Social Responsibility in Business is one of the new phenomena of market, precipitate by the economy globalization. Along the historical cycles, the company was successively directed to results/product, to the market and to the customer. Nowadays the company is guided towards the social. Corporate actions, in social responsibility, are fruit of a historical moment, and assist to the market needs for a capitalist production system. Although there are exceptions, usually, the social responsibility emerges as a way of turning social obstacles into businesses opportunities, which are used as marketing strategy, seeking for both, uniqueness in the market and consumption increment. It is necessary to understand the context of its emergence into Brazilian reality. A scenery of historical, political and economical macro-variables that contributed to the appearance of the phenomenon 'Social Responsibility in Business' in the Brazilian market, is presented in this study, thus providing a critical view on the subject.
Social responsibility; social exclusion; globalization