Corporate Social Responsibility, Benefits beyond Legitimacy: A Symbiotic Framework

Abstract

The 21st-century social and political environment has continued to evolve and heightens the demand for organisations to provide accountability for the sustainability operations of their businesses. Accordingly, organisations are committing to diverse strategic efforts to provide disclosures on their social and environmental actions to the society and environment where they operate. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has received support and criticism since its emergence in the corporate realm. This paper aims to portray CSR as beyond mere symbolic legitimacy and propose a corporate-society symbiotic existential framework. The research approach is a critical literature analysis and conceptual framework development. The results show that the corporate and the society co-exist in a reciprocal relationship. Thus, the implication is that some CSR may be more than symbolic legitimacy with potential benefits derivable from committed transparent and pragmatic CSR, which can encourage companies to shift away from symbolic CSR tendencies. The paper recommends the need for organisations to operationalise CSR practices and policy as this has a propensity to enhance corporate legitimate standing, which will assist in reducing business risks and enhance the potential for profit in the long run. In addition, this discourse may be helpful for business schools in their academic studies about CSR and legitimacy theory and would also assist in CSR regulatory initiatives. The value of the paper hinges on the proposed novel framework for corporate-society symbiotic existence, which provides an agenda for future research study and expansion therein. This framework may lead to multiples of modelling in future CSR and corporate governance studies and may also assist in narrowing the gap between legal and normative CSR.