The EU Commission has defined CSR as the business contribution to sustainable development but acknowledges that gaps in knowledge act as a barrier to the spread of good CSR practice. CSR is only tangentially incorporated to some extend into teaching programmes in Business Schools, partly through the absence of literature and the lack of standing of CSR as a serious (sub-) discipline.

Suggested further CSR related research should take a broad interdisciplinary approach towards the CSR policy dimension and the societal issues involved. Such a perspective will anchor CSR in its societal context, will examine the historical development of the public-private interface and will analyse the position of CSR in local, national, European and global governance, as well as within the transition economies of Eastern Europe.

Such research could possibly contribute to the construction of new CSR theoretical paradigms, using the frameworks of current thinking on theories of the firm, the state and civil society and attempt a new synthesis of these approaches. Case studies on the societal critique of globalisation, a micro-historical study and policy studies relating to employment policy, local governance and the position of SMEs in Eastern Europe, can contribute to and test such theories.

Overall, it would fill important voids in the existing literature and would potentially make a major impact on the CSR research agenda and stimulate discussion within the broader CSR community as it canl provide a body of theory (or theories) capable of underpinning CSR analysis and act as a catalyst for stimulating wider research and for establishing CSR’s credentials as an important (sub-discipline) in the academic community. Finally, it would be capable of raising questions for the formulation of policy in both the public and the private sector, and formulate relevant policy recommendations.