colleen

As the world grows increasingly populated, the inequality gap widens, and instances of large-scale environmental degradation continue to populate news headlines, there is little doubt that something needs to change. Social and environmental issues have existed throughout all of history, but have traditionally the government’s responsibility to respond to. More recently, however, there has been an increased focus on ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ (CSR), which, according to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, can be defined as “the continuing commitment by business to contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the community and society at large."(Visser, 2011). This report seeks to explore this admittedly broad term by asking the question, “What is the future of Corporate Social Responsibility as it relates to trends and changes in technology and transparency?”

Technology is also a broad term, but for the purposes of this report it will be examined by looking at social media and mobile use. Transparency will be looked at from two different perspectives: company engagement with sustainability reporting and consumer engagement and expectations of business.

Boston College’s Corporate Social Responsibility Index (CSRI) is used as the dependent variable in order to assess the future of CSR as it relates to the central question. This index provides individual scores for companies that represent the combined average of the general public’s perceptions along three key dimensions: citizenship, governance and workplace.

Several independent variables are also defined and projected in order to evaluate trends and changes in technology and trans...

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In order for this to happen, sincere efforts need to be made on three ends: governments, consumers, and companies. Governments need to work together to create internationally standardized mandates and regulations that promote CSR. Consumers and companies need to be in constant communication in terms of actions and expectations of each other. The Millennial generation specifically will be called upon to become business leaders who embed CSR into the values and strategy of the company, rather than just meeting minimum regulatory requirements. If this happens, innovative technology will emerge and diffuse globally, making the world more connected than ever before. Consumers will have high expectations for businesses and their leaders, demanding that companies act proactively, rather than reactively to social and environmental problems around the world.