"CSR DefinedBefore initiating the discussion on the perspectives of CSR as mentioned above, itis important to understand the definition of the term CSR and the issues around itgiven the amount of investment from public and private players alike.It is a common acceptance that there isn’t any universally accepted definition ofCSR that exists; for example, as per the International Standards Organization:“What constitutes ‘social responsibility’ is difficult to define as there is no singleauthoritative definition of the term ‘corporate/organizational socialresponsibility’’(International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2004). This can beaccredited to the range of issues addressed by CSR; for example ranging fromeconomic stability and profitability of the firm to consolidation of work and safetythus eventually safeguarding the environment.Further, CSR has been divided into various constituents by several authors,individually using diverse agenda. These comprise wide-ranging expressions forinstance corporate responsibility, corporate citizenship, sustainability, andcorporate social performance (Freeman & Hasnaoui, 2011). “These agendascomplicate the definitional enterprise for the distinct purpose of advancing specificinterests” (Wells, 2013).PAGE 2 Thus, CSR is quite ambiguous as to what it all covers and the issues it addresses.As per Buchholz there exist 5 basic components found in maximum definitionswhich are (Buchholz, 1991): 1. Responsibility of firms stretch further than the manufacturing of goods andservices at a profit;2. These include catering to the social problems; at least the ones created bythem;3. The stakeholder is not the only group any firm to limit to;4. Impact of these firms affect more than just the simple marketplacetransactions; and5. The firms serve human values which can’t be measured and captured bynarrow focus on economic benefit.Buchholz pointed towards the opinion that firms have a greater obligation whichis beyond their profit making goal. However, some argue that corporates have only2 obligations- to obey ‘elementary canons’ like good faith etc. and to pursuequantifiable/ measurable gain (Levitt, 1958) narrowing down the scope of CSR. Therefore, from the above discussion it can be seen that definitions of CSR fallunder 2 schools of thought in general i.e. one believes the profit to be the ultimateobligation within legal and ethical compliance while the other argues of businesshaving a broader responsibility beyond financial margins.PAGE 3 Neo-Classical Economic View: Profits as sole responsibilityIn a free society, “there is one and only one social responsibility of business—touse its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long asit stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and freecompetition without deception or fraud.” (Friedman, 1970)From the above, it can be said that Friedman advocated for one responsibility offirms i.e. the business of the business is to do business and the rest is for the stateto cater. He believes that the government only has the legitimate power to takeactions and decision for the social problems to the best of the society as a whole. PAGE 4 "