Abstract:

This article contemplates on the conceptual and methodological fundamental framework for corporate social responsibility as an institutional innovation and the key pillar for enabling sustainable development of businesses. This paper analyzes the practices to create the corporate social responsibility (CSR) framework in Russia and explores the ways to set CSR standards and the mechanism for arm’s-length evaluation and monitoring non-financial reporting in the country. The work also contemplates on regional-level efforts to bring about social welfare partnership schemes and the Russian business community’s charity policies. The study concludes that social in-vestments by businesses constitute an efficient viability tool, and that the social responsibility concept is effective economically as a corporate viability driver.