Corporate responsibility is a term which has come to characterize a family of professional disciplines intended to help a corporation stay competitive by maintaining accountability to its four main stakeholder groups: customers, employees, shareholders, and communities.
The professional disciplines included in the corporate responsibility field include legal and financial compliance, business ethics, corporate social responsibility, public and community affairs, investor relations, stakeholder communications, brand management, environmental affairs, sustainability, socially responsible investment, and corporate philanthropy.
Major membership organizations and media in the Corporate Responsibility industry include Business in the Community (bitc.org.uk), WBCSD.org, CERES, National Investor Relations Institute, and Compliance Week.
The Corporate Responsibility industry, which includes all professional services purchased by for-profit and not-for-profit companies to maintain their levels of corporate responsibility, was valued by the CRO magazine at $20 billion in 2005.
[2][3] In the UK and Europe, the term is more generally associated with the local and Europe-wide regulations holding companies accountable to their stakeholders.