Corporate Social Responsibility Efforts Research Articles

Do well, do good, and know your audience: the double-edged sword of values-based CSR communication

The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts of brands impact consumers’ willingness to support them, yet consumers are generally skeptical about CSR communication. This empirical work uses three experimental studies to show that framing CSR messages in values-based terms (“It is our duty to engage in this CSR initiative”) enhances consumers’ brand attitudes by increasing perceived moralization and perceived commitment to the initiative. More interestingly, we show that this effect is reversed for highly formalistic consumers (those motivated by the duty to follow values, principles, and rules) who are opposed to the CSR initiative. We also show that in the long term, values-based frames can lead to higher perceived hypocrisy in the eyes of highly formalistic people if the firm does not live up to its lofty principles. This is the first paper to establish the link between values-based CSR communication, perceived moralization, perceived commitment, and brand attitudes. It also brings together the research streams on CSR communication and consumer ethical systems to show that though values-based framing of CSR is a high-return strategy for brands in terms of improved brand attitudes, it is also a high-risk strategy for firms targeting highly formalistic consumers.

From the Substantive to the Ceremonial: Exploring Interrelations Between Recognition and Aspirational CSR Talk

Stakeholder recognition constitutes a firm’s experience of affirmation and acknowledgment from stakeholders and is deemed essential for organizations to develop positive self-relations and a sense of themselves as morally responsible social actors. Through an in-depth case study, I show how a firm’s varied experiences of stakeholder recognition for its corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts alternately facilitated and hindered the performativity of its aspirational CSR talk through two key processes: (a) a recognition-attainment process whereby the experience of stakeholder recognition helped turn aspirational CSR talk into “substantive” talk with the performative potential to catalyze other CSR practices; and (b) a subsequent recognition-commodification process induced by a perceived misrecognition that ultimately rendered such talk “ceremonial.” Elucidating stakeholder recognition as an undertheorized boundary condition of aspirational CSR talk, this study adds to performative approaches to CSR communication. It further contributes to research on recognition by demonstrating the explanatory potential of Axel Honneth’s notion of recognition in researching business and society interactions.

The Power of Purpose: How Perceptions of Purpose Influence Individual Outcomes

Aligning human and financial resources to a compelling purpose can produce benefits for organizations and society. Thus, increased attention in the popular business press has focused on becoming a “purpose-driven” organization. Yet surprisingly, there is a notable absence of academic research on organizational purpose. We begin to address this gap by presenting the results of three studies focusing specifically on micro employee-level perceptions of organizational purpose. The first study improves upon previously unvalidated approaches to employee-level measurement of purpose. The second study demonstrates how corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts influence purpose, making organizations more attractive to prospective employees. In the third study, we test a moderated mediation model with existing employees, emphasizing controllable ways organizations can instill purpose and demonstrating meaningful influences on individual outcomes. Using cross-sectional, experimental, and longitudinal methodologies, we establish organizational purpose as a central mediating construct through which antecedent forces like CSR and transformational leadership translate into positive employee outcomes, including organizational attractiveness, commitment, and decreased turnover intentions. We make several contributions to the organizational behavior and leadership literatures, advancing an emergent empirical focus on the power of purpose in organizations.

Corporate social responsibility and export performance under stakeholder view: The mediation of innovation and the moderation of the legal form

AbstractPrior confronting findings on the association between corporate social responsibility and profitability show that some aspects remain to be clarified about this binomial. Contributing to this body of research is particularly interesting in the case of the exporters to understand the role that corporate social responsibility may play in improving export performance. This study aims to determine the impact of firms' corporate social responsibility efforts on their export performance by examining innovation and the legal form of the organization as factors that could affect this relationship. Using data from 107 agri‐food companies, we found that corporate social responsibility has no direct effect on export performance. However, our results show that innovation serves as a mediator in this relationship. It was also found that companies that adopt associative legal forms (i.e., cooperatives) benefit more from their social responsibility practices than companies that adopt non‐associative legal forms.

