Internal Corporate Social Responsibility Research Articles

Social reputation, loan contracting and governance mechanisms

Purpose This study aims to investigate whether social reputation via corporate social responsibility (CSR) awarding facilitates access to debt and decreases the cost of debt and whether governance mechanisms moderate this relationship. Design/methodology/approach The sample covers the period between 2002 and 2021, during which CSR award data were available in the Thomson Reuters Eikon/Refinitiv database. The empirical models are based on country, industry and year fixed-effects regression. Findings While the main findings produced an insignificant result for access to debt, they indicated strong evidence for the positive relationship between CSR awarding and the cost of debt. Moreover, the moderating effect highlights that while the sustainability committee helps CSR-awarded companies access debt more easily, independent directors help firms decrease the cost of debt via CSR awarding. Furthermore, the results differ between the US and the non-US samples, earlier and recent periods, high- and low-leverage firms and large and small firms. Originality/value For the first time, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the authors assess whether social reputation via CSR awarding facilitates access to debt and decreases the cost of debt in an international and cross-industry sample. Little is known about the effect of social reputation on loan contracting, although social reputation conveys broader information that goes beyond the firm’s internal (performance) and external (reporting) CSR practices. The authors also draw attention to the differing roles of distinct governance mechanisms in leveraging social reputation for loan contracting.

The Influence of Internal Corporate Social Responsibility Factors on the Innovation Climate of Employees in the Healthcare Industry

This study examined the relationship between employee innovation and employee-initiated corporate social responsibility (CSR) elements in medical diagnostic enterprises in Pakistan during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research identified nine variables of employee-driven CSR, including communication, empowerment, and work satisfaction. Theoretical framework of the study based on theory of corporate social responsibility and expectancy theory of motivation. It evaluated their effects on the atmosphere for employee innovation using statistical analysis by using SPSS and after collecting data by using a survey questionnaire. The study population was employees working in the healthcare industry in Pakistan. The findings showed that employee-driven CSR and innovation were significantly correlated, with work satisfaction having the most impact. Overall, this quantitative study provides important insights for both theoretical understanding and practical application in fostering innovation through CSR initiatives. It emphasizes the critical role of job satisfaction as a key motivating factor for innovation within the framework of employee-driven CSR in the medical diagnostics sector.

Do female family managers affect corporate social responsibility in Chinese family firms?

ABSTRACT This study investigates the relationship between female family directorship and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the specific context of Chinese family firms. It explores the moderating influences of gender inequality, family ownership and economic policy uncertainty. Based on social role theory, we find that female family directorship is associated with a stronger commitment to external CSR engagement than to internal CSR. Moreover, gender inequality and family ownership attenuate the relationship between female family directorship and external CSR, while economic policy uncertainty enhances their impact on external CSR. Overall, we contribute to the literature at the intersection of family firms, female leadership, and corporate social responsibility.

Internal Versus External Corporate Social Responsibility Effects on Employees of a Multinational Subsidiary in Russia: The Roles of Morality and Attributions

Internal Versus External Corporate Social Responsibility Effects on Employees of a Multinational Subsidiary in Russia: The Roles of Morality and Attributions

The Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development Practices on Employer Branding—A Case Study of an International Corporation Operating in Poland

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable development practices and employer branding (EB) significantly influence the effectiveness of recruitment processes, human resource management (HRM), and an employer’s image. The main aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of internal and external CSR practices in an international corporation operating in Poland. The empirical study consisted of two stages. In the first stage, an in-depth interview was conducted with a group of managers in the examined company. In the second stage, the company’s employees and local residents (non-employees) were surveyed with the use of questionnaires. The study demonstrated that CSR activities addressing environmental issues were most effective. External CSR practices received greater recognition among white-collar (office) employees, whereas blue-collar (manual) employees were more appreciative of internal CSR measures—in particular, financial support schemes. The effectiveness of internal and external CSR practices has been rarely compared in the literature, and the present study was undertaken to fill in this knowledge gap.

