Corporate Social Responsibility Awareness Research Articles

Trách nhiệm xã hội và hiệu quả tài chính của các ngân hàng thương mại niêm yết: Bằng chứng thực nghiệm tại Việt Nam

This article employs panel data regression model to investigate the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on the Corporate Financial Performance (CFP) of 29 listed commercial banks in Vietnam from 2016 to 2022. The research results reveal the positive influence of CSR on ROE and ROA, whereas the relationship between CSR and Tobin’s Q demonstrates a non-significant negative impact. Based on these findings, the study provides recommendations and policy implications to enhance awareness of CSR and establish encouraging policies and support for implementing CSR in the business operations of financial institutions.

Does legal justice promote stakeholder justice? Evidence from a judicial reform in China

This paper investigates how judicial quality affects corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. Employing a difference-in-differences model based on the establishment of circuit courts in China and a sample of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2010 to 2020, we find that enhanced judicial quality improves firms' CSR performance. Further analysis shows that CSR helps reduce the incidence and expense of lawsuits and financial constraints arising after the circuit court establishment and mitigates negative market responses toward lawsuit announcements. This suggests that CSR has strategic value against lawsuits and firms' incentives to reduce litigation costs, financial constraints, and adverse market reactions are the potential mechanisms. The effect of judicial quality on CSR performance is more pronounced for firms with greater ex-ante litigation risk, lower ex-ante CSR awareness, and close to circuit courts. Overall, this study highlights a novel externality of the judiciary and suggests that legal justice can promote stakeholder justice.

Do corporate social responsibility drive sustainable purchase intention? An empirical study in emerging economy

PurposeThe purpose of the research is to investigate whether corporate social responsibility awareness (pCSR), environmental concerns (EC) and consumer environmental knowledge (CK) will have an impact on sustainable purchase intention (SPI). Furthermore, this paper also contributes to surveying the mediating impact of consumer attitudes (CAs) between intention and the three factors mentioned above.Design/methodology/approachSmartPLS (version 4.0) structural equation modeling (SEM) and quantitative methods were used to analyze 457 responses from consumers. The survey sample consisted of individuals between the ages of 18 and 34, with a male-to-female ratio of 70 to 30. The study aims to examine and put into practice new directions for manufacturing firms in the fields of fashion, food and consumer products. At the same time, provide more convincing evidence about the use of these fields in the research.FindingsThe study showed a favorable link between pCSR, EC, CK and SPI through the proposed hypotheses. The research additionally showed that CAs mediate between the aforementioned variables.Originality/valueThe important and distinctive results of this study encourage both consumers and enterprises to make changes in their perceptions of society. Consumers should gradually change their daily lifestyle by consuming more sustainable products. As a result, this outcome will provide the impetus for manufacturing businesses to alter their operational procedures in order to support the shift from the production of products to more friendly processes, with the help of all levels of management within the business.

Role of Business Ethics in Raising Corporate Social Responsibility Awareness of Public Institutions (Case Study: Tayma Municipality, Tabuk Region in Saudi Arabia)

The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential relationship between the social responsibility and business ethics of personnel working for the municipality of Taima. as importance, this study shows how much Saudi government employees respect work ethics, which influences social responsibility. This study should also improve organizations' ethics to promote Arab-Islamic values. Our sample included 50 Saudi employees from various Taima Municipality departments. Our investigation relied heavily on quantitative method. A questionnaire is used to collect data in a hypothetical-deductive framework. The form of administration utilized is a self-administered survey conducted using the messaging application WhatsApp. This research's empirical findings show that corporate ethics affect economic, ethical, legal, and charitable social responsibility. These contributions strengthen the notion that Corporate Social Responsibility is inherently connected to ethics. CSR seeks to create socially responsible companies that smoothly integrate into society and operate sustainably in every way. By the end of the research, we recommend that social responsibility is essential for successful organizations to achieve their goals. In addition, conducting conferences on social responsibility, is a key aspect in sustainable development, and promoting the link between social responsibility, ethics, and institutional excellence.

