The strategic value of corporate social responsibility: A relationship management framework for public relations practice

This article places corporate social responsibility in the context of the resource-based view of the firm, then uses relationship management to explain the growing involvement of businesses in corporate social responsibility activities. It argues that the value of the public relations function to an enterprise is in its capacity to aid relationship management, but at a level linked to corporate strategy rather than the communication-output perspective common to much public relations practice. In so arguing, the article theorises corporate social responsibility as facilitating relationship management, and thus building support networks for the organisation, instead of as a set of activities that build organisational legitimacy through the management of perceptions. Such a perspective adds to the growing focus in the public relations literature on relationship management as a central rationale. This concept is then applied to a multinational firm in the construction industry. The case study identifies a series of specific public relations practices within corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes that are used to manage relationships.