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A retrospective examination of CSR orientations: Have they changed?

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Abstract

This study has been designed to investigate whether Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) orientations have shifted in their priority in response to society's changing expectations. For this sample of U.S.-based multinational chemical subsidiaries, it appears that the top priority continues to be economic responsibilities, followed closely by legal responsibilities.

A socially accountable corporation ... must be a thoughtful institution, able to rise above economic interest to anticipate the impact of its actions on all individuals and groups, from shareholders to employees to customers, to fellow-breathers of the air and fellow-sharers of the land. A successful business organization must possess a moral sense as well as an economic sense (Thornton Bradshaw, President of Atlantic Richfield Co. inBusiness and Society: Strategies for the 1980's, 1980, p. xiv).

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Tammie Pinkston is Assistant Professor of Strategic Management at the University of Oklahoma. She is a recent recipient of American Brands International Business Scholar Award. Tammie is an active member of the Academy of Management, the International Association for Business & Society, the Southern Management Association, and the Academy of International Business.

Archie B. Carroll is holder of the Robert W. Scherer Chair of Management and Corporate Public Affairs at the University of Georgia. He has published 11 books and over 65 articles in such journals as the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Business Ethics.He is currently on the Editorial Board of Business Ethics Quarterlyand the board of the International Association for Business & Society.

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Pinkston, T.S., Carroll, A.B. A retrospective examination of CSR orientations: Have they changed?. J Bus Ethics 15, 199–206 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00705587

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