COLLABORATIVE GOVERNANCE IN EDUCATION CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) PROGRAMS IN PAHAE JULU, NORTH TAPANULI REGENCY, NORTH SUMATERA PROVINCE

The Pahae Julu District's Education CSR initiative is a form of collaboration between stakeholders to overcome limited resources to improve education quality, which is still deemed low. This research aims to gain an overview of government collaboration in the education sector through the execution of CSR initiatives, implementation difficulties and efforts to overcome them in Pahae Julu District. This research used a quasi-qualitative research method. Interviews, observation, and documentation were data collection procedures that used data triangulation techniques. Data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drafting were data analysis approaches. According to the findings of this research, the Government Collaboration on the Implementation of the Educational Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) ran smoothly before 2020, but several programs were hampered and temporarily suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. However, the government, corporation, and community will continue to work together to maximize this collaboration for mutual prosperity, particularly in improving educational quality, strengthening commitment by creating program designs and efforts to mobilize common interests, developing a plan for setting standards (indicators of success) to facilitate evaluation, and anticipating inhibiting factors that become obstacles by increasing community participation.
 Keywords: Collaborative Governance, Corporate Social Responsibility, Education

Does sustainable board governance drive corporate social responsibility? A structured literature review on European archival research

PurposeThis paper aims to analyze the impact that sustainable board governance has on corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the European capital market because of the current debate of future European regulations on the topic.Design/methodology/approachBased on a legitimacy and stakeholder theoretical framework, the author conducts a structured literature review and includes 86 quantitative peer-reviewed empirical (archival) studies on board gender diversity, sustainability board expertise and sustainability-related executive compensation and their impact on CSR variables.FindingsGender board diversity represents the most important variable in this literature review. The included categories of sustainable board governance positively influence both the total CSR and environmental outputs.Research limitations/implicationsA detailed analysis of sustainable board governance proxies is needed in future archival research to differentiate between symbolic and substantive use of CSR. In view of the current European reform initiatives on sustainable corporate governance in line with the EU Green Deal project, future research should also analyze the interactions between the included sustainable board governance variables and their contributions to CSR.Practical implicationsAs both stakeholder demands’ on CSR outputs and CSR washing have increased since the financial crisis of 2008–2009, firms should be aware of a substantive integration of sustainability within their boards of directors (e.g. because of composition and compensation) to increase their CSR efforts and long-term firm reputation.Originality/valueThis analysis makes useful contributions to prior research by focusing on sustainable board governance as a key determinant of CSR outputs on the European capital market. The European Commission’s future evidence-based regulations [e.g. the corporate sustainability reporting directive (CSRD) and the corporate sustainability due diligence directive (CSDD)] should be promoted.

The effect of institutional CSR on brand advocacy during COVID-19: the moderated mediation effect of CSR expectancy and value-driven motivation

