CSR Dimensions Research Articles

A Comparative Study of the Effect of Companies Act, 2013 On CSR Disclosure Practices Of Selected MNCs

CSR is vital in our present socioeconomic business scenario. Different MNCs have taken various initiatives in the era of globalisation for fulfillment of obligations under CSR. Globalisation has changed the dimension of CSR and done away with boundaries between domestic and multinational corporate. CSR is one priority obligation of the business world towards stakeholders. It is an essential feature for every organisation to create a brand image in the minds of local people. MNCs have a major task of fulfilling the needs of society at large.

Cultures of Responsibility : The Globalization of Corporate Social Responsibility

This paper explores the global CSR culture, including its global character, institutional rules and mechanisms, non-state participation, and voluntary nature. CSR is an inclusive term, meant to encompass multiple conceptions such as corporate citizenship and sustainability, and also cover an array of human rights, labor, environmental, and employee concerns. There are several observable cultures of responsibility but possibly the most prominent is the global nature of CSR ideas and practices. Current cultural conceptions of CSR thus acknowledge that business operations increasingly span national boundaries and that nation-bound policies may not be adequate to address social and environmental concerns as they emerge from business activities in cross-national context. A core cultural feature of CSR is the increasing rationalization of CSR issues, seen in the rise of CSR rules and mechanisms that explicitly delineate the principles by which businesses should conduct their CSR affairs. The culture of CSR has also largely incorporated a significant non-state component, both in the form of nongovernmental participation but also proactive involvement from businesses themselves. The cultural dimension of CSR is its voluntary nature, focusing on soft rather than hard forms of regulation. The global CSR culture is also marked by several distinctive contentions: private actor dominance, the problem of enforcement, CSR differences between small businesses and transnational corporations, and a governance divide between developed and developing countries. The consolidation of a global CSR culture, with its observable characteristics and areas of contention suggest several promising avenues of research for scholars interested in the cultural and institutional dimensions of corporate responsibility.

Exploring the connections among CSR performance, reporting, and external assurance: Evidence from the hospitality and tourism industry

This study explores the connections among corporate social responsibility performance, reporting, and external assurance in the hospitality and tourism industry by incorporating the Global Reporting Initiative framework. The originality of the study is that it tests signaling theory and the greenwashing tendency by examining different facets of corporate social responsibility engagement using a holistic approach with a cross-country sample. The data for the study were derived from the Thomson Reuters Eikon database for the years between 2012 and 2018. A panel data analysis with a Random-Effects estimator was run to test the hypothesized associations. Several conclusions were drawn based on the study. First, higher corporate social responsibility performers among hospitality and tourism companies have a higher propensity to publish corporate social responsibility reports. Second, higher corporate social responsibility achievements are a significant driving force behind the Global Reporting Initiative framework adoption. Third, among corporate social responsibility reporters, higher corporate social responsibility performers are more likely to assure their corporate social responsibility reports externally. Fourth, among corporate social responsibility reporters, Global Reporting Initiative framework adopters are more likely to assure their corporate social responsibility reports externally. Overall, the results verified the signaling theory but reject a greenwashing tendency in the hospitality and tourism sector. The proven links among the four dimensions of CSR incorporated into the study models indicate complementarity among the indicators. Besides, it should be noted that there is still a gap for improvement, particularly for non-corporate social responsibility reporters and for non-Global Reporting Initiative adopters.

The Influence of Client Corporate Social Responsibility Performance Information on Auditor Judgments

ABSTRACTOur experiment, with 106 practicing auditors, tests whether audit judgments are influenced by client CSR performance, individual auditors' views of CSR, and auditors' perceptions of client risk induced by CSR performance. Results indicate auditor judgments are less (more) conservative for clients with positive (negative) environmental performance. We find that client risk assessments mediate the link between environmental performance and account-level judgments. In contrast, results indicate that socially-oriented performance has no overall significant influence on audit judgments in our experiment. Overall, our results indicate that different dimensions of CSR and the salience of the CSR issue can have differential effects on audit judgments.Data Availability: Data available upon request.

