The research aims to show how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) should not be considered a cost to bear as an economic social actor but an investment that will contribute to the competitiveness and growth of the firm.

In the first part we consider capitalistic firm as systems for the creation of economic and financial value for their shareholders. We measure their performance by a system of monetary values.

In the second part we do not limit our view to simply the shareholders, but we consider, instead a vast group of stakeholders because it is important not only to make profits, but also how companies make them .

In these years characterized by the financial crisis, where many big companies went bankrupt, more and more companies are speaking about ethics and CSR. For a firm, acting socially responsible, means for example having fair compensations, promoting transparency and the respect of employees, neutralizing conflicts of interest, as well as taking care of the environment.

CSR is today a topic for discussion not only for business people but also for politicians, media, researchers, NGOs and consumers. Growing awareness of CSR is evident in the growth of voluntary codes of corporate conduct, in the growth of companies that are using self-reporting on social and environmental practices, and in increasingly social and ethical investment funds.

The public and governments of the world have been steadily increasing pressure on corporations to increase their CSR. Recently the European Commission has put forward a new, simpler definition of corporate social responsibility as “the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society” (European Commission 25/10/2011).

Companies have realized that to increase their market share or keep their market share, they must adopt CSR, but the synergy between social performance and financial performance is not automatic; rather it is the result of efforts that combine managerial professionalism and business creativity for the purpose of business growth that also takes into account the social groups.

Our research considers the conditions for the effectiveness of CSR actions in creating a positive feedback that can produce ever greater economic and social-environmental results. Thus a firm must set a system of objectives for itself which is centered on its sustainable growth, and must therefore tend toward a multi-dimensional growth that encompasses the economic, social and environmental dimensions. In the last part we explain how socially responsible business practices can enhance a company\’s value.