Bridging Cultural Dimensions and Corporate Social Responsibility Communication

The relation between culture and CSR communication has been explored often in several fields of study (e.g., international management, marketing, organisation, communication). In order to show the role played by culture as an antecedent of CSR, many academics focus on national and regional cultural differences in CSR communication. Furthermore, they highlight that cultural values have to be the basis on which businesses and CSR strategies are developed, as they allow organisations to arrange long-term sustainable relationships with all relevant stakeholders. Starting from these considerations, this chapter presents a literature review illustrating the different approaches that link CSR and CSR communication (and other related fields) to culture and cultural dimensions. The chapter briefly explores several sides of the argument, presenting theoretical and practical implications that arise while analysing the areas of ethics and sustainability in a cultural perspective. Finally, the chapter recommends areas for further discussion and research on the relation of culture and CSR from the perspective of online communication.

Author(s):  
Manuel Alfonso Garzón Castrillón

This review article aimed to contribute to the understanding of the importance of coherence between saying and acting to prevent companies from being perceived from the perspective of business hypocrisy and affecting the brand, reputation, trust and credibility in the company. It was carried out based on the Methodi Ordinatio, addressing its theoretical origins and then approaching the concept, later venturing into the different studies that have approached it from corporate social responsibility (CSR), ethics; reputation, interest groups (stakeholders), and communication, subsequently in relation to the consequences that it generates in world-known organizations, their statements and the criticism made, subsequently an analysis of three aspects or facets is made in which it is presented namely: moral hypocrisy; behavioral hypocrisy and how to attribute business hypocrisy, the next point presents a typology that involves two dimensions: an orientation that refers to the attention span, in the short and long term of participants when making or responding to accusations of hypocrisy and a temporal direction, which refers to the point of comparison, past or future, finally reaches some conclusions, and some practical implications.


The chapter starts presenting the main elements of the coding scheme, previously introduced, that the author used to analyse the cultural impact on corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication on company websites. It presents the results of a quantitative content analysis of the websites of 352 organisations belonging to different geographical areas and included in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSWI) and in the Hang Seng (Mainland and HK) Corporate Sustainability Index (HSMHUS). The findings show that Hofstede's cultural dimensions and online CSR communication belong to two different levels of analysis: one is innate, intuitive, and diffusive, while the other one is planned, intentional, and rational. Thus, the findings suggest that cultural dimensions are factors that need to be analysed as social aspects, while CSR communication on corporate websites has to be explored as a strategic feature. Finally, the chapter recommends areas for further discussion and research about the relation between traditional culture, culture of the Internet, and CSR, reflecting on the achieved results that largely differ from previous studies related to Hofstede's cultural dimensions and CSR communication.


The aim of this chapter is to present empirical research the author conducted in the fields of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication and cultural dimensions. The chapter evaluates how Hofstede's cultural dimensions in CSR content varies between companies in the Asian context and other organisations in the world. The research considers three out of Hofstede's five cultural dimensions: individualism vs. collectivism, power distance, and uncertainty avoidance. The first part of the empirical research analyses these cultural dimensions and introduces the research questions. Answering these questions allows the author to compare the CSR communication of countries with an Asian background with the CSR communications of other countries. Moreover, the chapter illustrates the pros and cons of applying a content analysis (i.e., the select method) to achieve an in-depth understanding of the cultural influence on CSR contents embedded in corporate websites. Finally, the chapter recommends areas for further discussion and research of the relation between culture and CSR.


