An important development that has taken place in recent decades, and particularly in recent years, is that of corporate social responsibility, or CSR. Corporate responsibility can be seen as corporate actions that benefit society and go beyond the legal responsibility and direct interests of the corporation. (McWilliams and Siegel, 2001) Companies are increasingly focusing on being socially responsible, thinking about the impact their actions have on the environment and society. In both the Americas and Europe, more than 70% of organizations publish corporate social responsibility information in their annual reports. (KMPG Survey on CSR Reporting, 2013) Although there is still no consensus on whether or not organizations actually have social responsibility, many organizations initiate CSR activities, or at least say they do. But why do they do it? Nobody forces these organizations to have a CSR strategy. Without knowing the motivation behind implementing a CSR strategy it is not possible to determine the best way to implement it. Therefore it is important to first research these motivations to implement a CSR strategy. This research begins by providing a theoretical analysis. There are several theories that could explain these motivations and corporate social responsibility in general. The business theories used are: - Stakeholder theory - Shareholder theory - Integrated social contract theory. These theories are chosen because they are the major normative theories of business ethics. (Hasnas, 1998) First, let's take a closer look at corporate social responsibility. What does corporate social responsibility mean? This is a difficult question to answer because there are many different views on this....... middle of the paper...... this seeks a better understanding of how and why organizations choose CSR, how much success they are implementing their strategy and what the effect of those strategies is on the profitability of the organization. This is done through explanatory literature-based research. Structure Now that the theories used have been highlighted, it is time to move on to the next phase. In the second chapter, an extensive literature review will look more closely at both corporate social responsibility and the three theories. This chapter addresses the origins of these concepts and the developments they have had. Subsequently, in chapter three, the theories are compared and commonalities and differences are highlighted. In the fourth chapter the theories are linked to CSR and the possible reasons for practicing CSR that they bring out are proposed. Based on this a conclusion follows.