Corporate social responsibility and/or irresponsibility? Dr Jekyll and/or Mr Hyde?

Summary While there are numerous publications on corporate social responsibility (CSR), few articles deal with corporate social irresponsibility (CSIr) and/or the links that may exist between CSR and CSIr. This "essay" paper presents a literature review on these topics in order to develop a conceptual grid that could help tackling the separation, coexistence and dynamic relationships that may exist between CSR and CSIr in organizations. The paper is organized as follows: after having discussed and clarified CSR and CSI concepts and presented a review of the literature that specifically addresses their characteristics and links, it identifies a set of behaviors adopted by organizations and their members. The focus is on the motivations that can guide companies to adopt CSR and CSIr behaviors, their ties, their positive or negative externalities and their possible effects on performances (economic, social, and environmental). It leads to conclude that, most of the behaviors organizations adopt probably fall (at various degrees) between an "exemplary" CSR, that would be an "ideal state" to which organizations can tender and a situation governed by deliberately and systematically irresponsible behaviors (which probably does not exist in the corporate sphere, except for criminal organizations). Are organizations looking like Dr Jekyll and/or Mister Hyde? Résumé.