Public preferences for corporate social responsibility activities in the pharmaceutical industry: Empirical evidence from Korea.

Goun Kim,Sang Yong Kim,Eduardo Ortas Fredes,Hankil Lee,Hye-Young Kang

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0221321

Abstract

Although corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities are common in the pharmaceutical industry, there is little empirical evidence on consumer responses to CSR practices. We investigated public awareness, preferences, and expectations regarding social contribution of the pharmaceutical industry’s CSR activities, and identified the factors associated with such activities. We conducted an online survey with 1,298 respondents comprising two groups: healthy individuals (546) and patients (752). Most respondents (78%) expressed interest in CSR activities undertaken by pharmaceutical companies. However, they reported a lack of awareness and experience thereof; only 26.9% were aware of and 7.9% had experience with such activities. Among our six CSR activity categories, both survey groups showed the highest preference for the “promoting public health” (healthy group: 6.34/10; patient group: 6.37/10) and “emergency disaster relief support” (6.31 and 6.35) categories. Among sub-categories, activities related to “development of innovative drugs in untreated areas” (6.63 and 6.82) and “support for research on new drug development” (6.59 and 6.84) received the highest scores. The mean expectation score of social contribution of all CSR activities was slightly higher than the mean preference score (6.37 and 6.06, respectively). The patient group exhibited a larger difference between the highest and lowest expectation scores than the healthy group (1.11 and 0.64, respectively). The results of the regression analysis revealed that being a patient, being male, and having positive attitudes toward CSR and its expected effects significantly and positively affected public preferences regarding CSR activities. We can conclude that CSR activities with high public preference might be an effective strategy to improve public awareness of the pharmaceutical industry’s CSR activities. Furthermore, the highest preference for CSR activities relates to new drug development, indicating that our society believes the pharmaceutical industry’s key CSR activity should be to pursue its intrinsic mission: to fulfill unmet medical needs by developing new drugs.

Highlights

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to business operations involving initiatives that benefit society [1]
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first empirical study to assess public perceptions of and attitudes toward CSR activities implemented in the pharmaceutical industry and to identify specific CSR activities favored by the public
Company websites and annual reports indicate that pharmaceutical companies in Korea undertake a variety of CSR activities, our survey results reveal that the Korean public do not have much experience with or awareness of such CSR activities

Summary

Introduction

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to business operations involving initiatives that benefit society [1]. It has been adopted in many business sectors. CSR is characterized as a business approach that aims sustainable development by providing economic, social, and environmental benefits to all stakeholders [2]. A business’ CSR activities can encompass a wide variety of tactics, such as donating to national and local charities (philanthropy), doing good deeds without expecting anything in return (volunteering), treating employees fairly and ethically (ethical labor practices), and implementing greener business operations (environmental efforts) [3, 4]. CSR has become a part of core business operations which create shared value for businesses and society [7]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion