Contributions of Emmanuel Levinas' Ethics to Corporate Social Responsibility Concept

The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been influenced mainly by instrumental and economicstrategic rationalities. However, is required an ethical rationality for widening the valuation of CSR in the academic and professional world. This article makes an approach to the concept of responsibility in Emmanuel Levinas' ethics, interpreting their possible theoretical implications in the field of economics, accounting and administrative science. The traditional concept of CSR has been crossed by ontological philosophy assumptions that exploit the relationship between company and society, considering the CSR as a voluntary choice for the company. Levinas' ethics proposes a relationship of alterity in which the CSR concept emerges with a renewed meaning, that is to say, as a fact morally necessary and not only as a factor of voluntary choice.