The Effect of Philanthropic Corporate Social Responsibility on Local CSR Awareness: Examining the Role of Corporate Transparency in Ghana

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) refers to a broad spectrum of an organization's societal responsibilities. Philanthropic CSR initiatives, which go beyond legal and ethical duties, are increasingly seen as critical to improving CSR outcomes. However, the extent to which such initiatives influence local CSR awareness, particularly in emerging economies such as Ghana, and the role of corporate transparency in mediating this relationship leaves a gap in literature. This study used a quantitative research approach to estimate the effect of philanthropic CSR on local CSR awareness among Chinese companies operating in Ghana, with a particular emphasis on the mediating role of corporate transparency. Data was collected using a standardized questionnaire. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Covariance-Based Structural Equation Modelling (CB-SEM) were used to investigate the hypothesized relationships and assess the proposed model's fit. There is a significant positive relationship (β = 0.202, p < 0.001) between philanthropic CSR and local CSR awareness. The relationship between philanthropic CSR and CSR awareness was also found to be mediated by corporate transparency, with a substantial indirect effect (= 0.268, p 0.001). The study concludes that philanthropic corporate social responsibility has a partial mediation effect on local CSR awareness via corporate transparency. The findings provide practical insights for corporations working in emerging economies, emphasizing the significance of improving their stance on corporate transparency in regards to undertaking philanthropic CSR initiatives with an expected outcome of raising local CSR awareness.

Corporate social responsibility in Indian banking sector: A moderated‐mediation approach linking corporate social responsibility to purchase intention

AbstractThis paper aims to empirically examine the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices on the purchase intention of Indian banking customers. It also investigates the conditional indirect effect on purchase intention via customer trust. The data were collected using a questionnaire from 324 customers having bank accounts either in state bank of India or housing development finance corporation Bank. Conformity factor analysis was used to assure the reliability and validity of all constructs; structural equation modeling was used to testify the proposed hypotheses. This study reveals important findings first, CSR practices have a significant effect on purchase intention and customer trust; second, CSR awareness significantly moderates CSR and purchase intention relationship; and finally, the relationship between CSR and purchase intention (PI) via customer trust (CT) is significant using moderated mediation model. This study has been carried out using a sample of customers from the service industry, that is, state bank of India and housing development finance corporation banks. Similar analyses can also be conducted in other sectors of the economy. This study adds to the scarce literature on moderating role of corporate social responsibility awareness and the conditional indirect effect of CSR on purchase intention through customer trust.

Literature review on waste management of online food delivery industry in China

Meituan Waimai, which was officially launched in November 2013, has created a huge market for food delivery in China. After years of development, China’s online food delivery market reached RMB 664.62 billion in 2020. In 2022, Meituan Waimai and Ele.me, two food delivery platforms, have created a duopoly in China’s food delivery industry. Due to the success of the food delivery industry, a significant amount of food delivery packaging waste has caused far-reaching harm. This literature review primarily organizes the research on the impact of online food delivery packaging from the perspective of environmental protection. It uses the criterion layer index of online food delivery waste management ecosystem to analyze the impact of the government, environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs), garbage recycling processors, consumers, online food delivery platforms, takeaway merchants, and takeaway packaging manufacturers. The review shows that scholars generally believe that takeaway waste management is a complex process involving multiple factors. The implementation of policies at the government level is inadequate, and studies at the environmental NGO level are scant. At the consumer level, more environmental awareness education is required. Online food delivery platforms and takeaway merchants should assume greater corporate social responsibility, and manufacturers of takeaway packaging need prioritize the substitution of environmentally friendly materials. There is a consensus that paper-made and recyclable packaging boxes are more environmentally friendly than degradable packaging, which is not as environmentally friendly as is commonly believed. The academia and the industry have conducted various studies and pilot projects on recyclable packaging. If all levels cooperate well, this will be an effective way to manage takeaway packaging garbage. At last, we propose the following assumptions for future research: Besides environmental hazards, takeaway garbage has caused direct or indirect physical harm to humans and animals. Increasing consumer awareness may increase their propensity to participate in governance. Additionally, existing food delivery platforms may need to improve their corporate social responsibility awareness to provide environmentally conscious consumers with sufficient and effective plastic reduction guidance measures during the ordering process. Moreover, will biodegradable plastic products face the same ironic situation as biofuels? That is, the initial intention of technology development is to improve the environment, but the actual process of production or processing may controversially aggravate the environment.

Social, Environmental, and Governance Factors on Supply-Chain Performance with Mediating Technology Adoption

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought significant risks and challenges to businesses. In order to restore the supply chain, this paper incorporates social, environmental, and governance (ESG) factors into the study of corporate supply chains. The aim is to explore the factors that influence supply-chain resilience and performance from these three perspectives, with a particular focus on the role of willingness to adopt green innovation technologies. To encompass a wider audience and multiple industry sectors, this study employs a questionnaire survey method, targeting managers of Chinese companies, and utilizes analytical tools such as SPSS 26.0 and AMOS 26.0 for data analysis and validation. The research findings indicate that supply-chain collaboration, supply-chain management capabilities, supply-chain risks, and green-product innovation have a positive impact on a firm’s willingness to adopt innovative technologies, subsequently leading to positive effects on supply-chain resilience and performance. By incorporating ESG factors into the scope of supply-chain research, this study expands the research domain and scope of ESG. Additionally, enhancing corporate social responsibility awareness and sustainable development consciousness holds great significance for the recovery of enterprise supply-chain development. This study also offers new insights for businesses to enhance their supply-chain management.

Exporting corporate social responsibility: Evidence from foreign bank entry

This paper examines the effect of foreign bank entry on local firms' social performance. We find that foreign bank entry is associated with better performance of local firms in regard to corporate social responsibility (CSR). The effect is more pronounced when firms face less favorable financial conditions and when corporate governance is weaker. Meanwhile, the role of foreign banks in promoting CSR is stronger in firms subject to environmental concerns but weaker in firms with foreign institutional investors or CEOs with overseas experiences in place. Further analyses show that foreign bank entry significantly releases firms' financial constraints, reduces corporate risk, and improves CSR awareness, further verifying the three channels of how foreign banks increase firms’ CSR performance. These findings provide valuable insights into the consequence of financial liberalization by highlighting the important role of foreign banks as intermediaries in facilitating CSR practice globally.

An analysis of strategies for adopting blockchain in green supply chains under corporate social responsibility.

In recent years, green products have received increasing attention by firms and consumers, but consumers often have uncertainty about the green degree of products. Many firms adopt blockchain technology to solve this problem, but blockchain adoption will bring privacy concerns to consumers. Meanwhile, corporate social responsibility has become one of the hot topics concerned by firms. Based on this, a Stackelberg game model dominated by the manufacturer is constructed to study the strategies of blockchain adoption for green supply chains under corporate social responsibility. The interaction of corporate social responsibility awareness and blockchain adoption in different models is verified through the calculation and simulation analysis of the optimal decision of the supply chain members. The research results show that no matter whether supply chain members have corporate social responsibility awareness, the manufacturer should adopt blockchain technology only when the privacy cost of consumers is low. After blockchain technology is adopted, the profit and utility of retailer, the manufacturer's utility, consumer surplus, and social welfare will be higher. However, when the manufacturer has corporate social responsibility awareness, the manufacturer's profit may be damaged by blockchain adoption. In addition, when supply chain members have corporate social responsibility awareness, the manufacturer is more likely to adopt blockchain technology. And with the enhancement of corporate social responsibility awareness, blockchain technology is more likely to be adopted. It provides a reference for the blockchain adoption strategies of the green supply chain under corporate social responsibility.

Corporate Social Responsibility in the Greek Mining and Quarrying companies

This paper aims to investigate the diffusion of the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the degree of implementation of CSR practices among the Greek Mining and Quarrying Companies. A research study was conducted through a structured questionnaire among the ISO 9001 certified Greek Mining and Quarrying Companies. CSR appears to be very important for large companies which are able to allocate resources for the required CSR actions. Results show that most of the financial resources available for CSR actions are related to the environment and that respondents expect that through CSR actions they gain better relationships with the local community and the general business environment, they achieve improved employee performance, and they attract and maintain high-potential employees. Participants in the research consider bureaucracy, lack of knowledge, the small size of business and the implementation costs as the main inhibitors for the achievement of the CSR principles.
 The research of this work was limited to the Greek mining companies that are certified according to ISO 9001. Future research could be conducted on the CSR awareness of the non-certified companies as well. The study may help managers of the mining companies to focus on specific CSR elements when they decide to follow CSR principles. The implementation of the CSR principles in the mining industry has attracted considerable attention in the CSR literature and this study is an attempt to assess the concept and the benefits of CSR within Greek mining sector.
 JEL Classification code: M14.
 Key words: Corporate Social Responsibility; CSR; Mining and Quarrying; Greece

Pricing and corporate social responsibility investment strategies for a manufacturer under information asymmetry

AbstractWe consider a supply chain comprising a dominant manufacturer and a supplier where both firms are socially concerned. The corporate social responsibility (CSR) cost of the supplier is private information. The manufacturer can determine its sales price before the supplier starts production (committed pricing) or postpone its pricing decision until after receiving components from the supplier (noncommitted pricing). Moreover, the manufacturer can determine its CSR investment level before (ex ante CSR investment) or after (ex post CSR investment) the supplier. Four scenarios are investigated to examine the optimal pricing and CSR investment strategies of the manufacturer. We find the following: First, under a noncommitted pricing strategy, the manufacturer always prefers ex post CSR investment. However, the reverse holds under the committed pricing strategy. Second, under the ex post CSR investment strategy, committed pricing benefits the manufacturer for most parameter combinations whereas noncommitted pricing benefits the manufacturer when facing consumers with high CSR awareness and low price awareness. Under the ex ante CSR investment strategy, the manufacturer always prefers committed pricing. Finally, the joint committed pricing with ex ante CSR investment strategy is optimal for the manufacturer.

