Guest editorial: The dark side of CSR: causes, constraints and consequences of (un)delivering the promise

The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has received significant attention over the past few decades. Both academics and industry experts acknowledge the importance of CSR for organisations: including its impact on their growth, reputation and relationship building with key stakeholders (Kaul and Luo, 2018; Lee et al., 2019; Tang et al., 2012). Yet the CSR concept remains controversial, and doubts persist over the actual benefits of socially responsible practices for business and wider society and sincerity of business concern for society (Ellen et al., 2006). Critics have argued that CSR is too incremental, uneconomic and peripheral (Visser, 2018), lacking transparency and that CSR masks (Moratis et al., 2018) or even legitimises (Schneider, 2020) business’ shadowy practices.From a theoretical perspective, the term CSR remains underdeveloped despite multiple constructs proposed by current research (De Bakker et al., 2005). It requires more clarity as it is often used interchangeably with other terms like corporate citizenship, shared value (Koleva and Meadows, 2025) or stakeholder management (Barnett, 2019) and does not discern what is required or desirable from businesses and society (Van Oosterhout and Heugens, 2008). Research is sceptical over the usefulness of CSR as it does not manage to address the societal concerns (Mazutis, 2018) or make suggestions of how businesses could do that (Koleva and Meadows, 2025).Despite this criticism, both practical and theoretical guidance on socially responsible practices for businesses exists. For instance, the International Organisation for Standardization shares a basic understanding of the voluntary international standard 26000 as a stepping stone to the organisations seeking to operate in a more socially responsible way (ISO, 2018). In this document, the guidance on CSR includes organisational governance, consumer issues, human rights, environment, operating practices, social development and fair and labour practices. However, businesses, despite this direction fall, short in meeting economic, legal, ethical and discretionary requirements to protect the environment and social capital from the adverse effect of their operations.This under-delivered promise deepens the divide and tension between business and society which began in the 1960s when several movements such as civil rights, the consumer rights, the women’s and the environmental movements emerged and began to shape the business–society relationship expanding the business’ obligations to society through social contracting (Carroll, 2021). Archie Carroll, whose name is strongly associated with the CSR concept, urged to address these issues back in the 70 s when introduced four core categories of CSR including economic, legal, ethical and discretionary principles to support organisations in reaching their societal obligations and expectations. However, today, the gap between the society and business’ interests is widening even further, and the reason for this could be attributed to the strategic approach that firms use to CSR implementation; CSR became a tool to improve a business’ financial performance, thus benefiting only primary or most powerful stakeholders (Barnett, 2019). Such an approach shifts the focus from other societal problems and distances it further from the main purpose of CSR which is to enhance the social welfare (Barnett, 2007).Despite years of discussion spent within corporate and academic realms on the necessity of CSR for maintaining a positive relationship between businesses and stakeholders, the impact of CSR implementation is minimal and has failed to produce the desired results. Barnett et al. (2020) believe that corporations do little to evaluate the effectiveness of their CSR initiatives and fail to make necessary changes to bring greater benefits to society. Means-ends decoupling refers to a disconnect between the stated goals of CSR initiatives and the insufficient social and environmental outcomes of CSR implementation which highlights a gap between corporate intensions and the real-world impact of their practices (Athanasopoulou et al., 2025). Large and small businesses continue to disrupt the social and legal order, which raises a question over the value of CSR. It could be argued that the CSR concept was never meant to be used separately from the idea of “corporate social responsiveness” (CSR2) discussed in Ackerman and Bauer (1976) and Fredrick’s (2006) research. The difference between CSR and CSR2 is that the latter is managerially focused and action orientated, thus driving companies to be more receptive to their social environments within which they operate (Carroll, 2021). Whilst some corporations understand the importance of CSR, they still fail to implement or use it effectively. This could be linked to the lack of corporate responsiveness. Results can be seen only after actions have been taken and if these actions are adequate to the misconducts committed. In the words of Ackerman and Bauer (1976, p. 6), “responding to social demands is much more than deciding what to do”, thus organisations should put actions behind their words.Today, organisations put actions behind their words, but these actions often translate into greenwashing. Greenwashing results in consumer scepticism which can be costly to the organisation (Nguyen et al., 2023) as it takes significant efforts to regain consumer trust. Trustworthy CSR communications can help rebuild consumer confidence in their branding but will require openness, honesty and transparency about the CSR practices from the firm (Nguyen et al., 2023). Other authors suggest that positive results can be achieved if companies adopt an experimental approach to CSR implementation suitable to local circumstances (Athanasopoulou et al., 2025). In such a scenario, a company produces a CSR knowledge that reflects a specific CSR context and local circumstances. Involving local stakeholders can give a differentiated perspective on the best approach to CSR related problems. Contrarily, consistency-orientated approach to CSR implementation is not effective in restraining the means-ends decoupling because it continues to draw on the centralised CSR knowledge and standardised approaches even in different contexts (Athanasopoulou et al., 2025).It is also important that businesses revisit their CSR purpose in their attempts to create a more impactful change for society. Mayer (2021) has recently called for a clearer focus on corporate purpose arguing that the role of corporations should be to solve societal problems profitably where profits are viewed as “net of the costs of avoiding and remedying problems” (p. 889). In this way, business gives equal importance to economic, social and environmental goals that should cater for “the wellbeing and prosperity of shareholders, society and the natural world” (Mayer, 2021, p. 889). To achieve this, social and environmental value creation should go hand in hand with the economic one, and this requires a shift in how innovation can be used for a more positive and long-term change (Mayer, 2021; McPhail et al., 2024).As the purpose of a business is changing, there is growing pressure to become a force for good (Hoffmann, 2021; Mayer, 2021; McPhail et al., 2024). This perspective requires significant adaptations in how the business perceives itself and operates. Organisations are being urged to collaborate outside their peripheries for the common good, and this means involving government and non-government organisations and generating value for different stakeholder groups (McPhail et al., 2024). Earlier emphasis was placed on a business improving its relationship with society, today the attention is shifting more towards the business obligation to protect the environment. The evidence of its detrimental effect is overwhelming as animal and plant species dropped by 1.9 million and 450,000 respectively, with 1 million predicted to extinct (Gasparini and Tufano, 2023). According to Hoffman (2021), today “balance sheets need to account for the social, human and natural capital alongside cash.” Human-induced climate change at the global level requires different solutions and approaches to reducing the negative impact of industrial growth on the planet. Thus, the challenge to driving economic growth sustainably is a shared responsibility of policymakers, businesses and educators.In this special issue, we call for a fresher look towards the suitability and practicality of CSR frameworks and ask questions whether they fully capture the current challenges of small and large businesses and the changing business landscape. How helpful they are from a practical side and whether various business problems can be solved with existing frameworks? The mission and purpose of this special issue echoes McPhail’s et al. (2024) view. Agency theory, which was favoured due to the economic and finance interests of shareholders, has partially led to many problems we face today, yet equally, Stakeholder theory (Freeman, 1984), which dominated business practice and research over the past few decades with its key argument that business must be accountable to all stakeholders, has not been affective either (McPhail et al., 2024). There is a growing consensus that existing theories and perspectives are not entirely suitable for today’s challenges, which are more complex than in the past, and do not provide the means for business reimagination that is necessary today (Colombo et al., 2024; McPhail et al., 2024). In fact, they “act as a barrier to advancing business and management practice as a force for good” (McPhail et al., 2024, p. 1102). A growing number of researchers for to as change in social et al., 2024; and 2023) but this requires from perspectives to more in and approach to and management theory when the of shareholders, society and the environment (McPhail et al., 2024; Mayer, 2021). 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