The Rise and Fall of CSR
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been debated and practiced in one form or
another for more than 4,000 years. For example, the ancient Vedic and Sutra texts of
Hinduism and the Jatakas of Buddhism include ethical admonitions on usury (the charging
of excessive interest) and Islam has long advocated Zakat, or a wealth taxi
.
The modern concept of CSR can be more clearly traced to the mid-to-late 1800s, with
industrialists like John H. Patterson of National Cash Register seeding the industrial welfare
movement and philanthropists like John D. Rockerfeller setting a charitable precedent that
we see echoed more than a hundred years later with the likes of Bill Gatesii
.