The role of size effects in moderating the benefits of sustainable investing

Using an extensive sample of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings, we reexamine the corporate social responsibility (CSR) factor premium in the developed equity markets between 2007 and 2019 and show that its extent is contingent upon size effects. Consistent with the novel market equilibrium, we contend that the exponential growth of socially responsible investment (SRI) has rendered the risk-adjusted returns of large CSR-leading firms in line with or even below their lagging counterparts. In line with the neglected effect, greater market segmentation, lower market efficiency, and lower investor awareness of CSR enable us to observe the former market equilibrium in the smaller corporation partition, where CSR-lagging firms exhibit lower returns than leading ones. We thus theorize a two-stage CSP–CFP relationship, where size effects are considered a relevant moderator. This contention is robust to portfolio and panel regression settings. However, our partly contradicting results with the existent literature emphasize the divergence in ESG ratings across rating agencies. JEL Classification M14; G11; G15

Inclusivity and corporate social responsibility in marketing

Inclusivity and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in a community where ethnic diversity and conflict are very low compared to other countries still need to be researched more. This study aims to analyze university students’ awareness of inclusivity and CSR in marketing teaching using a pretest-posttest control group design. Both experimental (n = 138) and control (n = 140) groups are homogeneous regarding nationality, ethnicity, and age. The experimental group was subject to specific training on inclusive products, marketing communication, and CSR, which allowed testing of their perceptions and the training’s effectiveness. The first trial showed that the change in the experimental group was 8%, against 2.5% in the control group. The second trial demonstrated that the change in the experimental group was 30.4%, noting inclusive reasons, and, in the control group, only 6.4%. The third trial found a positive evolution in the experimental group, with more than 8.3% of students choosing the CSR company, and a negative evolution in the control group of –5.6%. These differences were not statistically significant within both groups but significant when comparing the two groups. The results of this study highlight that this homogeneous population does not think about those issues when analyzing businesses, products, or marketing communication. However, when people are submitted to specific training, they become aware and change their perceptions accordingly to what was expected. Thus, one concludes that education for inclusivity and CSR should be part of students’ training, independently of the homogeneity of the social and human environment. AcknowledgmentThe authors would like to thank their students at Universidade Portucalense for accepting that their school tests were used to design and publish this paper.

Optimal strategies for green supply chain considering social responsibility and environmental responsibility

In this paper, we investigate optimal strategies and the effects of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Corporate Environmental Responsibility (CER) for a green supply chain consisting of a single supplier and a single manufacturer. For two different power structures with four different CSR-CER awareness scenarios, we establish the Stackelberg game models to derive the optimal results on the greenness level, the production quantity, and the social welfare. The first finding is that the degree of CSR awareness or CER awareness of supply chain members has positive effects on the green strategy of the supplier. The second finding is that for any CSR-CER awareness scenario, the greenness level, the production quantity, and the social welfare typically are higher when the party without CSR awareness is the leader. The only exception is that the greenness level of raw materials is higher under the supplier-led than the manufacturer-led when the supplier's CSR awareness is lower under the supplier-led and the manufacturer's CER-aware model. The third finding is that under the supplier-led, the greenness level of raw materials is highest when the manufacturer is CSR-aware; while under the manufacturer-led, the greenness level of raw materials is highest when the supplier is both CSR-aware and CER-aware.

Conditions of the process of building of awareness of corporate social responsibility as an element necessary to include CRS in customer purchases

Conditions of the process of building of awareness of corporate social responsibility as an element necessary to include CRS in customer purchases

Barriers to corporate social responsibility performance in construction organizations

PurposeThis study aims to identify and prioritize barriers to corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the construction sector.Design/methodology/approachA literature review was first conducted to identify barriers to CSR performance. After that, construction professionals were invited to validate the appropriateness of the obstacles. The discussion allowed the establishment of a list of barriers to CSR performance and their corresponding categories. Data collected from the survey were then analyzed to prioritize the importance of these barriers by the fuzzy DEMATEL-based ANP (DANP) technique.FindingsThe findings presented 16 barriers to CSR, which were categorized into four clusters. The fuzzy DANP analysis showed that strategic vision is the most crucial cluster, followed by the measurement system, stakeholder perspective and scarce resources. Among the sixteen barriers examined, lack of awareness, knowledge and information of CSR; low priority of CSR; lack of metrics to quantify CSR benefits; lack of guidelines and coherent strategies; and lack of CSR enforcement mechanism are the five most crucial barriers.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first that proposes a comprehensive model to prioritize barriers to CSR performance of contractors considering their interrelationships. It provides construction stakeholders with a framework for understanding the linkage between the barriers and CSR framework under the umbrella of stakeholder theory. Thus, the findings might assist construction practitioners and academics in fostering the success of CSR implementation.