PurposeThis research aims to understand consumer responses to corporate social responsibility (CSR) during an unprecedented public health crisis. Specifically, two studies were conducted to investigate how companies’ different CSR initiatives in the early stage of COVID-19 would influence consumers’ advocacy intention according to their focus (i.e. targets of institutional CSR). The first study examined the moderating role of individuals’ CSR expectancy on the effects of companies’ CSR initiatives on consumers’ brand advocacy intention. The second study further extends the findings of Study 1 by examining the mediating role of perceived brand motive.Design/methodology/approachTwo between-subject online experiments were conducted to explore the impact of three types of institutional CSR initiatives (i.e. community, employee and consumer-centered CSRs) on brand advocacy. Study 1 (N = 380) examined the moderating role of CSR expectancy in influencing consumer responses to institutional CSR initiatives. Study 2 (N = 384) explored the underlying mechanism through examining the mediating role of a company’s value-driven motivation in the process.FindingsStudy 1 indicated that institutional CSR, regardless of type, was more effective in generating a more significant brand advocacy intention than a promotional message, measured as a baseline. The impact of different kinds of institutional CSR on consumers’ brand advocacy intentions was significantly moderated by their CSR-related expectations. Specifically, individuals with moderate to high CSR expectancy showed higher brand advocacy intentions in both consumer- and employee-centered CSR initiatives than the promotional message. In comparison, those with low CSR expectancy only showed higher brand advocacy intentions in the community-centered CSR initiative. In addition, as individuals’ CSR expectations rose, the mediation effect of the perceived value-driven motivation became stronger.Research limitations/implicationsThe current study includes guiding principles to help companies effectively respond to COVID-19 as corporate citizens by demonstrating the importance of individuals’ CSR expectancy across three CSR initiatives. This study used real-life examples of how leading companies were stepping up CSR efforts and suggested an approach that aligns CSR behaviors with the urgent and fundamental human needs of COVID-19.Originality/valueIn line with the CSR goal of maximizing benefits for stakeholders, this study’s findings signal that situational changes determine CSR expectations and that companies must be highly susceptible to the changes in consumers’ expectations of CSR and their appraisal process of CSR motives to maximize its CSR value.

Luxurious and responsible? Consumer perceptions of corporate social responsibility efforts by luxury versus mass-market brands

Luxurious and responsible? Consumer perceptions of corporate social responsibility efforts by luxury versus mass-market brands

An analysis of impact of CSR practices on investment behaviour

The increase in socially responsible investors increased the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and made it more important, especially in the last decade. Now investors are not only considering the return in terms of monetary gain but the impact on society as well. This research shows that a connection between a company’s CSR efforts and its stock price success may be established. Furthermore, it demonstrates that investors may have negative reactions to CSR performance that is either too low or too high. Due to the importance of socially responsible investing, managers should focus on enhancing their companies’ CSR efforts. A CSR programme, according to a study assessment, has no effect on the market value of a company. It is possible, however, that investors’ purpose in making decisions about concern corporations might moderate the link of CSR in market capitalization. The research employs a descriptive design and data collection techniques such as snowball sampling to obtain information from investors. SPSS was used to do statistical analysis on 150 samples gathered from the investors.

Analyzing the Concept of Corporate Sustainability in the Context of Sustainable Business Development in the Mining Sector with Elements of Circular Economy

Promoting the concept and principles of sustainable development at the micro level requires that industrial companies understand and improve approaches to managing corporate sustainability. Currently, economics does not provide a universal definition of what corporate sustainability is. With regard to the mining sector, corporate sustainability issues reflecting the viability, value, and sustainable development potential of companies have not yet been studied extensively. The article discusses the conceptual foundations of corporate sustainability; the characteristics and a classification of approaches to defining corporate sustainability; and the relationship between corporate sustainability, sustainable development at the micro level, and circular economy. By analyzing the example of Russia, the influence of the mining industry on the environmental, economic, and social development of both a country with a resource-based economy and individual mining regions is shown from the viewpoint of sustainability. The distinguishing features of mining companies, which include natural capital and mineral assets, are studied in the context of promoting corporate sustainability. It is proven that the effective corporate management of ESG factors results in environmental and social influence that goes in line with sustainable development requirements and serves as a foundation for corporate sustainability. A refined definition of corporate sustainability has been formulated, the specific features of corporate sustainability management in mining companies have been determined, and the specific features of corporate social responsibility have been studied. The issue of integrating circular economy elements into the corporate sustainability concept is discussed, and it is claimed that the inclusion of circular business models in the corporate strategies of mining companies will contribute to their corporate sustainable development and boost their contribution to the achievement of sustainable development goals.

Can strategic message framing mitigate the negative effects of skeptical comments against corporate-social-responsibility communication on social networking sites?

