Critique on Carroll's Definition of CSR
Although Carroll's definition of CSR has been the most durable and widely cited in the literature, it has been criticized as well. Visser (2005) claims that Carroll’s CSR Pyramid has two major limitations - it lacks conceptual clarity and descriptive accuracy.
With regard to the lack of conceptual clarity, Visser (2005) shows that it is not clear why CSR is depicted as a hierarchy, citing various explanations given or implied by Carroll himself. Such explanations include rationales based on historic development, order of dependence, and relative perceived importance assigned by managers. Visser claims also that Carroll is trying to establish an umbrella concept which "attempt to conflate various allied concepts such as business ethics, corporate citizenship and stakeholder management into his own CSR Pyramid". This blending of themes fails to create a clear concept.