Author(s):  
Bertie Marie Greer

The increased focus on globalization, corporate social responsibility, sustainability, supplier diversity and other socially responsible initiatives have made minority-owned businesses an important supply base for buyers. Moreover, this emphasis has established a need for buyers to develop long-term effective relationships with minority owned firms. Businesses seeking to increase their global supplier diversity need to understand the global challenges of defining “minority” and other critical relational issues in order to increase effectiveness. Based on a review of the literature, and interviews with a minority supplier director this chapter discusses these challenges and offers practical implications.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 331-350
Author(s):  
Mateus Panizzon ◽  
Paulo Fernando Pinto Barcellos

A critical issue in Strategic Foresight approaches is the expected effect on the organizational and individual behavior change, as understanding, mapping, and influencing the desired future is a function of the group’s effort to adopt a more disruptive or conservative scenario in a long-term thinking and planning context. As a learning process, a Strategic Foresight experience, due to the nature of new knowledge co-creation, can foster mindset changes. However, at the same time, a Foresight project deals with the existing group assumptions due to national and organizational cultures, which can be more (or less) oriented to long-term or disruptive thinking, as well as the established managerial mentality about the future orientation in strategic thinking. These cultural assumptions can exert positive or negative influence in a Foresight mindset, and should be assessed and understood previously, as the overall cultural readiness can affect the performance of a Foresight project in general. Also, the analysis of the cultural aspect as an evaluation process can generate new learning, when compared a pre-assessment with a post-assessment. Thus, the posed question is, “How to assess cultural dimensions before and after Foresight projects?” Based on Hofstede National Cultural model, Cameron and Quinn Competing Values model, and Amsteus Managerial Foresight model, this article proposes to discuss the applicability of a three-level (national, organizational, and individual) evaluation process to assess the cultural environment readiness for Strategic Foresight projects and the influence of a Foresight project on participants’ perception of the future through a two-phase approach. This research contributes to Strategic Foresight methods by proposing a research agenda about the cultural perspective in Foresight assessment. Managerial contributions about the pre-assessment interpretations of the proposed three-level process to better understand the cultural profile of the participant group are also discussed in a hypothetical scenario application.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 350-370
Author(s):  
Markus Mättö ◽  
Mervi Niskanen

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether religion or national culture can explain previously observed cross-country variation in trade credit. Design/methodology/approach Using the firm-level SME data from 35 European countries, religion and cultural factors of Hofstede and Schwartz, the authors provide new evidence on the determinants of the cross-country variation in trade credit. Findings The results indicate that religion and national culture are associated with trade credit. The authors find that the levels of trade credit are higher in Catholic countries than in Protestant ones and that peoples’ religiousness has an impact on trade credit only in Catholic countries. The authors also find that Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, such as power distance and uncertainty avoidance, are positively associated with trade credit. Practical implications Overall, authors’ findings indicate that religion and national culture are important determinants of trade credit management, and that the association between commonly used cultural values and trade credit depends on the religious, legal, and financial environment. Originality/value To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to research the relationship between national culture and trade credit.


2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 829-850 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Frías-Aceituno ◽  
Lázaro Rodríguez-Ariza ◽  
María-Isabel González-Bravo

In the last decade, a growing number of organizations worldwide have started reporting on issues concerning their economic, social and environmental behaviour. However, public administrations show a delay in this regard although there is growing interest from citizens regarding sustainability transparency. This paper contributes to intra-country analyses of non-financial reporting in the public sector by studying transparency concerning sustainability in municipalities; it analyses the coherence between societal values, identified using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, and local governments’ corporate social responsibility disclosures. We undertook a content analysis of 101 Colombian, Portuguese and Spanish local government websites and employed different graphical and statistical techniques to analyse the extent of disclosure and the relationship with societal expectations of transparency. The results showed several thematic differences between countries in disclosure preferences relating to societal cultural values of collectivism, femininity, tolerance and equity. Countries with equilibrium in all cultural values are more transparent; those with a prevalence of masculine and uncertainty avoidance cultural dimensions are particularly oriented to social perspectives and show a higher preference for strategic and economic information.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 147
Author(s):  
Benedetta Esposito ◽  
Maria Rosaria Sessa ◽  
Daniela Sica ◽  
Ornella Malandrino

