Today’s corporations are increasingly implementing responsible behaviours as they pursue profit-making activities. A thorosugh literature review suggests that there is a link between corporate social responsibility (CSR) or corporate social performance (CSP) and financial performance. In addition, there are relevant theoretical underpinnings and empirical studies that have often used other concepts, including corporate citizenship, stakeholder management and business ethics. In this light, this contribution reports on how CSR is continuously evolving to reflect contemporary societal realities. At the same time, it critically analyses some of the latest value-based CSR constructs. This review paper puts FORWARD a conceptual FRAMEWORK for corporate sustainability and responsibility. It suggests that responsible business practices create economic and societal value by re-aligning their corporate objectives with stakeholder management and environmental responsibility.BackgroundThis research builds on the previous theoretical underpinnings of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda, including corporate social performance (Waddock and Graves 1997, Griffin and Mahon 1997, Wang and Choi 2013), stakeholder management (FREEMAN 1984, Berman et al. 1999, Carroll and Buchholtz 2014), corporate citizenship (Carroll 1998, Maignan et al. 1999, Fombrun et al. 2000, Matten and Crane 2005), strategic CSR (Burke and Logsdon 1996, Lantos 2001, McWilliams et al. 2006, Falck and Heblich 2007) and creating shared value (Camilleri 2017, Porter and Kramer 2011, 2014, European UNION 2011, Elkington 2012, Crane et al. 2014). Moreover, it reviews the corporate sustainability and responsibility perspectives (Van Marrewijk and Werre 2003, Salzmann et al. 2005, Montiel 2008, VISSER 2011, Benn et al. 2014). Corporate sustainability and responsibility is increasingly being recognised as a concept that offers ways of thinking and behaving. This approach toward sustainable business has potential to deliver significant benefits to business, society and the environment.