Abstract: Socially responsible investing follows standards to only invest in businesses that abide by good social values and work towards promoting positive outcomes for many social problems. Such goals can include promoting women and education, engaging in social justice and protection of environment. SRI will avoid allocating funds to companies that are seen as causing harm to the social wellbeing of humankind. As corporate social responsibility has been debated and practiced in one form or another for more than 4000 years. For example, the ancient Vedic and Sutra texts of Hinduism and the Jatakas of Buddhism include ethical admonitions on usury (the charging of excessive interest) and Islam has long advocated Zakat, or a wealth tax. The modern concept of CSR can be more clearly traced to the mid-to-late 1800s, with industrialists like John H. Patterson of National Cash Register seeding the industrial welfare movement and philanthropists like John D. Rockerfeller setting a charitable precedent that we see echoed more than a hundred years later with the likes of Bill Gates. Despite these early variations, CSR only entered the popular lexicon in the 1950s with R. Bowen’s landmark book, Social Responsibilities of the Businessman. The concept was challenged and strengthened in the 1960s with the birth of the environmental movement, following Rachel Carson’s critique of the chemicals industry in Silent Spring, and the consumer movement off the back of Ralph Nader’s social activism, most famously over General Motors safety record. The 1970s saw the first widely accepted definition of CSR emerge – Archie Carroll’s 4-part concept of economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities, later depicted as a CSR pyramid- as well as the first CSR code, the Sullivan Principles. The 1980s brought the application of quality management to occupational health and safety and the introduction of CSR codes like Responsible Care. In the 1990s, CSR was institutionalised with standards like ISO 14001 and SA 8000, guidelines like GRI and corporate governance codes like Cadbury and King. The 21st century has been mostly more of the same, spawning a plethora of CSR guidelines, codes and standards (there are more than 100 listed in The A to Z of Corporate Social Responsibility), with industry sector and climate change variations on the theme. Therefore this research paper has perspicuously discussed the functioning of CSR and acclimates in different business environment.
Keywords: Corporate social responsibility, socially responsible investing.
Title: THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT AS AN OFFSHOOT OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Author: ARSHDEEP KAUR
International Journal of Management and Commerce Innovations
ISSN 2348-7585 (Online)
Research Publish Journals