This study connected framing theory with corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication literature to examine whether a CSR message that emphasizes customers’ contribution to CSR efforts can enhance CSR communication and mitigate the negative effects of skeptical comments from other users on social networking sites (SNSs). Specifically, this study examined whether a customer-credit-sharing CSR message, compared to a conventional self-promoting message, better mitigated the effects of skeptical comments from other SNSs users on values-driven motives perceived by customers, customers’ positive attitudes, and behavioral intentions. It also explored whether the effects of strategic framing changed when skeptical comments were made online by friends or strangers. A total of 400 customers participated in an online between-subjects experiment. The results showed that the credit-sharing message better protected perceived values-driven motives and positive attitudes toward the company after the customers were exposed to skeptical comments, regardless of who posted the skeptical comments. Customers who read the credit-sharing message also showed stronger intention to defend the company’s CSR efforts and stronger purchase intention when the skeptical comments came from a friend. More theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Urban utopia or pipe dream? Examining Chinese-invested smart city development in Southeast Asia

With increasing public–private partnership and international cooperation in smart city development across the Global South, Chinese firms are poised to take advantage of growing business opportunities, a situation that few studies have examined. This empirical case study of the Forest City, a Chinese-invested greenfield smart city project in Iskandar Malaysia, begins to fill that gap. This megaproject represents the coming together of overlapping economic development interests of the local authorities and the profit motivations of the Chinese investor. However, the project’s use of the ‘smart city’ discourse contrasts with the reality of limited technology adoption. Its visibility and considerable socio-economic and environmental impacts also sparked opposition from affected local stakeholders and criticism from political leaders. This prompted the Chinese investor to change business practices and enhance corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts to mitigate risks and ensure project continuity, yet their effectiveness is limited. The study confirms the underlying tensions in the smart city discourse, where economic development and profit imperatives risk running counter to social and environmental sustainability. It also contributes to scholarly understanding of Chinese overseas investments, illustrating the host country’s agency and how better Chinese CSR practices offer the potential for risk mitigation.

The journey from Corporate Social Responsibility to Corporate Social Innovation: The Whys and the Hows

On the path to industrialization, companies sought to create value for customers, shareholders, and owners. The relentless pursuit of profitability violated the rights of some community members and provoked several protests against the violation of human rights and negligence of environmental issues. Companies first understood these problems and accepted the demands of stakeholders. However, following the closure of many businesses that were not socially responsible, companies decided to apply general principles to create a good social image. Therefore, they stopped the protests against them by preventing the emergence of social problems and severe consequences of companies' actions towards society and nature. These events led to the introduction of the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Accordingly, companies attempted to take action and create a good social image of themselves by spending some money before being obliged by the law and society to deal with the negative social and environmental consequences of their activities. The problem was that companies spent only part of their profits on projects that they thought would receive the most significant social feedback. However, in traditional charitable CSR efforts, it is often impossible to undertake an activity and measure its tangible social outcomes in the long run. Companies must pursue a strategic concept that produces sustainable social changes by engaging different company segments and stakeholders. This concept is called corporate social innovation (CSI). This study defined the concept of CSR and showed how the definitions and concepts and corporate trends have shifted from CSR to CSI over the course of time.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Programs in Sarangani Province: Promotion of the Triple Bottom Line Framework of Sustainability