Over the last few decades, stakeholders’ growing attention towards social and environmental issues has challenged universities’ traditional accountability boundaries, imposing the adoption of innovative reporting tools that facilitate stakeholders’ engagement in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices and performances. Against this backdrop, online communication tools, such as websites and social media platforms, have gained momentum as a pivotal means to increase dialogue with the myriad of stakeholders, especially during the pandemic period, as it has dramatically reduced physical interactions. Based on these premises, this study aims to dive deep into the use of social media to communicate CSR strategies in the university context by exploring the case of the University of Salerno. To this end, all posts published by the University of Salerno’s official Twitter account from 2015 to 2021 have been extracted and analyzed. Accordingly, the degree of interactions with stakeholders and the communication direction and balance level have been examined based on Carroll’s pyramid. Findings show a higher level of engagement for CSR posts and, in particular, for the philanthropic dimension. Results also highlight that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Salerno has empowered CSR disclosure through Twitter. The methodology adopted could be replicated for other universities to understand better how public universities use social media to involve a broader range of stakeholders in their CSR practices.


2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (31) ◽  
pp. 23-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lalita A. Manrai ◽  
◽  
Ajay K. Manrai ◽  

This paper develops a conceptual framework for analyzing tourist behaviors and identifies three categories of behaviors based on the applications of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and the processes underlying these influences. Our findings indicate that tourist behaviors in the Before-Travel, During-Travel, and After-Travel stages differ significantly in terms of the applicability and process through which Hofstede’s cultural dimensions operate. The results of our analysis suggest three categories of behavioral patterns, namely, “Social Interaction Driven Travel Behaviors,” (SID), “Risk Tendencies Driven Travel Behaviors,” (RTD), and “Collectivity Orientation Driven Travel Behaviors,” (COD). SID relates to the evaluation of travel experiences in the after-travel stage. The dominant cultural values associated with SID are Individualism/Collectivism, Masculinity/Femininity, and Power Distance. These three values act either independently or in pairs or all three together. RTD relates to the consumption of travel products in the during-travel stage, and COD relates to the formation of travel preferences in the before-travel stage. Individualism/Collectivism and Uncertainty Avoidance are associated with both RTD and COD. However, the underlying processes differ for these two categories of travel behaviors. In addition to their independent influences on travel behaviors, these two values associated with RTD and COD also have an interactive effect. For RTD, the Uncertainty Avoidance motive determines the Individualism/Collectivism outcome, whereas, for COD, the opposite is true: the Individualism/Collectivism determines the Uncertainty Avoidance outcome. The paper also discusses the application of a fifth cultural dimension, Confucian Dynamism (short-term versus long-term orientation), for the study of tourists’ behaviors.


Author(s):  
Reuben Ng ◽  
Weizhong J Lim

Abstract Objectives Ageism has increased over 200 years and costs the U.S. health care system $63 billion a year. While scholars agree on the consequences of ageism, there are disagreements on whether it is related to the demographics of aging, or society’s cultural values. We test both hypotheses across 20 countries. Method To circumvent the sampling limitations of survey studies, we used an 8-billion-word corpus, identified 3 synonyms with the highest prevalence—aged, elderly, old people—and compiled the top 300 words (collocates) that were used most frequently with these synonyms for each of the 20 countries. The resulting 6,000 collocates were rated on an ageism scale by 2 raters to create an ageism score per country. Cultural dimension scores—Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long-term Orientation—were taken from Hofstede, and demographics—size and speed of population aging—came from the World Development Indicators. Results Of the 20 countries, UK topped the ageism table, while Sri Lanka had the lowest ageism score. Multiple regression models showed that higher levels of masculinity and long-term orientation are associated with ageism, controlling for other cultural dimensions, demographics (size and speed of aging), and economics (GDP-per-capita). Discussion Our findings blunt the deterministic nature of ageism at the societal level. Demographics is only one side of the ageism coin, and the cultural side is equally, if not more important. This study lays the groundwork to tackle societal ageism—one of our generation’s most pernicious threats.


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