Socially responsible and social business: from business concept to more detailed properties

Abstract

The great social and economic changes in the world inevitably affect people’s awareness and responsibility towards the nature and each other. Social needs of the society are growing at a high pace, and governmental institutions are no longer able to meet people’s expectations, therefore social business, as well as traditional business, voluntarily assuming the social responsibility, become increasingly important in the world. The Single Market Act and the Europe 2020 strategy aim to ensure smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, create more and better jobs and fight poverty. One of the tools for implementing such closely interrelated initiatives is social business. This article aims to review the concepts of social and socially responsible businesses, discuss their advantages and disadvantages. As it is important to distinguish these two different type business models, they are thoroughly compared, and criteria, that companies must meet in the European Union and Lithuania, in order to call business social or socially responsible, are also described. The aim presented in the article is achieved by means of comparative authors’ literature analysis. Key words: criteria, socially responsible and social business advantages and disadvantages.