scholarly journals Shaping Corporate Social Responsibility in the Conditions of Cultural Differences Between the Cooperating Institutions

Equilibrium ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 79-96
Author(s):  
Anna Adamik

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is not only a philosophy of acting for many companies, but a basic strategy for building a competitive advantage. Unfortunately, in the conditions when as a result of globalization the bonds of international cooperation are becoming stronger and stronger, it is increasingly difficult to shape. The factor of significant influence here is the partners’ cultural diversity. Understanding the foundations of this diversity provides an opportunity to make more conscious decisions concerning the choice of partners and forms of cooperation. It also facilitates project-making and implementing CSR tools. The key issue here is the identification and evaluation of pro-social features of the partners’ culture. Choosing the partners from the culture suitable for implementing CSR allows to maximize its benefits. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the influence of national and organizational culture on the way of shaping CSR. In order to study the issue, the foundations of the topic, the nature of national and organizational culture, have been characterized. In addition, the underlying cultural differences and basic problems of shaping CSR have been signalled. The empirical demonstration of the issue are the results of CSR research in selected companies from different EU countries, but belonging to the same capital groups.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahnoor Zahid ◽  
Hina Naeem ◽  
Iqra Aftab ◽  
Sajawal Ali Mughal

Purpose The purpose of this study is to scrutinize the effect of corporate social responsibility activities (CSRA) of the firm on its financial performance (FP) and analyze the mediating role of innovation and competitive advantage (CA) in the relationship between CSRA and FP in the manufacturing sector of an emerging country, i.e. Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach Data has been collected through an electronic structured questionnaire from 300 middle-level and top-level managers by surveying different manufacturing firms of Gujranwala, Pakistan. The study’s hypotheses have been checked by analyzing the reliability and validity of data and applying confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling through statistical package for the social sciences and analysis of moment structures. Findings Outcomes of this study supported the hypothesized model. It has been found that the CSRA plays a significant positive role in determining the FP of the firm. Furthermore, the CA and innovation have been proved as significant mediators between CSRA and FP. Originality/value The first time examining the intermediation of innovation and CA in the relationship between CSRA and FP is the primary input of this study to the literature. Practically, this study’s findings will help strategy makers of manufacturing firms in emerging countries develop better strategies for implementing CSRA, enhancing innovation, seeking CA and improving FP.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-76
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Zadros

AbstractThe concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) since several dozen years has been recognized as one of the most important solutions used by companies that want to build competitive advantage through concern for economic effects, people and the environment. Important role in the management of CSR by these companies is the implementation of its standards and norm and their reporting. However, the question arises whether such activities are sufficient to actually talk about the company as a socially responsible organization. In the presented article, a broader analysis of this problem was undertaken, trying to answer what determines the company's recognition as socially responsible.


Author(s):  
Rui Robalo ◽  
Wilson Patrocínio

This chapter aims to assess how the Portuguese foundations manage and disclosure on their websites information on corporate social responsibility (CSR). The study performs the assessment of the sampled foundations holding a website accessible to the broad public and being members of the Portuguese Foundation Centre. The evidence of this study impacts therefore the literature review on three ways. Firstly, it sheds light on the diversity of CSR policies undertaken by foundations, through the scale perspective and the CSR content categories. Secondly, it claims how distinct CSR information trends can be triggered by needs of legitimacy towards the stakeholders unlike other types of organizations. Lastly, the evidence provided by this study suggests that there in not a significant influence of the dimension factor of the foundations on the amount of CSR information they disclose, which contradicts evidence of previous studies.


Author(s):  
Susan Saurage-Altenloh ◽  
Phillip M. Randall

The chapter addresses how ethical actions deliver value through sustainable competitive advantage. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has a proven role in developing audience trust that increases brand equity among target audiences and stakeholders, thus ensuring that the brand sustains its competitive advantage through improved profitability and reputation in the market. Not only do businesses have a social responsibility to the markets from which they earn revenues, but buyers expect ethical businesses to have an established CSR program in place. Businesses that engage in CSR activities within the process of corporate brand management experience stronger reputation that drives loyalty and sales, resulting in a competitive, sustainable market advantage.


Author(s):  
Nicolae Al. Pop ◽  
Sebastian A. Vaduva ◽  
Dan Cristian Dabija ◽  
Ioan S. Fotea

To build a better and more profitable corporate image, Western firms have been investing in social responsibility. The Romanian consumer has fairly recently been exposed to this holistic marketing concept since the Revolution of 1989, and in this regard, in this article, the authors verify conventional corporate social responsibility principles of building customer loyalty as well as goodwill from stakeholders. The paper explores the competitive advantage and its various components in which companies make use of marketing instruments that influence CSR activities of retailers.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (18) ◽  
pp. 4954 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Adamik ◽  
Michał Nowicki

Research problem: Revolution Industry 4.0. forces companies to face specific competence-related, technological, organizational and even ethical challenges. The use of innovative “tools” associated with that revolution not only brings new technological challenges, opportunities to build new competitive advantages, new areas of activity, and new types of business benefits but also doubts, questions, or even pathologies and paradoxes. Sometimes, entities that do not fully understand the essence of the new concepts, methods, or techniques use them incorrectly or abuse them for private goals and expose themselves to criticism—sometimes even social condemnation. These are examples of the lack of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of these organizations. This situation also has reached co-creation. In theory, it is a very positive concept, aimed at building competitiveness, or various types of competitive advantages of companies by creating value for clients with their participation. In economic practice, unfortunately, it is not always successful. Purpose: The main purpose of this paper is to identify and characterize the key paradoxes and areas of potential pathologies of creating competitive advantage based on co-creation without CSR in the case of companies operating in the age of Industry 4.0. Originality/value of the paper: A theoretical study based on the extensive literature review describing paradoxes, ethical and CSR problems of co-creation in organizations creating competitive advantage in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and a qualitative methodology of research. This study attempts to systematize paradoxes of co-creation and the areas and industries in which the related pathologies of co-creation occur particularly often and distinctively in economic practice. The empirical studies were conducted as a review of case studies of companies that use the concept of co-creation in an irregular way (paradoxical or with pathologies). This study identified and characterized the key 31 paradoxes and pathologies of creating competitive advantage based on co-creation in the case of 14 companies operating in the age of Industry 4.0. Implications: The identification of main dilemmas, paradoxes and pathologies of co-creation; signaling the role of governance and CSR in processes of the valuable use of co-creation in the age of Industry 4.0. Based on the observations described in the paper, it is worth recommending that when becoming involved in co-creation, one should observe ethical standards and assumptions of CSR, and require the same from partners and other parties involved. Otherwise, the risk is that instead of co-creation, the result achieved will be exactly the opposite to that intended, which is co-destruction, and condemnation instead of glory. This is why it is worth considering the paradoxes that are key to co-creation and approaching solutions in a conscious way.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Espasandín-Bustelo ◽  
Juan Ganaza-Vargas ◽  
Rosalia Diaz-Carrion

PurposeThis research explores how does the organizational culture influence internal corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions and the effect of these actions on the level of happiness of employees.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts an employee perspective since the perception of employees is the unit of analysis. By relying on a sample of 921 workers of firms from different sectors and sizes headquartered in Spain, the empirical analysis is performed using partial least squares.FindingsThe findings evidence that clan and adhocracy cultures highly foster internal CSR practices and that internal CSR activities enhance employees' happiness. The mediating role of internal CSR in the relationship between organizational culture and employee happiness is also found. These results suggest that managers could play a proactive role in fostering internal CSR by designing the organizational culture according to features of clan and adhocracy cultures such as flexibility, innovation, creativity, autonomy, communication, training and support of supervisors.Research limitations/implicationsThe research focuses on a single country, which makes it difficult to generalize the results and guides future research into cross-cultural analysis. Including countries that present differences in their cultural and institutional context would allow to explore the influence of the national context on the business culture, on internal CSR and on employee happiness. This work is also limited in time, as the data used are of a cross-cultural nature.Practical implicationsA greater effort in internal CSR by companies translates into a higher level of happiness for their workers. Specifically, occupational health and safety practices have the greatest influence on employee happiness. Hence, organizations must develop cultures that contribute to promote internal CSR—adhocracy and clan—since this would enhance employees' happiness if the values and beliefs that characterize these cultural configurations are translated into internal CSR practices such as occupational health and safety, work–life balance and equal opportunities.Social implicationsThe improvement of employee happiness creates social value and can be enhanced through an organizational culture that promotes CSR. The research findings might be useful when defining institutional policies to promote job quality, as encouraged by the social policy agenda of the United Nations embodied in the Sustainable Development Goals.Originality/valuePromoting internal CSR through organizational culture will have positive effects for companies internally by enhancing employees' happiness. Therefore, the article contributes to overcome the lack of evidence about the antecedents of internal CSR and its relationship with employees' happiness, an emerging variable in the management literature.


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