Implicit Corporate Social Responsibility Research Articles

Corporate Tax Responsibility: Expectations of Implicit and Explicit CSR in the U.K. Media

Corporations have increasingly been called on to assume responsibilities for paying fairer shares of tax, while, at the same time, governments have been repeatedly urged to develop more effective corporate tax systems to tackle tax avoidance. Therefore, institutional attributions of tax responsibility for companies seem to have features of both explicit and implicit corporate social responsibility (CSR). However, given that we lack a clear understanding of which form or forms of CSR in relation to tax are expected of companies and how exactly this might be changing, we examine the evolution in institutional expectations of explicit and implicit CSR for corporate taxation. Drawing on a longitudinal content analysis of 992 news media articles from the United Kingdom between 2000 and 2021, we find that institutional expectations of corporate tax responsibility have followed a process of continuous and non-linear hybridization characterized by a pendulum-like trajectory of explicitization followed by implicitization. We discuss the implications of these findings for the theory and practice of corporate tax responsibility and the framework of explicit/implicit CSR.

Navigating offshoring supply chain management decisions between cost advantages and corporate social responsibility risk

In the globalised world, companies would source major parts of their production, mainly for economic reasons, from low-cost countries. Therefore, it is important to understand implicit corporate social responsibility (CSR) risk when making offshoring decisions. This article presents a transparent composite index of CSR risk for a list of 170 countries. Combining the country CSR index with GDP per capita can help firms identify attractive offshoring destinations with relatively low CSR risk. This innovative approach allows companies to reconcile CSR considerations with economic success when designing international supply chains.

Professionalization and Corporate Social Responsibility: A Comparative Study on German and US Job Requirements in CSR

Given the steady interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR), this study explores the process of professionalization of CSR. Drawing upon the literature on ‘organizational’ professionals, explicit and implicit CSR, as well as varieties of capitalism, professionalization of CSR is explored in order to trace processes of explicitization and potential cross-national differences between the United States and Germany. In a comparative longitudinal study, we analyse job announcements in the field of CSR and find that although the hybridity of explicit and implicit CSR between the US and Germany is starting to unfold, job characteristics and job requirements in CSR in Germany and the US are still not the same. Our results suggest there is a more distinct trend in professionalization in the US than in Germany in terms of the manifestation of explicit CSR and that the institutional context is linked to how employers drive professionalization processes in non-traditional professions.

Conceptualizing corporate social responsibility practice: an integration of obligation and opportunity

PurposeThis paper aims to develop an integrated model to analyse the corporate social responsibility (CSR) perception of organizations in a regulated environment. The developed model is used as a basis to analyse practice and perception of CSR using the obligation-opportunity concepts.Design/methodology/approachThe paper critically reviews the seminal literature and identifies inherent shortcomings in CSR’s existing conceptualizations. The concepts of implicit and explicit CSR are used to build a case for the integrated obligation-opportunity conceptual model. To analyse the CSR perception of select Indian organizations, a set of propositions are developed. The propositions are evaluated using the interpretive qualitative approach to analyse interviews from 12 CSR heads across 10 organizations.FindingsThe paper develops an obligation-opportunity conceptual model as an analytical tool to visually map existing CSR models and analyse organizations’ CSR perceptions. The results of the analysis of interviews suggest: the organizations in India are contributing towards CSR to abide by the law that is as an obligation; organizations can contribute towards strategic CSR by incorporating economic, social and environmental responsibilities simultaneously with the help of the developed model; CSR environment in India is implicitly-explicit in nature.Originality/valueThe proposed obligation-opportunity model enables mapping different theories along the dimensions of obligation-opportunity conceptualizations. It can be a powerful tool for researchers and practitioners to understand, research and strategically implement CSR in the given institutional environment.

Difference in stakeholder engagement approach of small & medium enterprises and large companies and its performance implications

AbstractUsing the explicit and implicit Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) framework, this study investigates how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and large companies differ in their approach to CSR and what association these differing approaches to CSR have with a company's financial and social performances. We develop and validate a stakeholder engagement approach (SEA) scale and then present the results of data collected from 211 SMEs and 179 large companies. The results indicate that while large companies rely more on explicitly articulated and formally enacted approaches to CSR, SMEs integrate social responsibility into their company activities in informal and implicit ways. The results also show that the explicit approach has a positive association with financial performance measures, while the implicit approach has a positive association with social performance. The findings of this study provide a more nuanced and theoretically grounded understanding of differences in the CSR practices of SMEs and large companies.

