scholarly journals Corporate Social Responsibility in a Comparative Perspective

Author(s):  
Cynthia A. Williams ◽  
Ruth V. Aguilera

Comparative studies of corporate social responsibility (CSR) are relatively rare, certainly as contrasted with other related fields, such as comparative corporate governance or comparative corporate law. This is to be expected in a field, such as CSR that is still ‘emergent’. While theoretical perspectives on corporate social performance or stakeholder management have been developed over two decades, it is only in the last decade that businesses have begun to exhibit serious evidence of CSR in their strategic management and stakeholder social reporting. This article goes on to explore how CSR can reflect wider national business and governance systems, such as market structures and rules, institutional norms, and respective responsibilities of governments, corporations and other social actors. A particularly exposed role, most notably for multinational corporations from the global north, is emerging for corporations in developing countries.

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 3511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Yunis ◽  
Dima Jamali ◽  
Hina Hashim

This paper aims to explore the dynamics of corporate social responsibility (CSR) of multinational companies (MNCs) subsidiaries operating in Pakistan. To do this, the corporate social performance (CSP) model, has been modified and integrated with the relevant models of CSR for multinational companies (MNCs). Empirical evidence from MNCs operating in the developing country context was collected and analyzed from MNCs operating in Pakistan. Findings from semi-structured interviews uncover that CSR is yet to institutionalize and most MNC executives understand CSR in narrow philanthropic and ethical terms and ignore the legal and economic aspects. Interestingly, there is evidence that MNCs are able to modify global CSR strategies to respond to local contexts and issues. In addition, the sample MNCs lack systematic environmental scanning, stakeholder management and demonstrate a short-term reactive approach to CSR. We believe that the proposed theoretical framework of the study can be utilized to understand MNCs CSR practices in both developed and developing countries. However, these empirical findings are context bound and cannot be generalized.


2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 641-655 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chi-Jui Huang

AbstractPrevious research has analyzed and debated corporate governance (CG) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) independently. This paper aims to empirically explore the interrelationship between CG, CSR, financial performance (FP) and Corporate Social Performance (CSP) using a sample of 297 electronics companies operating in Taiwan, a newly industrialized Asian economy. The results show that a CG model which includes independent outside directors and which has specific ownership characteristics has a significantly positive impact on both FP and CSP, whereas FP itself does not influence CSP. The presence of independent outside directors in the firm has the greatest impact on the social performance of the firm's worker, customer, supplier, community and society dimensions. Government shareholders enhance a firm's social performance extraordinarily because government shareholders will be more likely to request that companies fulfill their social responsibilities. Only government shareholders positively and significantly relate to a firm's environmental performance. Furthermore, foreign institutional stockholders help to increase worker and supplier performance by paying more attention to employee policies and supply chain relationships. Finally, independent outside directors, foreign institutional stockholders and domestic financial institutional stockholders are shown to improve financial performance.


Author(s):  
Vera Harludi

This chapter delves into the subject of corporate social responsibility, its relations, and how it affects corporate reputation. The literature review presents a brief history of CSR and sheds light into the role of business ethics, corporate governance, corporate citizenship, and corporate social performance with a specific focus on companies' approaches towards CSR; motivations for company to invest in CSR; and corporate reputation. While the literature review will wrap up with arguments for and against CSR, this chapter will provide a brief outlook on CSR practices in Turkey.


Author(s):  
Duane Windsor

This article explains the three related conceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate social irresponsibility (CSiR), and corporate citizenship. The three conceptions involve different approaches for answering the overarching question of the appropriate relationship between “business and society”. The article lays out the basics of the three conceptions; and contrasts economic, ethical, and strategic perspectives on these three conceptions. The article connects the three conceptions to corporate social performance (CSP), corporate governance, and stakeholder theory. The author provides the reader with a guide to the extant literature in a way that will facilitate further exploration into key issues. The author proposes some recommendations and solutions for addressing key problems in the field; and suggests future research directions. The article emphasizes key contributions to the development of the field. Work of important authors such as A. B. Carroll, Milton Friedman, Michael E. Porter, and Donna J. Wood among others receives attention.


2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuo Wang ◽  
Yuhui Gao

AbstractUsing content analysis, the objectives of the current study are: (1) to provide a systematic review of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) literature, (2) to examine underlying trends in CSR research, (3) to identify milestones in the development of CSR research, and (4) to clarify and categorise the structure of CSR studies. An examination of 774 selected CSR articles shows a significant upward trend in the volume of CSR publications, particularly in the 2000s. Among these articles, 122 papers from leading academic journals are further analysed to classify and label the development stages of CSR research as: incubation, exploration, adolescent development and relative maturity stages. Our findings also reveal five major CSR research themes: concepts and reviews, corporate context, CSR-related strategy, corporate reputation and the linkage between corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance (CFP). The paper concludes with suggestions for future CSR research.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (13) ◽  
pp. 3698 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Li ◽  
Taylor Morris ◽  
Brian Young

Outside of direct ownership, the general public may feel it is an implicit stakeholder of a firm. As the public becomes more vested in a firm’s actions, the firm may be more likely to engage in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. We proxy for the public’s stake in a firm with public visibility. Based on 3400 unique newspaper publications from 1994–2008, we measure visibility for the S&P 500 firms with the frequency of print articles per year concerning the firm. We find that visibility has a signficant, positive relationship with the CSR rating. Evidence also suggests this relationship may be causal and working in one direction, from visibility to CSR. While the existing literature provides other factors that influence CSR, visibility proves to have the most significant impact when tested alongside those other factors. Visibility also has a mediating effect on the relationship between CSR rating and firm size. CSR rating and firm size relate negatively for the lowest visibility firms and positively for the highest. This paper provides strong evidence that visibility is an important factor to consider for studies on corporate social performance.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brent D. Beal ◽  
Cristina Neesham

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to call attention to the need to revitalize the systemic nature of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and offer some suggestions about how this might be accomplished. The authors introduce the concept of systemic CSR and associate it with micro-to-macro transitions, the need to make systemic objectives explicit and the responsibility of system participants to regulate their behavior to contribute to these outcomes. Design/methodology/approach The authors comment, from a systemic perspective, on four different management approaches to CSR – shareholder value, corporate social performance, stakeholder theory and corporate citizenship. Three general systemic principles that participants can use as decision-making guides are a focus on value creation, ongoing assessment of collective outcomes and reflective engagement in the aggregation process. Findings The authors observe that businesses routinely demonstrate their ability to think in systemic terms in strategic contexts that require it. If businesses can address systemic issues in these contexts, then they can also apply systemic logic in furtherance of collective (or system-level) objectives. Originality/value The authors propose an approach to CSR that emphasizes micro-to-macro transitions, the need to make systemic objectives explicit and the responsibility of system participants to regulate their behavior to contribute to these desired objectives. Systemic CSR is unique in its explicit focus on the micro-to-macro transition (i.e. the process of aggregation), systemic objectives and the need to actively insource responsibility for contribution to the realization of those objectives.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 825-855 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduardo Ortas ◽  
Isabel Gallego-Álvarez

PurposeThis paper addresses the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance as a potential mechanism for reducing firms' likelihood of engaging in tax aggressiveness (TAG). The paper also contributes to the existing literature by addressing the moderating effect of national cultures on the link between CSR performance and corporate TAG.Design/methodology/approachThe focus is placed on an unbalanced panel of 2,696 companies distributed in 30 countries and seven economic sectors over the period of 2002–2014.FindingsThe results provide support for those companies achieving high corporate social performance (CSP), corporate environmental performance (CEP) and corporate governance performance (CGP) being less likely to engage in aggressive tax practices. Finally, the results identify some national cultural dimensions moderating the link between disaggregated measures of CSR performance and firms' TAG.Research limitations/implicationsThe difficulty of accessing CSR and TAG data for non-listed companies could bias the data set towards a compliant company profile because of the higher visibility. In addition, the use of effective tax rates to examine firms' TAG should be interpreted with some caution.Practical implicationsThe paper's findings provide unique and useful information for company stakeholders and managers aiming to address the factors that enhance firms' incentives to engage in aggressive tax practices.Originality/valueThis paper addresses the multidimensional nature of CSR performance by analysing the links between CSP, CEP and CGP and corporations' TAG. Furthermore, the research addresses the way in which national culture moderates the links between disaggregated measures of CSR performance and corporate TAG.


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