Skeletons in the closet: How and when internal and external corporate social responsibility affect employees' internal whistleblowing behaviors

AbstractThe micro‐level corporate social responsibility (CSR) literature has underscored the economic benefits of an organization's CSR investments, such as bolstering employees' organizational commitment and improving work performance. Yet, research on the potential influence of CSR in fostering socially oriented outcomes among employees has been rather scarce. This study aims to investigate the influence of CSR on employees' internal whistleblowing behaviors and the underlying mechanisms. A three‐time‐point survey was distributed across the service, manufacturing, construction, and financial insurance industries in Chinese enterprises. The findings reveal that both internal and external CSR positively impact employees' internal whistleblowing behaviors through the mediating role of moral courage, with internal CSR demonstrating a stronger effect. Organizational loyalty positively moderates the mediating role of moral courage in the relationship between internal CSR/external CSR and internal whistleblowing behaviors. Theoretically, this study presents a pioneering endeavor in establishing the link between CSR and employees' internal whistleblowing behaviors, underscoring the significant role that employees' perceptions of CSR play in enhancing societal well‐being and ethical governance. Besides contributing to the micro‐level CSR literature, this study also provides practical insights for organizations seeking to leverage CSR as a tool for promoting employees' ethical conduct.

Internal CSR Programs in the Context of a Financial Institution Operating in Nepal

This study investigates the internal corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices of employees in commercial banks and explores the relationship between demographic factors and trust. Adopting a quantitative research design, data were collected through a questionnaire distributed to 40 employees representing various levels and departments within the banks. Purposive sampling was utilized, and ethical considerations were strictly followed. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were employed to examine the data. Results reveal gender differences in perceptions of company policies, with females generally showing higher agreement on aspects like career development and work-life balance. Married individuals also tended to perceive higher levels of agreement with company policies compared to unmarried counterparts. Moreover, age and years of service exhibited weak negative correlations with various policy aspects, suggesting limited influence on employee perceptions. Overall, the findings emphasize the importance of tailored CSR practices to address diverse employee needs and preferences, irrespective of demographic factors. These insights can inform strategies to enhance employee engagement and organizational performance in commercial banks.

Generous to a fault: Differential impact of CSR investments on financial gains in Indian market multinationals

To date, the extant Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) literature has overlooked the performance consequences of different forms of CSR investments made by Emerging Market Multinational Corporations (EMNCs). Addressing this knowledge gap, and drawing on legitimacy theory, we examine the impact of external CSR investments (e.g., social and community philanthropic support activities) and internal CSR investments (e.g., working conditions, employee rights and equal employment opportunities) on financial performance of EMNCs, while also accounting for the moderating effects of internationalization location choices. We test our hypotheses on a panel consisting of 1513 unique Indian EMNCs, in the 2014–2019 time-period. On applying various estimation techniques, the findings reveal that both external and internal CSR investments are positively associated with financial performance of EMNCs, while the destination location of foreign investments and home-host geographic and institutional distance moderate these relationships. This study offers new empirical evidence on the financial implications of different types of CSR investments available to EMNCs and advances legitimacy theory by expanding its dimensional and contextual scope.

The impact of internal social responsibility on service employees' job satisfaction and organizational engagement

This study investigates the influence of internal corporate social responsibility (iCSR) aspects on employees' job satisfaction and organizational engagement through the lenses of social identity and social exchange theories. Based on a survey collected from 368 employees in 25 banks in Vietnam, the findings show the importance of each iCSR aspect in driving employee job satisfaction and organizational engagement. Job satisfaction is also found to be an antecedent of organizational engagement. The result adds a profound understanding of iCSR to the existing literature and helps bank managers have appropriate solutions to strengthen their employees' job satisfaction and organizational engagement.

A constructive error management culture promotes innovation and corporate social responsibility: A multi-level analysis in 10 countries

In the face of grand challenges like global warming or social inequality, firms are increasingly expected to make a positive contribution to society. As a result, they are looking for ways to fuse their own and common good interests, for example, by employing so-called Common Good HRM practices. These practices like the promotion of a constructive error management culture (EMC) aim to support an environment that facilitates positive societal and ecological change by enabling firm leaders and employees to contribute to global progress. Yet, to date empirical evidence for proposed positive effects is scarce and the embeddedness of employees in different teams and national cultures is largely neglected in prior research. The current study accounts for these shortcomings by investigating the effects of a constructive EMC as a Common Good HRM practice on employee innovativeness and internal corporate social responsibility (CSR) based on a sample of 82,927 employees working in 9253 teams in a large telecommunication company with subsidiaries in 10 different countries. Applying a comprehensive multi-level design, we find that (i) a constructive EMC has a positive impact on employee innovativeness and internal CSR and (ii) that team member diversity regarding gender, age, and tenure and cultural values affect EMC. Particularly, our analyses uncover that EMC effects differ depending on the kind of diversity and reveal a complex interplay of team composition and cultural values. Despite notable limitations like the examination of only one single organization, our work underpins the theoretically proposed benefits of applying Common Good HRM practices and highlights the need to take both team and cultural influences into account.