Asymmetric CEO confidence and CSR: A nonlinear panel ARDL-PMG approach

The aim of this paper is to elucidate the relationship between managerial overconfidence/underconfidence and corporate social responsibility including the three ESG (environmental, social and governance) factors. Using an asymmetric nonstationary panel model, we detect the overconfidence (under confidence) component through positive (negative) overinvestment (underinvestment) changes. The Shin et al. (2014) nonlinear ARDL approach in panel form is used to construct our asymmetric panel ARDL-PMG model, and a sample of 68 large French companies over the period 2006-2016 is used. The asymmetric results first prove that a manager’s behavior seems to impact CSR only in the long term. Our asymmetric results also prove that CSR reacts positively to both managerial overconfidence and under-confidence shocks; Regardless of the personal traits of their manager, large companies have to be socially responsible. We then focus on the relationship between these two behavioral biases on each CSR dimension. We find a significant and negative impact of under confident leaders on the environmental dimension but a nonsignificant impact of overconfident leaders. For the governance dimension, we detect a positive effect of managerial overconfidence and managerial under confidence. However, we find a negative impact of overconfident and under confident leaders on the social dimension of CSR. According to these asymmetric findings, recommendations have been given in terms of the CSR strategy.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND THE MANDATORY INDIAN LEGAL REGIME: UNDERSTANDING WILLINGNESS OF CORPORATIONS

The theoretical construct of Corporate Social Responsibility has been developed by authors in the 20th century whereas philanthropic activities have been associated with corporations since its birth. Archie B. Carroll developed 4 dimensions of corporate social responsibility: economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic. This has further garnered the scope of understanding CSR from different perspective. The study aims to harmonize the development of corporate social responsibility focusing on a model based approach depicting a paradigm shift from shareholder to stakeholder theory of doing business. The research also ferrets out the moral and legal dimensions of CSR in India. A study has been made to understand the CSR fund utilization by twenty companies from 2014 to 2018 listed in the Bombay Stock Exchange. This study helps in understanding the willingness of corporations to spend towards CSR activities and subsequently measures have also been suggested for better engagement of corporations to be more socially responsible. KEYWORDS: Corporate social responsibility, Fund, Listed companies, Stakeholder, Willingness

Exploring global retailers' corporate social responsibility performance

Retailers serve as the main interface between business and society. This study explores the Corporate Social Responsibility priorities and performance of the largest 23 global retailers. This set of global retailers, who have a major impact on society, were studied in terms of social, environmental and sustainability practices and strategy, and there performance was analysed and evaluated. The study uses a four-dimensional Social, Economic, Environmental, Supply Chain model for sustainability performance evaluation. We rely on data collected from annual reports, and find that global retailers have addressed the business-society interface in relatively balanced ways for the different dimensions of CSR. Further, our findings indicate that global retailers in different regions have different CSR priorities. In particular, the data indicates that the US retailers place a lower priority on supply chain sustainability performance, followed by the Australians, while European retailers place a higher priority. The study concludes that while global retailers all pay attention to the same dimensions of CSR and do so differently in the different regions, the variation and lack of significant progress indicates that there is a role for stronger government regulation. This study contributes to the literature by shifting the analysis from country to a global level, is more objective in relying on reported data rather than interviews or surveys and provides a new analytical tool.

Constraints on “Doing Good”: Financial constraints and corporate social responsibility

Using a propensity score matched sample of firms, we find that financially constrained firms have significantly higher CSR concerns, which significantly impairs their overall CSR performance. Firms facing financial constraints may prioritize by strengthening their CSR performance in employee relations, corporate governance and the environment. Despite such prioritization, financial constraints significantly impair overall CSR performance in all CSR dimensions, except human rights.

AFFECTION OF CSR TO JOB SATISFACTION MEDIATED BY QUALITY OF WORK LIFE (CASE STUDY OF FOUR STAR HOTEL IN INDONESIA)

The purpose of this study is to discuss the perceptions of employees in the hospitality industry on corporate social responsibility and their influence on employee job satisfaction which is mediated by the quality of life of employees. This study hypothesizes about employee job satisfaction with corporate social responsibility mediated by the quality of work life. The population in this study consisted of the hotel industry with 4-star classes working for companies where CSR practices. Methods of data collection include the distribution of survey questionnaires. Using samples taken from four-star hotel employees in DKI Jakarta Indonesia, 175 samples were used as samples for analysis using the Structural Equation Model. The results showed that there are influences of each dimension of CSR (legal, economy, ethical, philanthropic) to the quality of work life. This study also shows the influence of employee job satisfaction to the quality of work-life of employees. There is a mediation of the quality of work-life between CSR dimensions to job satisfaction. This research is expected that the company can find out the needs that must be met by the company for job satisfaction of its employees through CSR activities.

Explaining the complexity relationship of CSR and financial performance using neo-institutional theory

PurposeThis study aims to prove the complexity of the relationship between CSR and financial performance (FP) and to decompose the complexity of the relationship using neo-institutional theory.Design/methodology/approachThis research employs a meta-analysis that integrates 55 various contexts studied between 1998 and 2017 using correlation coefficient as the effect size.FindingsThis study proves that the nature of the relationship between CSR and FP is complex and suggests that the analysis of the relationship between the two variables includes institutional factors to produce generalizable conclusions. Country characteristics, forms and dimensions of CSR, CSR measurements and FP measurements explain the complexity of the relationship between CSR and FP.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research is expected to include industry characteristics and the corporate governance model in the analysis of the relationship between CSR and FP. Differences in industry characteristics affect the selection of CSR forms and dimensions, bringing it the potential to influence the relationship between CSR and FP. The corporate governance model adopted by developing countries and developed countries also has the potential to be an institutional factor to influence the relationship between CSR and FP.Originality/valueThis research proves that the complexity of the relationship between CSR and FP is nature given. This research explores the factors causing the complexity of the relationship using neo-institutional theory, which, to the author's knowledge, has not been done by other researchers.

The Impact of CSR Dimensions on Customer Participation Behaviour in Banking Industry of Pakistan

This papers examines the impact of Customer dimension of CSR, local community dimension of CSR, employee dimension of CSR, supplier dimension of CSR on customer participation behaviour. Data was collected from 453 banking customers of Pakistan. Smart PlS was used to test the measurement model and structural equation modelling technique was run to test the hypotheses. The study found that all corporate social responsibility initiatives have positive impact on customer participation behaviour. The customer dimension of CSR have more influence to for active participation of customers followed by the local community dimension of CSR, employee dimension of CSR and supplier dimension of CSR. This study covered all primary stakeholders under the head of stakeholders’ theory and highlighted the importance of supplier-oriented corporate social responsibility for customer participation behaviour due to end-users. This study also sheds the light that customers have been changing their role from passive participation to active participation.

Impact of corporate social responsibility on corporate financial performance: Evidence from the Maldives stock exchange

BACKGROUND: Although CSR has been studied extensively based on developed countries, very few studies has been done on developing economies. Likewise, the field of CSR is still uncovered ground, at an early stage of development in the Maldives. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to examine the impact of overall CSR ranking, and individual CSR dimensions on the financial performance of the listed companies in the Maldives. METHODOLOGY: Secondary data related to CSR, financial variables have been collected from the Maldives Stock Exchange, and through content analysis, a CSR index was developed. RESULTS: Findings demonstrated a significant relationship between overall CSR ranking and financial. However, among the dimensions of CSR, only the community and governance have a significant positive association with financial measures, where else the dimensions of employees and environment do not have any significance with financial performance. CONCLUSION: The paper includes implications to control the effect of CSR on company performance strategically and to revise their business philosophies to a socially responsible approach. It also contributes to helping the decision-makers to come up with concepts to initiate and provide a social performance rating for the Maldives listed companies.

CONSUMER UNDERSTANDING OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY DIMENSIONS : AN APPLICATION OF CSR PYRAMID MODEL IN INDIAN CONTEXT

This study empirically examines applicability of Carroll's pyramid model of CSR dimensions in India. The study employed online survey method, using 934 respondents, from six major cities in India, across different demographics. The findings show that most Indian consumers are aware of CSR, with older and more educated Indian consumers, from privileged socio-economic classes being more aware than others. Their understanding is that CSR is pre-eminently about following laws, followed by ethical responsibilities towards the environment and regarding human rights while economic and philanthropic dimensions are considered to be relatively less important. The findings will help corporate India, with its historical penchant for philanthropy, to note the consumer perspective and reap the benefits of strategic CSR. The study sheds light on the way forward for CSR practices in the large and growing consumer market of India, being one of the very few consumer studies using the CSR pyramid in India.

LEGAL AND ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

The article concerns one of the most popular phenomena in the business currently, which is corporate social responsibility (Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR). Its authors discuss the legal dimension of CSR and the attempts to define it in European documents and international standards. The analysis focuses on the SA 8000, ISO 26000 and AA 1000 standards. The article also discusses the economic dimension of CSR as a part of the company's strategy, especially in the face of growing trends related to sustainable economic development, growing consumer awareness and the need to address the socio-ethical issues of production or trade. It is also proposed to divide the economic aspects of CSR by their tangibility or intangibility. The impact of CSR on the financial results of enterprises is also discussed.

The Current Status of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure of Islamic Shari-based Banking Companies in Bangladesh

The purpose of this study is to examine the current extent and any difference (if any) of CSR disclosure of Islamic Sharia-based banking companies in Bangladesh during the period of 2011-2015. Content analysis is adopted to accumulate the data from company’s annual reports. The CSR checklist comprise of sixteen dimensions (including 85 items) of CSR activities i.e., ‘Environment’, Disaster management, ‘Sports, Shelter, Women, Disabled, Liberation war, Health, Education, Energy, Minorities, Employee, Product responsibility, IT, Community and Government. The study reveals that the grand mean disclosure of CSR information in annual report of Islamic banks is 25.89% with a standard deviation of 5.49%. Empirical evidence provides that there is statistically significant difference of CSR disclosure among Islamic Sharia-based banking companies in Bangladesh. But there is no significant difference of CSR disclosure of Islamic banking industry in Bangladesh year to year. Moreover, CSR disclosure of Islamic Shari-based banking companies is not diversified rather concentrated on some specific dimension and items of CSR. The study is mainly based on annual reports for the financial year 2011-2015 of Islamic Sharia-based banking companies in Bangladesh. Hence, the conclusion reached cannot be generalized.

Analysis of the relationships between corporate social responsibility and corporate sustainability: empirical study of co-operativism in Ecuador

ABSTRACTCorporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate sustainability have been subject to wide academic debate in recent times. However, publications that connect both constructs in most parts are clearly theoretical. The aim of this work is to analyse the possible relationship between corporate social responsibility and corporate sustainability in Ecuadorian co-operatives. These approaches lead to focusing this study on the perceptions of internal and external stakeholders. For this, a sample of 2,042 individuals from these social economy institutions was used. Various covariance-based structural equation modelling (CB-SEM) examples were developed in order to determine the effect of the dimensions of the CSR within the dimensions of corporate sustainability. The main findings of this research allowed for the determination that there is a positive and statistically significant correlation between the dimensions of these constructs. In any case, within the relationships of the four CSR dimensions identified (economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic), the greatest link among them with the social dimension of corporate sustainability is highlighted. This model explains 30.2% of the variance of this dimension. Specifically, its link with the economic dimension (γ = 0.27, p < 0.001) and the legal dimension (γ = 0.11, p < 0,001) of CSR stands out.

