The meaning of being socially responsible is the combination of behaving ethically and giving back to the society by respecting and understanding the social, cultural, economic and environmental issues in the world. Businesses have an impact of helping individuals and resolve issues, most corporations try to be socially responsible to attain more recognition and support for the future. Even if the company mostly interested in maximizing profits is should still have duty to give back to the community. There is a mislead understanding between being ethical and being socially responsible, they are same and different at the same time.
Simply said, the concept of distinguishing between right and wrong and then choosing the rights thing is what we call ethics. When applied in a corporation then the terminology used is Business Ethics, which is to see if a business is practicing ethical or unethical behaviour to achieve objectives and goals. Private companies and organizations usually develop a code of ethics, which is a formally written agreement that the company must understand and fallow inside the workplace, although the code of ethics might contain rules that are not practiced by the government. Any violation of the code of ethics has consequences of termination. On the other hand, business ethics is considered a dilemma, a business decision making might perceive something as being ethical but it might be illegal and vis versa.
In addition, a business plan must also be conducted under laws and regulations
References: http://www.differencebetween.net/business/difference-between-business-ethics-and-social-responsibility/ http://ansteadsue.tripod.com/ethics.htm http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/politics/difference-between-law-and-ethics/ http://www.sba.gov/category/navigation-structure/starting-managing-business/starting-business/business-law-regulations