This study aimed to determine the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs implemented by business organizations in Sarangani Province in the frame of Triple Bottom Line Framework of Sustainability – People, Planet, and Profit (3Ps). It employed the mixed method research design using sequential qualitative and quantitative survey-type techniques. It involved fifty-two (52) respondents from medium-sized and large companies. Findings show that the main CSR drivers were customer satisfaction and company reputation/image while the major barrier was the lack of support from top management. In terms of involvement, the companies made efforts to address social injustice; partnered with communities to provide financial assistance; promoted waste management, energy, and water conservation; and, ensured employee well-being. In terms of integrating corporate citizenship, the companies recognized the role of leaders as CSR champions; incorporated CSR policies and integrated CSR initiatives in program development; installed CSR in their operational systems, as well as enabled M&E mechanisms. In assessing CSR program implementation, the companies established safety protocols in the workplace; educated their employees and the communities on environmental protection; and, hired local people from host communities. On issues and challenges, financial constraint was cited as a major concern while the benefits were gained from the areas of environmental conservation and compliance to national and local laws. Hence, the study concluded that many business organizations in Sarangani have already taken 3Ps- anchored proactive steps through CSR to make valuable contributions for the continuous development of medium and large-scale enterprises. It is therefore recommended that business organizations should increase their CSR program focus on Gender Equality, develop more CSR champions, increase employee involvement in CSR initiatives, and further CSR efforts through increased funding, while the government should introduce strategic measures to further encourage more companies to undertake CSR.

CSR committees, politicians and CSR efforts

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study the relationships among the presence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) committee, politicians on CSR committee and CSR disclosure in 10-Ks using data from S&P 500 firms during 2005–2013.Design/methodology/approachThe authors manually check the information of CSR committees as well as committees with CSR/sustainability functions from proxy statements (DEF 14a). CSR disclosure from 10-Ks is obtained by using a Python library named Beautiful Soup 4 to clean the rough data from the raw format files from EDGAR.FindingsThe authors find that superior sustainability governance is associated with more voluntary CSR disclosure in their 10-K reports. More importantly, they find that CSR committee members with working experiences as politicians play an important role to improve CSR disclosure. In the robustness tests, they find that CSR committee and the politicians on CSR committee are also associated with high KLD CSR score ratings.Practical implicationsThe finding in our paper that politicians on CSR committee can enhance CSR efforts may provide practical implications to some companies. Companies may consider inviting people who have political connections and experience to serve on CSR committees.Originality/valueThe authors find the presence of politicians on CSR committee is associated with CSR disclosure and CSR performance. That's new to the CSR governance literature and makes contributions to CSR disclosures and CSR committee expertise and skills.

Fostering Advocacy Behavior of Employees: A Corporate Social Responsibility Perspective From the Hospitality Sector.

Considering the stiff competitiveness situation in every sector, promoting the advocacy behavior of employees is of seminal importance for an organization. With this regard, the hospitality sector has no exceptions, however, a review of the prior literature uncovers that most of the prior studies on advocacy behavior were conducted from the standpoint of consumers, and the role of employees’ advocacy behavior, especially in the context of the hospitality sector, remained an understudied area. Research also shows that the corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts of an organization can significantly influence employees’ behavior but the relationship of CSR to spur employees’ advocacy behavior was not discussed earlier. Against this knowledge gap, the current work aims to investigate the relationship between CSR and employees’ advocacy behavior in the hotel sector of a developing economy with the mediating effect of employees’ engagement. A hypothesized model was developed, which was validated by collecting data from different hotel employees through a self-administered questionnaire. The findings offer different theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, one important implication was that the CSR perceptions of hotel employees can drive their advocacy behavior. Practically, the study implicates that hotels can improve their reputation significantly by converting their employees into advocates, as the personal information source is preferred over company-generated information sources. Moreover, the CSR commitment of a hotel can lead the employees to a higher level of engagement, which then motivates them to act as advocates.

Socially stigmatized company’s CSR efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic: The effects of CSR fit and perceived motives

Acknowledging the unique challenges of the socially stigmatized industry and the substantial but varying impact of COVID-19 on business, this study examined how corporate social responsibility (CSR) fit influences public attitudinal and behavioral responses. This study found that low (high) CSR fit generated a higher level of public-serving motive (firm-serving motive) than high (low) fit CSR. The fit effect on public-serving motives was changed by the valence of the COVID-19 impact (negative vs. positive) on the financial performance. This study also found that the fit affects attitudinal and behavioral intentions (word of mouth) mediated via public-serving motives, moderated by the valence of the pandemic impact. The findings hold implications for the stigmatized industry companies’ CSR initiatives in the context of the unexpected crisis, like the pandemic.