Corporate social responsibility, coexistence and contestation: large farms’ changing responsibilities vis-à-vis rural households in Russia

ABSTRACTThis article investigates the regionally varied changes in social support and responsibilities of large-scale farms vis-à-vis household plot holders and their rural communities in post-Soviet Russia. Ongoing marketisation puts pressure on the Soviet-inherited symbiosis between large farms and household plots. We observe that large farms’ shift to Anglophone-style, explicit Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) hides declining support for villagers and sometimes even dispossession. In the second of our two case studies, a less well-endowed region, the inherited symbiosis continues with modifications (“implicit CSR”) and helps sustain comparatively higher household plot production.

Revisiting Politics in Political CSR: How coercive and deliberative dynamics operate through institutional work in a Colombian company

This article analyses the political dynamics taking place within a Colombian supplier company during the implementation of a client’s global Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme, which radically transformed the local understandings of the supplier’s social responsibilities. We distinguish two forms of politics in political CSR – coercive and deliberative politics – and examine how they unfold through lower-level managers’ institutional work. Our longitudinal case study identifies four types of institutional work, which combine into three political configurations – irreconcilable politics, complementary politics and aligned deliberative politics – resulting in the hybridization of explicit and implicit CSR. By analysing how local managers from emerging countries and at the bottom of the supply chain cope with the new political role of MNCs, we expand the political microfoundations of CSR and highlight the interactive and political nature of institutional work aimed at addressing major societal challenges.

Corporate social responsibility enactment in banking

This paper studies the relationship between implicit and explicit corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication via discourse focused on limiting power inequality in situations that usually constitute a natural power struggle at Merkur, a small Danish values-based bank focused on the value of ‘sustainability’. My primary focus is on ways in which participants represent various power positions, and how these positions are negotiated discursively. Data stem from three sources: internal meetings between employees, an employee–customer meeting and email correspondence. The analytical approach is critical discourse analysis (CDA), with a focus on strategies of legitimation. Based on the findings, I argue that implicit CSR communication – or in this case, the enactment of values by attempting to lessen power inequalities in employee–customer relations – is preferable to explicit CSR, which is more usually adopted as a branding tool by businesses, but which can come across as boastful and insincere.

Corporate social responsibility and person-centered care: a scoping review

PurposeThe aim of this paper was to explore the linkage between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and person-centered care (PCC). The scope of the review was, therefore, to identify whether – as a result of such linkage – CSR may be a potential vehicle for delivering PCC within health-care organizations.Design/methodology/approachData were retrieved by searching multiple keywords on PubMed, Medline and Scopus databases with inclusion/exclusion criteria based on years of publication from 2001 to 2018, language, no geographic restrictions, paper focus, research and document types. A total of 56 articles (N = 56) were selected and reviewed. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify and compare the main features of PCC and CSR.FindingsThe findings revealed that while CSR and PCC are interrelated, CSR features are not being exploited in their entirety in formalizing PCC as part of the CSR strategy. In particular, the two salient CSR features explicitly referred to in conjunction with explicit PCC characteristics are quality of care and health communication. Furthermore, patients’ rights and dignity were the leading implicit CSR features mentioned in conjunction with both explicit and implicit PCC characteristics.Research limitations/implicationsSubjectivity of researchers, limited number of databases and publication types included are the main limitations of this research.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper analyzing CSR and PCC in an interrelated way.

Explicit and implicit corporate social responsibility: Differences in the approach to stakeholder engagement activities of U.S. and Japanese companies

AbstractThis study uses the theoretical frameworks of institutional theory and comparative capitalism to demonstrate how cross‐cultural differences in national institutional frameworks are related to differences in the meaning and the nature of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and, as a result, how they create different incentives and opportunities for companies to engage in stakeholder management activities. More specifically, we draw upon the framework of “explicit” and “implicit” CSRs to investigate whether and how stakeholder management practices and programs differ between the United States and Japan. We first develop and validate a Stakeholder Engagement Activities (SEAs) scale, designed assess differences in the approach (explicit or implicit) that companies use to address a variety of common SEAs. Then we analyze data and present the results of surveys collected from 227 companies in the United States and Japan. We find that although the SEAs of American companies are characterized by strong “explicit CSR,” in contrast, the SEAs of Japanese companies exhibit strong “implicit CSR.” In the discussion that follows, we attribute these distinctions in the SEAs to differences in the configuration of political, economic, and market mechanisms in each country. The findings of this study contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the differences in prevailing CSR practices of American and Japanese companies than noted by previous researchers. From a practitioner's perspective, the findings of this study reveal that despite the global nature of CSR, stakeholder management practices are both interpreted and operationalized differently due to differences in national institutional frameworks.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication and small and medium sized enterprises: The governmentality dilemma of explicit and implicit CSR communication

Businesses that promote corporate social responsibility (CSR) through their supply chains by requiring their suppliers to report on and otherwise communicate their CSR are doing a great thing, aren’t they? In this article, we challenge this assumption by focusing on the impact on small and medium sized enterprise (SME) suppliers when their large customer firms pressurize them to make their implicit CSR communication more explicit. We expose a ‘dark side’ to assumed improvements in CSR reporting within a supply chain. We present a conceptual framework that draws on previous research on communication constitutes organization (CCO) theory, implicit and explicit CSR, and Foucault’s governmentality. We identify and discuss the implications of three resulting dilemmas faced by SMEs: authenticity commercialization, values control and identity disruption. The overarching contribution of our article is to extend theorizing on CSR communication and conceptual research on CSR in SME suppliers (small business social responsibility). From a practice and policy perspective, it is not ultimately clear that promoting CSR reporting among SMEs will necessarily improve socially responsible practice.

Business News Framing of Corporate Social Responsibility in the United States and the United Kingdom: Insights From the Implicit and Explicit CSR Framework

This study aims to contribute to the understanding of business news coverage of corporate social responsibility (CSR) within a comparative international context by investigating two business newspapers, The Wall Street Journal from the United States and The Financial Times from the United Kingdom. Drawing on the news framing research and the implicit and explicit CSR framework of Matten and Moon, this content analysis shows that business news coverage of CSR in the United States and in the United Kingdom differs in terms of news framing (thematic vs. episodic), motive attributions of CSR as a concept, motive attributions of referenced companies in relation to CSR, general tone toward the concept of CSR, and the general tone toward referenced companies in relation to CSR. Most significantly, findings suggest that business news plays different roles in constructing and legitimizing CSR in the two countries. In the United States, CSR’s legitimacy and its conceptual positivity may be more implied through the coverage of singular events or actors (episodic framing), whereas in the United Kingdom, CSR’s illegitimacy and its conceptual negativity may be more exposed for further discussion through the coverage of larger societal contexts (thematic framing). Other theoretical as well as practical implications are also discussed.

The United Nations Global Compact: Engaging Implicit and Explicit CSR for Global Governance

This article analyzes the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) under the conceptual framework of explicit versus implicit corporate social responsibility (CSR) to better understand the operational and governance challenges behind this voluntary global initiative. Using institutional logics theory, we show how the UNGC is a practice that embodies seemingly competing logics. We suggest mechanisms to facilitate the interplay of implicit/explicit CSR and the co-existence of logics that might allow the UNGC to move forward while addressing its critics. We argue that failure to conceptualize the UNGC as a combination of explicit and implicit CSR leaves the UNGC subject to criticism that might be better directed toward organizations that fail to practice explicit CSR. While viewing the UNGC through an integrated CSR framework may not immediately reconcile its critics and proponents, combining elements of both may provide opportunities to posit collaborative solutions to improve the quality, outcome, and legitimacy of UNGC initiatives.

Balancing the Old with the New: Creating a Typology for Explicit-Implicit CSRS Interaction

In this article the authors articulate four separate models that consider the inter-relationships between Explicit and Implicit Corporate Social Responsibility. These models suggest that the transition from a traditional and 'quiet' social responsibility approach to a strategic and more expressive communication is design is variable and influenced by both institutional and firm level factors. At the institutional level, market liberalization, social legacy, localization forces and cultural legitimacy may all help predict where firms exist along the Explicit-Implicit continuum. Organizationally, strategy, social significance, market size and space, and self-determinism to moderate the extent to which firm adopts or resists Explicit CSRS. By considering these models and their related factors individually, the authors present a rich framework to educate future research in social responsibility and social change.

A Comparison of Canadian and U.S. CSR Strategic Alliances, CSR Reporting, and CSR Performance: Insights into Implicit–Explicit CSR

We considered the question of how corporate social responsibility (CSR) differs between Canada and the U.S. Prior research has identified that national institutional differences exist between the two countries [Freeman and Hasnaoui, J Business Ethics 100(3):419–443, 2011], which may be associated with variations in their respective CSR practices. Matten and Moon [Acad Manag Rev 33(2):404–424, 2008] suggested that cross-national differences in firms’ CSR are depicted by an implicit–explicit conceptual framework: explicit CSR practices are deliberate and more strategic than implicit CSR practices. We compared Canada and U.S. CSR and examined how CSR strategic alliances, CSR reporting, and CSR performance in the two countries correspond to implicit versus explicit CSR practices, which we link to stakeholder and signaling perspectives. We relied upon a new database, the Sustainalytics Global Platform (SGP), and we found a positive association exists between CSR strategic alliances and the number of years that firms have issued standalone CSR reports in both countries. Moreover, we found that CSR scores mediated this association in the U.S., as U.S. firms with high CSR scores typically engage in more CSR strategic alliances. In Canada, we did not find this mediating effect. Our findings suggest that U.S. firms engage in signaling activities that are more strategic and explicit than their Canadian counterparts. This paper closes with implications for practice and theory.

