Corporate social responsibility, in all reality, is indeed a marketing scheme. For example, it is socially unacceptable in the U.S. to utilize child labor, which is why it is illegal in the U.S.. What a corporation does is utilize child labor outside the country. Of course, it is still unacceptable, but it is out of sight, out of mind. If uncovered, money is spent on public relations to repair and/or mitigate damage caused to profit.
Everything about a corporation is strictly to maximize profit. Ethics and morals go straight out the window, which a corporation will give the illusion that it practices in ethics and morals if it results in profit. Most of the time, greater profits are derived through unethical and immoral practice i.e. exploitation etc.. The mentality is that of a sociopath.
Corporations operate within an environment. The general environment is the external environment and encompasses technological, natural, sociocultural, economics, legal/political, and international, which it is the most difficult to control because these things operate outside the corporation and are completely unpredictable. The goal is to control and/or manipulate the external environment, making it predictable in order to maximize profits.
A good example of the external environment being internalized would be The Green Movement, though not limited to this. Lets say you go to Wal-Mart and you happen to come across a package of water, which it has an emblem on it (60% less plastic used. Go Green!). Sure, 60% less plastic may have been utilized, but the price for the package of water didn't drop, it remained the same. That is direct incentive for corporation's to use the Green Movement in this aspect, because due to it being socially acceptable, it allows them to make more profit for delivering a cheaper product without question. They didn't do it for the environment, they did it for profit. This example can be personally verified by anyone, though things like this are typically overlooked due to psychological conditioning and the stigma society places on people who don't go along with the program, such as Global Warming.
The following are examples of maximizing profit in the areas the external environment is comprised of:
Technological - buying patents and shelving technology.
Natural - creating artificial scarcity in resources.
Sociocultural - the major news media.
Economics - NAFTA.
Legal/political - lobbying.
International - mergers and erosion of sovereignty.
All of those areas in the external environment are high risk and do go hand-in-hand, which a legal/political risk would be like Venezuela taking over a corporation's infrastructure in said country by nationalizing it. The U.S.'s practice of freezing assets is another example of legal/political risk. Personally, I feel Global Warming is a by-product of corporate control over most of the external environment to the point that it was engineered. One reason I think this is due to the focus being primarily placed on carbon dioxide output. The focus being on carbon dioxide output detracts from the alarm over toxic chemicals being introduced into the environment. It also explains why major corporations are gung-ho over *combating* Global Warming. It is nothing more than smoke and mirrors. This means Global Warming is a marketing scheme.
Ultimately, in the attempt to achieve maximum control over the general environment to acquire maximum profit, corporations are seemingly waging war on the world, which is resulting in corporatism. If the external environment is ever completely internalized, that would be the making of a one world government.