This article places corporate social
responsibility in the context of the resourcebased
view of the firm, then uses relationship
management to explain the growing
involvement of businesses in corporate social
responsibility activities. It argues that the value
of the public relations function to an enterprise
is in its capacity to aid relationship
management, but at a level linked to corporate
strategy rather than the communication-output
perspective common to much public relations
practice. In so arguing, the article theorises
corporate social responsibility as facilitating
relationship management, and thus building
support networks for the organisation, instead
of as a set of activities that build organisational
legitimacy through the management of
perceptions. Such a perspective adds to the
growing focus in the public relations literature
on relationship management as a central
rationale