The potential of Corporate Social Responsibility to eradicate poverty: an ongoing debate

Abstract

This article focuses on one of the assumptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR), namely its usefulness as a tool for eradicating poverty. The claims that business and CSR strategies can be effective in fighting poverty face major challenges, in particular the wide divergence of understandings about the notion and implementation of CSR, and the absence of clear understanding of underlying ideological bases concerning business and poverty. The authors find that, although usually considered as ideologically neutral, the CSR discourse requires the introduction of ideological debate if it is to meet the goal of poverty eradication.