Are corporate social responsibility disclosures relevant for lenders? Empirical evidence from France

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to test whether or not CSR disclosure (i.e. aggregate as well as its three sub-indicators) reduces the cost of debt for French corporations listed in the SBF 120 index between 2010 and 2015.Design/methodology/approachCSR disclosure ratings of firms were collected from the Bloomberg database under three dimensions such as environmental, social and governance (ESG). Then, a pooled regression analysis was run.FindingsThe results indicate that overall CSR disclosure score as a combination of ESG disclosure scores has a negative effect on the cost of debt (i.e. lowers the cost of debt). While environmental disclosure is negatively associated with the cost of debt, social disclosure is unexpectedly positively associated, and governance disclosure has an insignificant association with the cost of debt.Research limitations/implicationsThe study has two main limitations. First, the analysis does not consider contractual constraints and obligations that might exist in debt contracts (Jung et al., 2018). Second, the analyses cover a specific time period (i.e. between 2010 and 2015) for a specific country (i.e. France) excluding utilities and the financial sector.Practical implicationsOverall, it is inferred from the results that financial markets for lenders take into account CSR disclosure when assessing the creditworthiness of borrowers. Specifically, environmental disclosure is the only subdimension of CSR that is influential on creditors’ decisions to offer favorable interest rates. In line with this outcome, companies can assess their processes and be more aligned with eco-friendly practices, and investors are particularly advised to invest in those types of firms.Originality/valueThis study extends scant literature on the association between CSR and the cost of debt by exploring how creditors treat CSR dimensions dissimilarly in granting loans to firms. The findings of this study have particular importance as financial debt is one of the most predominant forms of external financing.

The effect of CSR commitment on firms’ level of internationalization

PurposeCorporate social responsibility (CSR) has received considerable research attention globally over the past decade. Although a growing number of prior studies have investigated the various dimensions of CSR in general terms, few studies have investigated the critical role that CSR can play in the internationalization process of firms.Design/methodology/approachUsing S&P 500 companies during 2004-2014, the authors found that the level of CSR commitment raises the level of reliability of firm and allows further international penetration. Moreover, better regulatory quality of host country is at actual support of internationalization only when considering the short term.FindingsBetter regulatory quality of host country is at actual support of internationalization only when considering the short term.Originality/valueThe authors build on internationalization theory and CSR and examine the relationship between firms’ level of internationalization and CSR commitment.

Dimensions of CSR in Online Communication of Pharmaceutical Companies: A Comparative Study

Abstract The article focuses on analysis of online communication of pharmaceutical companies in the field of CSR. It is based on the fact that there are specific segments in the economy, which are called sensitive sectors. Even though they are often perceived as irresponsible in their nature, there are effective communication tools, which can used to increase positive corporate image. The present study is a part of a larger research that we conducted in the segment of pharmaceutical industry. We used information about companies available on their websites as a research material. We reviewed their availability on websites, but we also reviewed the content on which companies usually focus in terms of social engagement. Our research was supposed to prove that there are considerable differences among companies in our sample. We analyzed (qualitative content analysis) collected data (basic corporate documents like mission, vision and corporate values) using statistical procedures. These documents are crucial to corporate strategies, and often deal with responsibility issues which are then transformed into business strategies, tactics and programs. According to the nature of the research the generalization of the information provided is relatively limited.

A Research on the Relationship between the Dimensions of Corporate Social Responsibility

Conscious societies closely monitor the activities of the businesses and the results of their activities and show their reactions on an activity they do not find correct or sufficient. This not only leads to intensification of competition among businesses, but also urges governments to make some legal arrangements for the activities of businesses. All these developments form the basis of corporate social responsibility practices. CSR consists of economic, legal, ethical and voluntary responsibilities and these dimensions are interrelated. The fulfillment of one responsibility by the business managers depend on the fulfillment of another responsibility. In other words, investing in a responsibility can facilitate the fulfillment of other responsibilities. With this study, in the province of Şırnak, it was aimed to determine the importance given to the CSR dimensions by SME managers and to reveal the relations between these dimensions. In the hierarchical regression analysis, it was determined that voluntary responsibility partially mediated the relationship between economic and ethical responsibility. It was also found that legal responsibility has a moderating effect on the relationship between economic and ethical responsibility.