The Refinement and Validation of the Social Response Scale: The Case of Multinational Corporations Operating in Tunisia

Abstract

Satisfying multiple stakeholder expectations and, in some cases, stakeholder issues is perceived as a major challenge the companies face. Despite this challenge, corporate social response activities have not been well documented in the empirical literature and have so far attracted relatively limited attention from researchers interested in the field (e.g., de la Cruz Deniz-Deniz, 1999; de la Cruz Deniz-Deniz & Garcia-Falcon, 2002). One of the main causes of this situation is closely related to the lack of a scale for measuring the social response activities among companies. In light of this gap in the corporate social response literature, the main objective of this study is to refine and validate the psychometric properties of a social response scale and to create a scaled-down version suitable for companies, and in particular for multinational corporations (MNCs). The refined scale is based on the prior literature and administrated to a sample of 251 subsidiaries operating in Tunisia. The scale has four dimensions. In quantitative analyses these dimensions highlight high reliability and satisfactory validity. Research contributions are provided based on the study findings. Limitations are also presented and discussed along with suggestions for research. DOI: 10.15458/85451.15