The ethical and socially responsible behavior of the commercial companies

• Author: C. Lefter - L. Muresan
• Pages: 207-212

3. Lefter - Department of Marketing Tourism and International Relations, Transilvania University of Braşov.

L. Muresan - Department of Public Law, Transilvania University of Brasov.

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Page 207

1. Corporate Social Responsibility, Terminology

The Romanian explanatory dictionary (DEX) [2] defines responsibility as a conscious attitude, a sense of liability for the social obligations; or a task, liability which somebody holds.

Other authors [1] support the definition given to the social responsibility by the European Commission and underline the fact that the social responsibility is that behavior through which companies decide, without being forced to, integrate several ecologic or social objectives among their preoccupations, thus creating a new type of relation or partnerships with several groups of interests within the company.

It is also considered that the social responsibility can also be regarded as a fundamental ethical principle which expresses towards "whom" and for "what" a commercial company is responsible, in the light of the ethical system accepted and promoted by it. In this vision, the social responsibility implies: the compliance with the laws, with the contractual provisions - starting from the premise that the contract is the law of the parties which obliges them to comply with it -, honesty, but also the consideration of desiderates of several groups interested in the existence and operation of a commercial company. [15]

In order for the commercial companies to adopt the requirements of the corporate social responsibility, it is considered [3] that they possess the necessary means in order to comply with human rights and that they want to participate in the social progress.

It can be stated that the social responsibility of the commercialPage 208companies is a moral liability regarding the interaction of their activity with entities such as: clients, consumers, own employees and community on their whole. The interests of the community imply, besides other social aspects, the protection of the environment.

At present, the social responsibility of the commercial companies must be regarded from a complex perspective. We consider that the social responsibility of the commercial companies is what the community expects from a commercial company ecologically, economically, legally, ethically and philanthropically.

In our opinion, the social responsibility includes all these types of responsibilities, namely: ecological responsibility, economic responsibility, legal responsibility and philanthropic responsibility.

We consider that the ecological responsibility is a distinct responsibility, deriving from the economic and legal responsibility but exceeding these fields in importance.

The social responsibility of the commercial companies is a moral responsibility, focusing on the voluntary nature of this responsibility. It considers the interaction of their own activity with the environment, their clients, consumers, their own employees, with the society on the whole.

The commercial companies promote their interests in comparison with several socio-professional

groups, named stakeholders. Stakeholders are divided [14] into two main categories: external -business partners, suppliers, consumers, local communities, natural environment, future generations - and internal -employees, shareholders, managers, and owners. Starting from the two categories of stakeholders, without excluding the interest and impact of several social responsibility practices on all categories of stakeholders, the social responsibility can be: external or internal.

By adopting a socially responsible attitude towards their own stakeholders - especially employees and consumers - the commercial companies will have more to gain. [7]

The social responsibility is known as a theory of the commercial company regarding the stakeholders, i.e. "the respective commercial company must pay attention to all those who have an interest (stake) in the development of its activity".[4] This means that, in other words, to respect their own interests.

2. The Requirement of Certain Socially Responsible Commercial Companies Owning Ethical Codes

In a marketing research regarding ethics and social responsibility, [10] taking place in Brasov municipality, aspects related to the need of the commercial...