Chapter 7: The Importance of Corporate Social Responsibility in Social Value Creation

The fundamental idea behind CSR is that corporations have duties that go beyond lawful execution of their economic duties (Steiner & Steiner, 2009). The waning hold of states over powerful transnational corporations and the increasing recognition of the potential of corporations to contribute to the welfare needs underline the importance of CSR in contemporary society. It is believed that a good CSR strategy would lead to significant reductions in business risks, including stakeholder, regulatory or marketplace sanctions. India being the first country to make CSR mandatory recognizes the potential of firms to synergize with the state in achieving larger developmental causes. This chapter is an attempt to review the CSR contributions toward public health during COVID-19. This chapter analyses the ways in which corporate social responsibility could contribute toward value creation in society and proposes a community-based convergent model of CSR implementation.