Exploring the influence of national cultural context on CSR implementation

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine how national cultural context may be harnessed to support corporate social responsibility (CSR) implementation when sourcing fashion garments from developing country manufacturers.Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative case study approach was adopted, using purposive sampling to select seven export garment manufacturers of varying size and business model in Sri Lanka. Primary data were collected through on‐site, face‐to‐face interviews with managerial level and operational level informants within each company and through non‐participant observation within factory environments.Findings – It was found that harnessing the local cultural context can support and progress CSR implementation at the factory level: in Sri Lanka, the Buddhist philosophy provided the moral underpinning and hence facilitated supplier engagement with CSR implementation. The presence of governmental support reduces the likelihood of CSR transgressions by adding an extra level of ...