This conceptual paper seeks to explain the study of corporate social responsibility (CSR) against its recent historical past, in part by examining major factors giving rise to CSR and its diffusion in contemporary corporate practice. In doing so, it highlights some of the principal arguments for and against CSR, as well as identifies some of the tensions and dilemmas facing managers seeking to implement more socially responsible practices in the midst of common pressures to ensure firm financial performance. While many of these challenges are arguably shared across different national settings, there is far less awareness of how these realities are experienced in developing countries. This collection of papers provides some empirical evidence to address this gap.
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