CSR as Nash Equilibrium

The concept of “strategy as choice” has been extended to the concept of “strategy as inferior choice” using the Nash Equilibrium framework. This entails the existence of an inter-temporal trade-off between investments today and returns tomorrow. It is with this approach that the activity of Corporate Social Responsibility is viewed. After first distinguishing between CS Accountability and CS Responsibility, it is argued that CSR is like any other investment decision, involving a trade-off between present cost and future benefits. This approach is expanded further to look at a model for evaluating and prioritizing the CSR activity at a corporate level, looking at the components of centrality, specificity, proactivity, voluntarism and visibility. This model has been applied for the Indian oil industry and specific recommendations have been made for firm level focus on CSR.