Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was viewed traditionally and narrowly as philanthropy and then as the business-society relations, particularly regarding the contribution that a corporation or firm made for solving social problems. Soon, corporations were encouraged to improve both moral standards and justice in society through economizing. In other words, in the name of efficient resource mobilization and usage, the business creates social wealth and provides a better standard of living through economizing the use of resources.

Modern CSR is a concept of corporate social responsibility, which is taken by corporate organizations that consider the impact of their activities on customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, communities and other stakeholders, as well as the environment. It is shown by this obligation that organizations must abide by the law and take voluntary initiatives to improve the well-being of their employees and their families, local communities and society as a whole.

As the meaning of CSR discussed above, CSR affects communities and community development in many ways undeniably. According to a report by Towers Perrin[1], CSR is the third-largest driver of employee engagement. For example, for American companies, the status of an organization in the community is the second-largest driving factor for employee participation, and a company's social responsibility reputation is also one of the top ten driving factors.

In community development, CSR plays a multi-faceted role, and results in various impacts on society including the relationship and interdependencies between corporations and communities can become closer, the society’s costs on environmental degradation can be shared, technology can be transferred from international companies to developing countries, poverty can be alleviated, human rights can be promoted, the data for ICT firms to facilitate the functions of public organizations can be gathered, etc.

It may be challenging to know where their responsibilities lie for building infrastructure, creating economic opportunities, and accessing core services such as health care, education and poverty alleviation for many corporation leaders. However, experience has shown that sustainable CSR solutions at the community, provincial and national levels are based on partnerships between government, civil society and enterprises. Based on this point, the government should help enterprises to define their position in community development, to clarify the scope of their functions, and to coordinate the relationship among the government, civil society and corporations so that corporations are able to play a more significant role in community development.