مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

Innovation is increasingly considered to be one of the key drivers of the long-term success of a company in today’s competitive environment (Bruni & Verona, 2009; García-Morales, Llorens-
Montes, & Verdú-Jover, 2008). Companies with the capacity to innovate are able to respond to environmental challenges faster and better than companies that are not able to innovate (Brown & Eisenhard, 1995). This paper points out that innovation is one way to transfer learned knowledge to offer better solutions that meet new requirements, unarticulated needs (Maranville, 1992; Powell, 1998), or existing social needs, and implementing innovative ideas and decisions.

Organizations and management researchers have also increasingly focused on the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) both in terms of the concept itself and the outcomes that flow from an adoption of CSR. In this context, CSR refers to situations where companies integrate social, economic and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis (European Commission, 2001; Perrini, 2005). Thus, embracing CSR requires that companies engage in voluntary activities that “need to be undertaken to operate in an economic, social and environmentally sustainable manner” (Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada, 2015). We would also note that improvements in the processes involved in implementing CSR may also involve what has been referred to as ‘social innovation’ (Rexhepi, Kurtishi, & Bexheti, 2013).

Companies are engaged in a wide variety of different types of social activities, such as actions taken to address the concerns of environmental interest groups and the communities within which they operate (Perrini, 2005), actions ensuring that employees are treated fairly (Weber, 2008), or providing support for arts and cultural programs (Blakely & Aparicio, 1990). This paper analyzes two important aspects of CSR; one concerning what may be considered to relate to achieving economic objectives and the other relating to achieving social objectives. Although it seems intuitively clear that a firm pursues both economic and social objectives (Elkington, 2004) it is also clear that these are fundamentally different types of objectives that potentially require the design and implementation of very different structures for their achievement (Cegarra & Martinez, 2009). For example, while the social dimension of sustainable development deals with the impact that the organization may have on social systems in which it operates, the economic dimension of sustainable development refers to impacts that the organization may have on the economic conditions of its stakeholders and on economic systems at local, national, and global level (GRI, 2011).