The stakeholder approach is a management philosophy which prioritizes the growth of stakeholder’s equity in an organization. Those who support the stakeholder approach view CSR as something good, and on the other hand view CSI as something bad. As many may know, CSR is an action taken by an organization to help out society, and hopefully, it can improve the reputation and performance of the organization in return. So, through the stakeholder approach, marketing managers and others view the performance of CSR as having a benefit on both society and the organization, a win-win situation. But, CSI, Corporate Social Irresponsibility, the opposite of CSR, are misdeeds companies perform that hurts society in order to achieve benefits, usually short-term. Companies perform CSI secretly, but in the modern day, where technology is everywhere, it is easier to expose their misdeeds and spread the news than before.

The authors, Price, and Sun, means that companies should prioritize CSR over CSI because not only is CSI unethical, it is going to hurt or even destroy a company once the public finds out about the wrongdoings. For example, the Enron scandal, the corporation hid their financial losses while lying about the increase in profit by not falsely reporting their situation. Their stock surged and Eron expanded, it also obtained many facilities, but once the public found out about the losses in profit, the stock price went from an all-time high of $90.56 to $0.26. Employees lost their jobs and retirement funds. The company went bankrupt. So, this article’s message is don’t rely on CSI.       

Reference: Price, & Sun. (2017). Doing good and doing bad: The impact of corporate social responsibility and irresponsibility on firm performance. Journal of Business Research, 80, 82-97.