ESG의 효율성을 높이는 4가지 전략: CSR을 CSO로 전환

Amid increasing attention to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors in the corporate management, firms have recently exhibited conflicting reactions, such as anti-ESG initiatives and greenwashing practices. To address this complexity, this study introduces four strategies which aim to improve the efficiency of ESG practices. It carried out a comprehensive review of the literature on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Creating Shared Value (CSV), and ESG. Using the co-occurrence analysis method, this research conducted a comparative analysis to identify distinct patterns among the three areas of research. The findings revealed that while CSR and ESG research largely focuses on ethical and philanthropic dimensions, CSV research emphasizes the alignment of social and environmental engagements with a company's core business areas to generate mutual benefits. This study argues that firms should move beyond simply transitioning from CSR to ESG by focusing solely on ESG performance or effectiveness. Firms need to consider the ESG efficiency, evaluating the outcomes relative to the inputs involved. Specifically, this article introduced four Corporate Social Opportunity (CSO) strategies for enhancing ESG efficiency along with four corresponding propositions. The four CSO strategies cover four aspects, including ESG motivations, evaluation of ESG performance, sustainability of ESG practices, and the perspectives of investors. The CSO approach prioritizes economic considerations—mutual benefits and operational efficiency—over purely ethical considerations of ESG practices.