Chandler, Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility, 5e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
Lecture Notes
Part VI: A Sustainable Perspective
Chapter 12: Sustainable Value Creation
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility (5e) is organized into six distinct parts, each with
two chapters and a case study. Each part presents CSR from a different perspective.
Together, they draw on core concepts and innovative models to provide a comprehensive
overview of CSR, as well as detailing the practical challenges faced by firms that grapple
with this complex topic across all aspects of operations. Throughout the book and its
accompanying instructor materials, useful teaching tools, contemporary examples, online
resources, and provocative questions for discussion and debate allow easy application in the
classroom.
Part VI concludes this textbook by demonstrating how firms can embed a strategic CSR
perspective throughout the organization by building values-based businesses that serve the
interests of their broad range of stakeholders.
Chapter Summary
Chapter 12 summarizes the ideas discussed in this book in terms of the ultimate outcome of
strategic CSR—sustainable value creation.
Annotated Chapter Outline
1. Introduction
This section briefly frames the chapter by restating the ultimate goal of strategic
CSR—sustainable value creation. In other words, strategic CSR draws on what we
know about economic exchange and human psychology to explain how markets work
and how value is created. In a dynamic business environment with rules that are
defined by the collective decisions of the firm’s stakeholders, value is optimized
when stakeholders convey and enforce their needs. Within such an environment, it is
in the firm’s best interests to respond to those stimuli. These economic and social
exchanges are therefore interactions that form around the collective set of values
prevalent in society at any point in time. It is the degree of fit with these values that
determines directly the success or failure of any given for-profit firm.
2. Values, Morals, and Business Ethics
This section discusses the importance of values, morals, and business ethics to a
strategic CSR perspective. Each individual stakeholder has their own values, morals,
and ethics. These are used to determine what expectations that stakeholder has of the
Chandler, Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility, 5e
3. Values-Based Business
The idea that firms that create value for their broad range of stakeholders will be
4. Strategic CSR Is Good Business
Chapter 12 concludes with a summary of the entire book in terms of why strategic
Strategic CSR Debate
Motion: All for-profit firms are values-based businesses.
A strategic CSR perspective strongly supports arguments in favor of this motion.
All firms, by definition, are values-based because they are compiled of
stakeholders who are individuals with their own unique profile of values, ethics,
and morals. When we think of a values-based business, what we are really
thinking of is values alignment. In other words, a company like Patagonia is a
“values-based business” because it stands for a strong and clearly defined set of
values; but also because all of its stakeholders are aligned behind those values. A
firm like Chick-fil-A is similarly aligned. Firms that are not so aligned are still
values-based, but because of the misalignment, the values of their stakeholders
Chandler, Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility, 5e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
conflict, resulting in no clear profile.
Suggested Answers to Questions for Discussion and Review
1. What does it mean for an organization to be ethical? What is the difference
between an unethical and an illegal act?
Since an organization does not have “agency” (i.e., it is not a sentient actor), when we
talk about an “ethical organization,” we are really talking about an ethical
organizational culture, which is the collective set of morals, values, and ethics of all
2. Have a look at the MBA Oath (http://mbaoath.org/). What do you think? Is this
something you could take? Is it something all business students should take?
Each student’s answer on this will vary depending on their own personal opinions. It
3. In your view, what does a values-based business look like? Think of an example
that you have seen or read in the news: What do you think would be different
about working for a firm like that?
An answer to this question will vary across students. There are a number of examples
Chandler, Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility, 5e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
4. Look at Ben & Jerry’s values (https://www.benjerry.com/values/). What do you
think about the company’s Product Mission, Economic Mission, and Social
Mission? What about the social causes the firm adopts? Does this information
make you more or less likely to buy the firm’s ice cream? Is this what a for–
profit firm should be doing?
While students’ answers to this question will vary, a strategic CSR perspective
5. Watch this video: https://youtu.be/EseNAh9UwjI. Do you agree that business is
“a moral endeavor”?
A strategic CSR perspective argues strongly that business is a moral endeavor. A
strategic CSR perspective is important at a fundamental level because it helps