Corporate social responsibility and green supply chain efficiency: conditioning effects based on CEO narcissism

Accelerating the construction of the green supply chain system and improving the efficiency of the green supply chain is the key to promoting the high-quality development of enterprises. In view of this, based on stakeholder theory, higher order theory and expectancy theory, this study focuses on the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on corporate green supply chain efficiency (GSCE) and the moderating role of chief executive officer (CEO) narcissism. A regression analysis of the observed sample reveals that CSR significantly enhances GSCE. Further decomposing CSR into internal CSR and external CSR to reveal the impact of different types of CSR on GSCE, we find that internal CSR fulfillment has a significant positive impact on GSCE, and this relationship is strengthened when CEOs are narcissistic. Furthermore, external CSR has a significant negative impact on GSCE, and this relationship is also strengthened by CEO narcissism. The main contribution of this paper is to study the relationship between CSR and green supply chain efficiency, decompose CSR into internal and external CSR, enrich the research on the intrinsic mechanism of value creation of CSR. It also enriches the research in the context of CSR from the perspective of CEO personality traits, providing new ideas and suggestions for manager selection and corporate greening governance in practice.

Internal versus External Corporate Social Responsibility: Company Age and Size Moderate CSR Efficacy

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts by established legacy brands are often seen as inauthentic. What can brands do to genuinely engage in CSR efforts? This study investigates internal CSR as a potential solution. CSR type (internal and external) and extrinsic cues (brand size and age) interact to affect congruence, authenticity, and subsequent purchase intention for companies that communicate these efforts on social media. Through a series of three experiments, we compare the effectiveness of internal and external CSR in influencing consumer perceptions. Results confirm that CSR is not a one-size-fits-all solution for brands. We find that Internal CSR is more effective for legacy (older, larger) brands, while external CSR is more effective for novel (newer, smaller) brands. This paper is among the first to conceptualize internal CSR as a potential strategy for legacy brands that often struggle for authentic ways to get involved with social issues. Results indicate that consumers want to see larger, older brands try to "fix" themselves before they attempt to fix the world.

Internal Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility Performance

Internal Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility Performance

Does Supplier Instability Affect Corporate Social Responsibility? A Theoretical and Empirical Study

Prior literature typically focuses on how corporate social responsibility (CSR) is affected by the external environment and firms’ characteristics but ignores features in the supply chain. To fill this gap, we provide theoretical and empirical analyses of the role of supplier instability in CSR engagement. Specifically, our game-theoretical model considers a two-echelon supply chain where an upstream supplier is unstable and a downstream retailer makes the CSR investment. The model generates several testable hypotheses as follows: 1) the effect of supplier instability on CSR engagement is negative; 2) supplier instability mainly affects internal CSR engagement; 3) the negative instability–CSR relationship decays with the increase of supplier instability; and 4) the instability–CSR effect is more pronounced under supplier-led Stackelberg structure than retailer-led Stackelberg structure. Using a sample of Chinese firms from 2010 to 2019, we verify the above hypotheses by providing concrete empirical evidence. Our empirical estimations are robust after using the Heckman selection model to solve the endogenous selection bias.

Internal governance and corporate social responsibility performance

AbstractInternal governance is the process by which vice presidents (VPs) use their influence with the chief executive officer (CEO) to impact the firm's direction and policy. This study examines the effect of internal governance on corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. Based on a large sample of US firms and after controlling for various CEO incentives, corporate governance and other determinants of CSR performance, we find that more effective internal governance is associated with a better CSR performance. These results are robust to alternative internal governance and CSR measures, alternative samples and various approaches that mitigate potential endogeneity problems. Further analysis shows that the effect of internal governance on CSR performance is more pronounced when (a) the CEO is subject to more intensive monitoring, (b) VPs are more powerful, (c) firms experience less short‐term financial performance pressure and (d) they face stronger product market competition. This study advances our understanding of corporate governance's effect on CSR by showing the importance of internal governance.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN RETAIL SECTOR: ARE EMPLOYEES AWARE OF WHAT THEIR EMPLOYERS ARE DOING?

