Authenticity in Corporate Social Responsibility: Towards an Existential Perspective

Abstract

Authenticity has been recognized as an important factor explaining the success or failure of corporate social responsibility (CSR). To date, CSR authenticity remains under-theorized and extant conceptualizations have been limited to object-based approaches, i.e., whether the organization is perceived to have authenticity. While such an approach brings to fore factors that can enhance transactional benefits for organizations, it does not account for how stakeholders experience their own authenticity in the context of CSR and how this affects their wellbeing. In this paper, we develop a new subject-based approach to CSR authenticity that defines and explains how stakeholders experience their own authenticity when engaging in CSR initiatives. To do so, we draw upon existential authenticity and elaborate three dimensions of existential authenticity – self, purpose, and choice – and develop new theory that sets out the drivers, outcomes, and moderators of existential authenticity in CSR. We explain the contribution of our model to theory about CSR and authenticity in management, as well as offer directions for further research and discussion of the practical implications of our theory.