Conceptualising CSR in the context of the shifting contours of Australian employment regulation

The changing structure of modern business poses challenges for employment regulation in Australia, which has historically relied upon an ‘implicit’ model of corporate social responsibility (CSR) (commonly associated with strong state-mandated protections). Traditionally, such regulation has privileged the direct employment relationship, but the dramatic expansion of insecure and non-standard employment arrangements, encouraged by the proliferation of complex supply chains, raises questions about the ongoing durability of this regulatory model to provide appropriate labour standards for a growing cohort of workers. In an attempt to preserve some semblance of implicit CSR, particularly the centrality of state involvement in determining and enforcing labour standards, some Australian unions have developed strategies to advance new forms of labour regulation. This article examines four such strategies based on the logic of ‘sustainable sourcing’ in the road transport, cleaning, textile clothing and footwear and aged care industries. Although these strategies can be understood as a broader form of implicit CSR transposed onto multiple firms in a supply chain, they represent a notable departure from traditional union regulatory strategies based on the logic of implicit CSR centred on the individual employer.

Corporate social responsibility and aging workforces: an explorative study of corporate social responsibility implementation in small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises

Although critical differences exist between large companies and small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), limited empirical research has been done on human resource (HR)‐related corporate social responsibility (CSR). In this paper we study aging workforce management (AWM) as a component of CSR. Our study was conducted in the Netherlands through a randomly distributed online questionnaire. Managers and team leaders of 201 SMEs responded. The data were analyzed using multiple hierarchical regression analysis. Our results are twofold: first, findings suggest that CSR policies in micro organizations with fewer than five employees seem to be strongly associated with AWM; and second, that companies with a focus on integration of older workers in daily activities do not perceive their actions as HR‐related. Using AWM as part of CSR helps to give insight into the role of the owner, company size and the nature of implicit CSR practices. Our study demonstrates that the use of AWM in CSR research can lead to valuable insights and therefore, our overarching research question is answered that AWM can be used when studying CSR.

Entrepreneurial Stewardship and Implicit CSR: The Responsible Leadership of Lillian Shedd McMurry

Although interest in the implications of ethical stewardship, responsible leadership, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) is mounting, research development of these concepts is still at a nas...

CSR and the national institutional context: The case of South Korea

The different institutional contexts in which businesses practice corporate social responsibility (CSR) lead researchers to challenge the validity of the extant standardized global approach. This study follows recent studies in employing institutional theory to explore the specific pressures and factors that lead CSR practices to differ between countries, and how they lead to those differences. The study is a detailed qualitative analysis of CSR practice in South Korea, a country with very different value and governance systems from the US and UK where contemporary CSR evolved. Contrary to simplistic expectations, Korea shows a concern for short-termism more than for sustainability; and a normative more than a strategic orientation in its CSR, where CSR lies at a crossroads between implicit and explicit CSR behavior. The practices reflect many Korean institutional factors, but not in simple and direct ways. Institutional factors interact in intricate ways to create complex and dynamic pressures for CSR practice. CSR research needs to consider these interactions and dynamic processes with care and institutional theory can help provide a sufficiently intricate research framework.

Leadership Styles and CSR Practice: An Examination of Sensemaking, Institutional Drivers and CSR Leadership

This article examines the explicit and implicit corporate social responsibility (CSR) framework and its implications for leadership style, in a major banking institution. Evidence for existence of the framework’s key concepts in relation to leadership styles was explored through the self-reported sensemaking of leaders charged with CSR programme introduction. Qualitative data analysis indicated that explicit CSR is linked to an autocratic leadership style, whereas implicit CSR is more closely aligned with emergent and authentic styles. Although our results reinforced key aspects of the explicit and implicit CSR framework, they demonstrated conflicting systems of both CSR and leadership within our case organisation and highlighted the difficulty in categorising such a complex concept as CSR according to specific frameworks. Overall, our data suggest that the leadership styles, needed to successfully implement explicit and implicit CSR programmes, are in conflict. Given our finding that these CSR systems can coincide within one organisation, we suggest that the debating style of transformational leadership may be the required linchpin.