Exploring the issues and new insights of global branding and strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR): A case of Pakistani organizations

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the concept of global branding, what it stands for being socially responsible, and what its link with leverage is. It also highlights the range of social responsibility issues with reference to Pakistani brands and explores the relevant issues and deep insights from strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) literature and global branding literature in the context of Pakistani organizations. It also suggests future implications for theorists, practitioners and academicians with reference to effective strategic CSR and global branding. This paper embarks on the intellectual journey with the concept of CSR and global branding in local context of Pakistan, while reviewing the relevant literature and addressing the issue of complexity in Pakistani context. This study gives insights about the issue of complexity at the time of strategically integrating CSR into global band and sorts out three strands of complexity namely, 1) issue complexity, 2) organizational complexity, and 3) communication complexity in the context of Pakistan. The limitation of this paper is due to the limited academic literature, giving insights about how global organizations in corporate CSR initiatives for the development of brands, and insights dealing with the issues needed to be taken into account at the time of integrating into branding strategies. This paper gives fresh enquiry to the issue complexity, organizational complexity and communication complexity with reference to global brands and CSR activities in the context of Pakistan which has been applied so far.