Beyond Reputation: A Function for CSR in the Age of Systemic Crises. Evidence From the Italian Business Landscape

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Corporate Sustainability (CS) are historically distinct constructs that have converged to the point of conceptual confusion. This paper operates within the CSR tradition, arguing that authentic CS is structurally impossible without the ethical foundation CSR provides. Moving beyond shareholder value requires grounding CSR in Virtue Ethics rather than utilitarian or contractual frameworks. An original normative model is proposed: the Ethical CSR Function t(x(y)), in which (y) is the ethical foundation (Aristotelian habitus), (x) managerial intensity, and (t) the temporal horizon. An exploratory survey of 114 Italian companies reveals a persistent value gap: only 47% report a value system understood by all employees, and merely 13% show concern for future generations. These findings suggest that authentic CS requires an ethical foundation that compliance-driven frameworks cannot generate, and offer scholars a normative instrument for distinguishing genuine sustainability commitments from reputational greenwashing.