Abstract
PurposeThe paper aims to investigate the relationship between firms’ motivation for corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the moderating role of internationalisation.Design/methodology/approachThe authors developed and tested a conceptual model based on a survey of 65 respondents from the Møre and Romsdal (M&R) maritime cluster. The M&R maritime cluster despite being national has strong interconnections to the global maritime industry and as such, presents a suitable context for testing our research model.FindingsThe findings show that firms’ intrinsic motivation drives CSR more than extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is understood as a firm engaging in CSR because it is the right thing to do and done out of one’s free will without compulsion or coercion. Extrinsic motivation relates to an action that is performed to achieve a separate outcome. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are found to be related and not mutually exclusive. The impact of intrinsic motivation on CSR was found to be contingent on the extent of the internationalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).Originality/valueThe key contribution of the study is the modelling of firms’ motivation for CSR activities and the contingent effect of internationalisation. In as much as companies perceive CSR activities as the right thing to do, the motive to do so also depends on the business case/profit motive. The study shows that SMEs’ intrinsic motivation is the driving force in CSR implementation and suggests that the urge by firms to give back to society is strengthened under conditions of high economic incentives and the firms’ degree of internationalisation.
Highlights
In the past, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been optional, but today’s global and competitive business environment allows no firm to neglect the importance of social responsibility (Graafland and van de Ven, 2006; Nejati and Amran, 2009; Scherer and Palazzo, 2008; Worthington et al, 2008; Svensson et al, 2010; Khojastehpour, 2015; Eriksson and Svensson, 2017)
4.1 Measurement model evaluation The analysis is based on 24 items, using variance-based partial least square (PLS) technique and SmartPLS (Ringle et al, 2015)
The positive coefficient of the interaction effect shows that both forms of motivation enhance each other such that the association between intrinsic motivation and CSR is enhanced by extrinsic motivation or the relationship between extrinsic motivation and CSR is enhanced by intrinsic motivation
Summary
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been optional, but today’s global and competitive business environment allows no firm to neglect the importance of social responsibility (Graafland and van de Ven, 2006; Nejati and Amran, 2009; Scherer and Palazzo, 2008; Worthington et al, 2008; Svensson et al, 2010; Khojastehpour, 2015; Eriksson and Svensson, 2017). The accelerating trend of globalisation has highlighted firms’ responsibility to society, along with a recognition that the negative externalities have increased because of globalisation (Scherer and Palazzo, 2008). The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/ licences/by/4.0/legalcode
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