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The Concept of Value for CSR: A Debate Drawn from Italian Classical Accounting
Author(s) -
Costa Massimo,
Torrecchia Patrizia
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
corporate social responsibility and environmental management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.519
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1535-3966
pISSN - 1535-3958
DOI - 10.1002/csr.1443
Subject(s) - corporate social responsibility , normative , dilemma , value (mathematics) , positive economics , variable (mathematics) , set (abstract data type) , accounting , meaning (existential) , epistemology , sociology , economics , political science , public relations , philosophy , computer science , mathematics , mathematical analysis , machine learning , programming language
This paper underlines the importance of the concept of value for corporate social responsibility (CSR) and then explores it beyond economics, looking for its social and philosophical roots. Considering the most recent literature on the matter, the dilemma between a non‐monetary, multi‐variable conception and a monetary, one‐variable conception is set. To obtain the origins of the meaning for this basic concept in CSR, Italian literature regarding ‘value in accounting’ is explored. The main result from this first survey is the existence of a ‘chain’ from the highest conception of value (philosophical, ethical), to the most practical conception (accounting techniques of measurement). By this first approach, some provisional normative clauses are then deduced, in a ‘problem‐setting attitude’ to be tested by means of further research on the topic, exploring other literature and building a new general paradigm to finally provide a commonly shared measure for social value. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment