An Analysis of 37 Definitions, By Alexander Dahlsrud
September 18, 2006
Despite numerous efforts to bring about a clear and unbiased definition of CSR, there is still some confusion as to how CSR should be defined. In this paper, five dimensions of CSR are developed through a content analysis of existing CSR definitions. Frequency counts are used to analyze how often these dimensions are invoked. The analysis shows that the existing definitions are to a large degree congruent. Thus it is concluded that the confusion is not so much about how CSR is defined, as about how CSR is socially constructed in a specific context.