Refining the Economic Dimension of Carroll's CSR Pyramid by Taking Organization Form into Account

Abstract

In 1991, Archie Carroll presented the CSR pyramid, which has since become a widely recognised conceptualisation of corporate social responsibility. Responding to recent suggestions that understanding of the pyramid should be evaluated with regard to particular organisational contexts, the paper proceeds from awareness that not all corporations are owned by shareholders. Analysing qualitative data from consumer co-operatives, the authors conceptualise the economic responsibilities of these and consider them in light of prior definition of corporate economic responsibilities, to abstract a more general definition of corporate economic responsibility. The article is, to authors knowledge, the first one to address the implications of organizational form in economic responsibilities of a company.