers as Keith Davis, Joseph McGuire, Adolph Berle, follows: “Social responsibility is the obligation of deci- William Frederick, and Clarence Walton (Carroll 1999). Its’ sion makers to take actions which protect and improve evolving refinements and applications came later, especially the welfare of society along with their own interests” after the important social movements of the 1960s, particu- (Davis 1975). In general, CSR has typically been under- larly the civil rights movement, consumer movement, en- stood as policies and practices that business people em- vironmental movement and women’s movements. ploy to be sure that society, or stakeholders, other than Dozens of definitions of corporate social responsibility business owners, are considered and protected in their have arisen since then. In one study published in 2006, strategies and operations. Some definitions of CSR have Dahlsrud identified and analyzed 37 different definitions of argued that an action must be purely voluntary to be CSR and his study did not capture all of them (Dahlsrud considered socially responsible; others have argued that 2006). it embraces legal compliance as well; still others have ar- In this article, however, the goal is to revisit one of the gued that ethics is a part of CSR; virtually all definitions more popular constructs of CSR that has been used in incorporate business giving or corporate philanthropy as a the literature and practice for several decades. Based on part of CSR and many observers equate CSR with philan- his four-part framework or definition of corporate social thropy only and do not factor in these other categories of responsibility, Carroll created a graphic depiction of CSR responsibility. in the form of a pyramid. CSR expert Dr. Wayne Visser The ensuing discussion explains briefly each of the has said that “Carroll’s CSR Pyramid is probably the four categories that comprise Carroll’s four-part defin- most well-known model of CSR…” (Visser 2006). If one itional framework upon which the pyramidal model is goes online to Google Images and searches for “Carroll’s constructed. Pyramid of CSR,” well over 100 variations and reproduc- tions of the pyramidal model are presented there (Goo- gle Images) and over 5200 citations of the original Review article are indicated there (Google Scholar). The four-part definitional framework for CSR The purpose of the current commentary is to Carroll’s four part definition of CSR was originally stated summarize the Pyramid of CSR, elaborate on it, and to as follows: “Corporate social responsibility encompasses discuss some aspects of the model that were not clarified the economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary (philan- when it was initially published in 1991. Twenty five years thropic) expectations that society has of organizations at have passed since the initial publication of the CSR pyra- a given point in time” (Carroll 1979, 1991). This set of mid, but in early 2016 it still ranks as one of the most four responsibilities creates a foundation or infrastruc- frequently downloaded articles during the previous ture that helps to delineate in some detail and to frame 90 days in the journal in which it was published – (Else- or characterize the nature of businesses’ responsibilities vier Journals), Business Horizons (Friedman 1962) – to the society of which it is a part. In the first research sponsored by the Kelley School of Business at Indiana study using the four categories it was found that the University. Carroll’s four categories or domains of CSR, construct’s content validity and the instrument assessing upon which the pyramid was established, have been uti- it were valid (Aupperle et al. 1985). The study found that lized by a number of different theorists (Swanson 1995; experts were capable of distinguishing among the four Wartick and Cochran 1985; Wood 1991, and others) components. Further, the factor analysis conducted con- and empirical researchers (Aupperle 1984; Aupperle et cluded that there are four empirically interrelated, but al. 1985; Burton and Hegarty 1999; Clarkson 1995; conceptually independent components of corporate so- Smith et al. 2001, and many others). According to Wood cial responsibility. This study also found that the relative and Jones, Carroll’s four domains have “enjoyed wide values or weights of each of the components as impli- popularity among SIM (Social Issues in Management) citly depicted by Carroll approximated the relative de- scholars (Wood and Jones 1996). Lee has said that the gree of importance the 241 executives surveyed placed article in which the four part model of CSR was pub- on the four components—economic = 3.5; legal = 2.54; lished has become “one of the most widely cited articles ethical = 2.22; and discretionary/philanthropic = 1.30. in the field of business and society” (Lee 2008). Thus, it Later research supported that Aupperle’s instrument is easy to see why a re-visitation of the pyramid based measuring CSR using Carroll’s four categories (Aupperle on the four category definition might make some sense 1984) was valid and useful (Edmondson and Carroll and be useful. 1999; Pinkston and Carroll 1996 and others). In short, Many of the early definitions of CSR were rather gen- the distinctiveness and usefulness in research of the four eral. For example, in the 1960s it was defined as “ser- categories have been established through a number of iously considering the impact of the company’s actions empirical research projects.