Corporate Social Responsibility in the Thinking of Paolo Emilio Cassandro

This paper, which is to be collocated with international research studies of the historical origins of corporate social responsibility (CSR), deals with both the theme of CSR itself and the topics related to it through an examination of the key characteristics of the theories of the master in the field of Italian Economia Aziendale, Paolo Emilio Cassandro (1910-2004), who wrote an impressive number of works on numerous subjects that are of notable current relevance, including the social role of business, the concept of added value, and the role of the social report in the process of providing information for external purposes. Through an analytical-descriptive approach, our work will focus in particular on certain aspects of his life and works, which show beyond doubt the great value of his contribution to the advancement, at both national and international levels, of research into CSR. The main aim of what follows is to highlight not only the innovative nature of Cassandro’s studies of the subject when compared with other research carried out in Italy in the second half of the 20th century but also how strikingly relevant they are to CSR as a topic for international scholars today.