Evaluate the Causal Relations among the Criteria in Successful CSR Practices

With the growing awareness of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), increasingly more companies are becoming aware that business cannot be limited to just maximizing stakeholders’ profit. An enterprise should include social responsibility to protect the environment and develop people’s talents. Maintaining business competitive power and sustainability while bringing contributions to society has become the new corporate performance target. In Taiwan, the hi-tech industry is an important economics index. Although some hi-tech companies have executed CSR, many of them have not. The reason is mainly due to not knowing how to begin executing CSR or they do not know the proper strategy. This study used the hi-tech industry as the sample for a Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) to analyze the CSR key factors and strategy. The result confirms that business leaders should start from the “Environment” and focus on “building a green supply chain”, “protecting stakeholders’ rights and interests” and “building enterprise CSR culture” as the strategy to execute CSR.

Do socially responsible audit firms provide higher audit quality? An investigation of corporate social responsibility activity in audit firms

PurposeThe paper aims to examine the corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity of audit firms.Design/methodology/approachUsing hand-collected data on all Chinese audit firms’ CSR activities from 2007 to 2020, this study constructs two measures to proxy for audit firms’ CSR engagement: a dummy variable to indicate whether an auditor engages in CSR activities in year t and the frequency with which auditors conduct CSR activities in year t. The authors use ordinary least squares regression as a baseline methodology, along with the entropy balancing method and instrumental variable approach to alleviate potential endogeneity concerns.FindingsThe baseline results show that socially responsible audit firms provide higher quality audit services than their counterparts. In particular, the authors find that clients audited by socially responsible audit firms are less likely to receive an aggressively clean opinion. Moreover, the findings suggest that CSR activities related to community and employees are more relevant in improving audit quality compared with those related to other dimensions of CSR. Further analyses show that capital markets and audit clients react positively to audit-firm CSR activity. Audit firms engaging in CSR increase their audit inputs in response to risky clients, as compared with their counterparts. Finally, cross-sectional analyses show that the positive relationship is more pronounced for non-Big 4 and non-industry experts and is attenuated by within-firm geographic dispersion. In terms of client characteristics, the positive effect of audit-firm CSR is stronger when their clients face the higher financial risk or have lower CSR awareness than others. Taken together, these findings are consistent with the ethical view of audit-firm CSR engagement.Practical implicationsThe study advances investors’ understanding of audit-firm CSR engagement and helps them evaluate the credibility of audited financial reports. Besides, the findings may also help guide the audit firms to conduct more CSR activities and help guide the audit clients to choose CSR audit firms.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study provides the first large-sample evidence by empirically examining the association between audit-firm CSR activity and audit service performance. Besides, this paper also explores audit-firm CSR activity from two competing perspectives, thereby providing a comprehensive understanding of this issue. Finally, this work responds to the call for more CSR research in emerging markets.

Impacts of CSR Undertaking Modes on Technological Innovation and Carbon-Emission-Reduction Decisions of Supply Chain

Taking a low-carbon supply chain composed of one producer and one retailer as the object, this paper explores the impacts of different corporate social responsibility (CSR)-undertaking-mode choices on the carbon-emission reduction and technological innovation decisions of the low-carbon supply chain. Under three CSR-undertaking modes, the optimal decisions of carbon-emission-reduction intensity and technological-innovation level of low-carbon supply chain are explored by using the Stackelberg game. Through a comparative analysis of the optimal equilibrium solutions, we found that, with the enhancement of CSR awareness of member firms, the carbon-emission-reduction intensity, technological innovation level, and product sales volume of the low-carbon supply chain under different CSR-undertaking modes are all improved, and the total profits and total welfare of the low-carbon supply chain are all increased. The carbon-emission-reduction intensity, technological innovation level, and product sales volume are all the highest under the mode of the retailer undertaking CSR, the second highest under the mode of the producer and retailer jointly undertaking CSR, and the lowest under the mode of the producer undertaking CSR mode. Therefore, under the background of technological innovation carried out by the producer, it is most conducive to promoting the development of low-carbon supply chain for the retailer to undertake social responsibility.