AN ANSWER TO SOCIAL ACTION: FROM PROFITABILTY TO CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

During the 70s and the 80s, the world witnessed the emergence and consolidation of the Chicago School, led by Milton Friedman, who stated that the only social responsibility of companies lied on the quest of finding the most effective way to maximize benefits while observing the legal framework and giving compliance to ethical standards to prevent fraud. In fact, this statement implies the responsibility of avoiding actions or situations that will hold back the increment in the company value overtime. This was a time when companies were required to be profitable, so they would not become "a burden for society." In other words, profitability and revenue generation were a corporate social responsibility. Nowadays, employers all around the globalized world have understood that corporate responsibilities go far beyond the mere observance of the law, the maximizing of the returns on investments for the shareholders, or the practical implementation of philanthropy. We must say that this increases the trend that companies should perform a major role in the change and development of society itself. It is undeniable that nowadays society demands from companies that they recognize the activities they perform are going to impact all the environments in which they work, and that managing these impacts should rely on its social responsibility in order to minimize costs and risks.