Corporate social responsibility (CSR), which is the adoption of responsible business practices concerning economic, environmental, and social CSR, is an important topic among marketers aiming to develop market value with various stakeholder groups, including employees. Previous research is limited to developed market economies and has focused mainly on external stakeholder groups. This study explored South African retail employees’ awareness of their organizations’ CSR initiatives. The sample size was 229 South African retail employees, from lower-level employees up to middle and senior management. The study made use of a computer-aided self-administered survey, distributed via LinkedIn. The results indicated that lower-level employees are less aware of economic, environmental, and social CSR initiatives implemented by their organizations than those in middle and senior management, but that there was no significant difference between middle and senior managements’ levels of awareness of their organizations’ CSR initiatives. The results also indicated that employees have higher levels of awareness when it comes to internal economic CSR, external economic CSR, and external social CSR, as opposed to internal environmental CSR, external environmental CSR, and internal social CSR initiatives. The findings of the study can assist organizations to customize internal CSR communication strategies.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Satisfaction: The Mediating Effects of Work-Life Balance Support and Work Stress

Businesses embrace the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR). This study investigates the individual effect of perceived internal CSR and external CSR on employees’ job satisfaction. Moreover, this investigation explores the mediating roles of perceived work-life balance support (WLBS) and work stress (WS). The researchers use partial least square structural equation modeling to test the data from employees in Taiwan. The results prove that perceived internal CSR and external CSR positively and significantly affect job satisfaction. Perceived WLBS partially mediates the perceived internal CSR–job satisfaction and perceived external CSR–job relationships, whereas WS partially mediates only the perceived internal CSR and job satisfaction relationship. Moreover, perceived WLBS and WS sequentially mediate the CSR and job satisfaction relationship. The study’s findings suggest that it is vital for firms to strengthen internal and external CSR engagements to promote WLBS, thereby reducing WS and ultimately increasing employees’ job satisfaction.

Can external and internal corporate social responsibility contribute to green customer behaviour? The mediating role of green trust in hotels

AbstractTo date, hospitality literature has mainly used an aggregated measure of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to assess hotels' green trust (GT) and green customer behaviour (GCB). The differential impact of internal and external CSR on GT and GCB is crucial as this may lead to different levels of impacts on hotels' environmental performance. This study investigates how internal and external CSR impact customers' GT and GCB. It also investigates how GT mediates the relationship between internal and external CSR and GCB. Using survey data from 304 customers from eight green hotels in Manila and employing the PLS‐SEM technique for analysis, the results show that internal and external CSR positively impact GT and GCB. Moreover, GT mediates the relationship between internal CSR and GCB, but not between external CSR and GCB. This study extends stakeholder theory and the theory of planned behaviour by providing novel insights into how customers' GT and GCB may differ in relation to internal and external dimensions of CSR.

Internal corporate social responsibility a strategic tool for employee engagement in public organizations: Role of empathy and organizational pride

BACKGROUND: The macro-level corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been researched widely in recent years, however, micro-level CSR has recently gained attention. Employees are more influenced by employee related internal CSR initiatives than the external CSR activities. Internal CSR ensures favorable behavior of employees towards their employer which leads towards better organizational performance. OBJECTIVE: This study investigates the impact of internal corporate social responsibility (CSR) on public sector employees’ engagement through Organizational Pride (OP). Further, the study considers moderating role of empathy between internal CSR and employee engagement (EE) METHODS: Quantitative research design was developed and theoretical framework was investigated through a survey of 430 employees of public sector in Pakistan. SmartPLS was used and partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used for hypothesis testing RESULTS: The results showed that the internal CSR directly influences EE. Secondly, the mediation of OP between internal CSR and EE is also supported. However, the results do not significantly support moderation of empathy between internal CSR and EE. CONCLUSIONS: Public sector organizations should actively contribute in employees well- being through internal CSR activities especially on skills development, work-life balance and employment stability. Public sector organizations lack in emotional and cognitive attachment with employees, and should pay attention to pride over organization through employee focused CSR activities

Human resource business partner role in respect to internal corporate social responsibility: The case of banking sector

BACKGROUND: For last decade, human resource (HR) function has had to move from its traditional operational, administrative role towards a more strategic role. In the light of transformation and drawing upon business partnering concept (the most well-known Ulrich model), a new formal position of an HR business partner, who acts as an HR subject-matter expert for the leaders of that particular business, has been established in some organisations. Although previous literature suggests the involvement of human resource management (HRM) in the development and implementation of socially responsible business activities, there is a lack of evidence on HR professionals’ role regarding internal corporate social responsibility (CSR), which implies behaviour towards employees. OBJECTIVE: To reveal the role of an HR business partner while developing and implementing internal CSR activities. METHODS: Qualitative research; semi-structured interviews with employees working as HR business partners in the banking sector were conducted. RESULTS: The results revealed a significant HR business partner role in addressing internal CSR, in terms of work-life balance (WLB), diversity and inclusion, learning and development, and psychological and physical well-being. CONCLUSIONS: The research results expand the knowledge on the link between HRM and internal CSR. Moreover, the findings have significant implications encouraging organisations to empower HR professionals to act within the internal CSR field.