Social Responsibility and Sustainability of Cooperative Business in Russia: Legal Aspect

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the contribution of a company to its sustainable development. In Russia, CSR is usually implemented by large private and state-owned companies—industry leaders that publicly position themselves as socially responsible companies. The rules and the reality do not provide or create conditions for other forms of companies, such as cooperatives, to fulfill such social responsibility, known in the context of cooperatives as CSR. Cooperatives are considered only as objects of implementing their main activities and are not encouraged to fulfill their social and environmental responsibilities. The research questions the concept that CSR should do more than the law requires. It is argued that CSR functions as an informal law. In turn, legal principles function as part of the common set of values that define many CSR actions. It is also asserted that legal aspects in the abstract and statutory sense and as self-regulation influence the content, implementation, and dissemination of CSR, as well as that current regulatory acts regarding CSR, from a business requirement perspective, may represent informal law. This research uses a legally formal doctrinal approach to analyze and assess the existing rules related to CSR and cooperatives.