Impact of modern slavery allegations on operating performance

PurposeModern slavery is a humanitarian problem that affects global supply chains. Given the increasing pressures from legislature, consumers and investors, firms have a growing interest in eliminating forced labor and modern slavery from their supply chains. However, the impact of modern slavery on firm performance has not been shown before. This paper aims to investigate the impact of modern slavery allegations on companies’ operational performance. It also looks at the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts with respect to modern slavery.Design/methodology/approachThe authors collect news articles on modern slavery in the global supply chains. The authors use an event study and use a robust matching method to measure the operational impact of modern slavery allegations. The authors also analyze the effects of media coverage and CSR practices on the relationship between allegations and firm performance.FindingsThe results show that modern slavery allegations do have a negative impact on performance, but this impact does not last long. The authors also show that strong CSR practices help firms mitigate the negative effect of these allegations.Research limitations/implicationsBecause the issue is hidden, as a result limited data, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to retest the proposed propositions in the future.Practical implicationsThe paper includes implications for the development of socially responsible supply chains and financial impact.Originality/valueThis paper presents the first empirical research investigating the impact of modern slavery allegations on companies’ operational performance.

Corporate sustainability crisis: Theoretical framework and stakeholder‐oriented typology

AbstractResearch on corporate crises has yielded numerous, partly overlapping crisis concepts from the corporate perspective without adequately addressing the stakeholder perspective and sustainability and corporate social responsibility characteristics. This conceptual paper aims to develop a stakeholder‐oriented typology of corporate sustainability crises. For this purpose, conceptual gaps and requirements are identified, and a theoretical framework is developed from which stakeholder‐related typology criteria are derived. The typology developed differentiates between eight crisis types that are interrelated and can also develop dynamically over time. By including and delimiting various crises concepts within a uniform framework, this paper contributes to the further development of knowledge in this still underdeveloped research field. As a result, insights into the early identification and further development of crises can be gained, which is especially important for crisis managers. In addition, public policymakers and actors of nonstate governance are supported in assessing the prerequisites and potentials of companies and stakeholders as actors of nonstate governance in dealing with various types of corporate sustainability crises, thereby contributing to achieving sustainability goals.

Research on Corporate Social Responsibility Coordination of Three-Tier Supply Chain Based on Stochastic Differential Game.

In the Internet era, consumers prefer products with the attributes of social responsibility. Supply chain enterprises strengthen corporate social responsibility (CSR) management for their own development. To improve CSR throughout the supply chain, it requires coordination and cooperation among the members of the supply chain. In this paper, we consider a three-tier supply chain system consisting of a supplier, a manufacturer, and a retailer and use stochastic differential game to study the CSR coordination of the supply chain. The following indicators are investigated under four decision situations, such as the optimal level of CSR effort for the supply chain members, the optimal value of profit for the supply chain members and the supply chain system, and the expectation and variance of CSR goodwill. Some important results are obtained. (i) Compared with decentralized decision-making, the optimal level of CSR effort increases for the supplier and the manufacturer under local alliance decision-making without cost sharing, whereas the optimal level of CSR effort remains unchanged for the retailer. (ii) Compared with local alliance decision-making without cost sharing, the optimal level of CSR effort remains unchanged for the supplier and the manufacturer under local alliance decision-making with cost sharing. When the sum of the marginal profit for the supplier and the manufacturer is greater than half of the marginal profit for the retailer, the optimal level of CSR effort increases for the retailer. (iii) Compared with local alliance decision-making with cost sharing, the optimal level of CSR effort increases for the supply chain members under overall alliance decision-making. (iv) From decentralized decision-making to local alliance decision-making without cost sharing, to local alliance decision-making with cost sharing, and then to overall alliance decision-making, the optimal value of profit increases for the supply chain members and the supply chain system. Also, the expectation and variance of CSR goodwill increase.