Corporate social responsibility in international joint ventures: Empirical examinations in South Korea

This study aims to investigate organizational characteristics and develop a framework relating to corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices of international joint ventures (IJVs) established in the South Korean market. Based on institutional and stakeholder theories, regression analyses produced a framework facilitating a better understanding and identification of factors that drive CSR in local markets. Consumers, competitors, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were discovered to be primary determinants of responsible behaviors. Additionally, some significant differences were found with respect to CSR related to IJV’s formative characteristics. This study contributes to furthering knowledge of IJVs and CSR, as well by providing some practical implications for organizations pursuing international markets.     

Corporate social responsibility research in international business journals: An author co-citation analysis

This paper aims to describe the development of research on corporate social responsibility in international business (IB) journals and to suggest future research directions. We conducted a bibliometric study of articles published in twelve leading international business journals over three decades in a longer time frame (1996–2015). Five research trends were found in IB journals: business ethics, integration of stakeholder management, the evolution of the CSR concept, the political and social demands of CSR, and the financial implications of CSR. Our results thus have several implications and suggest numerous opportunities for future research.     

International business and human rights: A research agenda

The discussion on business responsibilities for human rights is thriving – although, surprisingly, predominantly outside of the International Business (IB) field. This article introduces business and human rights (BHR) as a research area with great potential for IB scholars. IB scholarship has much to offer when it comes to better understanding the relation between multinational enterprises (MNEs) and human rights. BHR, on the other hand, is a field that can no longer be ignored by IB research if the field is to remain at the forefront of scholarship in globalization-related issues concerning MNEs. Therefore, this perspective article aims at providing guidance to IB scholars interested in engaging in BHR research by tracing common themes and overlaps, and outlining a research agenda that addresses some of the research gaps and open questions in both fields.     

The corporate social responsibility (CSR) employer brand process: integrative review and comprehensive model

ABSTRACT

Firms are increasingly drawing on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in their employer branding to improve attractiveness and engage current and potential employees, and to ensure consistency in employee brand behaviours. However, there is a dearth of literature synthesising CSR and employer branding research to understand employee engagement with CSR-firms from a branding perspective. In this article, the authors carried out an integrative literature review of CSR and employer branding literatures. Informed by signaling theory, the authors develop a conceptual model of the CSR employer branding process as a cohesive view from the potential and current employee perspective. Our review highlights the need for firms to achieve CSR consistency in terms of (a) embeddedness of CSR values, and (b) levels of internal CSR. These two factors frame a typology that enable managers to better execute their CSR employer brand identity to achieve favourable results, such as a high-quality talent pool and positive affective, cognitive and behavioural employee outcomes.     

Social entrepreneurship: Creating new business models to serve the poor

The term “social entrepreneurship” (SE) is used to refer to the rapidly growing number of organizations that have created models for efficiently catering to basic human needs that existing markets and institutions have failed to satisfy. Social entrepreneurship combines the resourcefulness of traditional entrepreneurship with a mission to change society. One social entrepreneur, Ibrahim Abouleish, recently received the “Alternative Nobel Prize” for his Sekem initiative; in 2004, e-Bay founder Jeff Skoll donated 4.4 million pounds to set up a social entrepreneurship research center; and many social entrepreneurs have mingled with their business counterparts at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Social entrepreneurship offers insights that may stimulate ideas for more socially acceptable and sustainable business strategies and organizational forms. Because it contributes directly to internationally recognized sustainable development (SD) goals, social entrepreneurship may also encourage established corporations to take on greater social responsibility.     

Corporate social responsibility: Findings from the Chinese hospitality industry

The study investigates the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on consumers’ attitudinal and behavioral responses, factors closely related to a firm's social and economic performance, using data from 451 customers of three hotels. We also test the universality of such impact across various consumer groups. Results show that CSR positively affects perceived corporate reputation and customer satisfaction, which in turn, significantly affect customer commitment and behavioral responses (i.e., loyalty intentions and word-of-mouth). Perhaps more importantly, the role of CSR is not universal across consumer groups. Particularly, consumer income seems to moderate the relationship between CSR and perceived reputation. Specifically, the positive effect of CSR on perceived corporate reputation is more salient among people with a higher income. Managerial implications are discussed.     

Building a global corporate social responsibility program via mergers and acquisitions: A managerial framework

While previous studies and management conventions often adopted a finance-centric view of cross-border mergers and acquisitions (CBM&A or CBA), we demonstrate that CBA can be an effective platform upon which to build a global corporate social responsibility (CSR) program and that CSR initiatives can be customized for different locales. These CSR-CBA interconnections and customizations respond to a range of stakeholder interests associated with both national and societal institutional factors. We develop a managerial framework for the CSR-CBA setting and illustrate the framework with an exemplar of international expansion through acquisitions combined with the international development and implementation of CSR.     

Rethinking corporate social responsibility under contemporary capitalism: Five ways to reinvent CSR

Skepticism toward CSR is increasing. Management research on CSR tends to focus on positive outcomes from the practice of CSR, such as enhanced financial performance and best practice business cases. Less attention is devoted to why CSR is under siege. This paper argues that CSR is intimately connected with the way that capitalism is practiced, and that poor CSR outcomes are often the result of five “shortcomings” of contemporary capitalism: runaway self-interest, quarterly focus, elite orientation, volume orientation, and one-pattern capitalism. To evidence this, I employ a two-stage approach: a “diagnostic” stage that investigates current challenges facing capitalism and how they affect CSR, and a “clinical” stage that identifies potential solutions based on a qualitative data set collected in Asian business contexts. The proposed solutions suggest ways that researchers, practitioners, and policymakers can conceptualize, design, and implement CSR programs that better fulfill CSR’s promise to business and society. Based on these results, I conclude with ideas on how CSR research can be strengthened by exploring the under-researched linkages among CSR, modern capitalism, and global institutional contexts.     

Corporate social responsibility before CSR: Practices at Aluminium du Cameroun (Alucam) from the 1950s to the 1980s

Abstract

Aluminium du Cameroun (Alucam) was set up in 1957 as a subsidiary of the French aluminium group Pechiney. Since its creation, the Alucam plant has systematically applied policies that simultaneously integrate economic, social and environmental aspects. The originality of our contribution is that we describe a case where the three elements that make up corporate social responsibility (economic, social and environmental) are intertwined. Although this combination of elements had not formally materialised at the time, the case examined shows early awareness – comparatively ahead of its time and relatively well combined between the 1950s and the 1980s – of the three dimensions of corporate social responsibility.     

Legal rights,national culture and social networks: Exploring the uneven adoption of United Nations Global Compact

We develop and test a novel framework for explaining cross-country differences in corporate participation in a prominent initiative often associated with social responsibility, United Nations Global Compact (UNGC). Drawing upon neo-institutional and cross-country comparative literatures, we explore the impact of (a) stakeholder legal rights; (b) national culture, and (c) the country's social network position, as reflected by international trade patterns. Results suggest that firms from countries with strong labor rights, collectivist cultures, and long traditions of stock trading join UNGC at higher rates. Our framework can be modified for future cross-country research on the adoption of practices.     

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.     

The influence of a retailer's corporate social responsibility program on re-conceptualizing store image

The construct of retail store image is typically built based on a variety of the store's functional attributes. This conceptualization fails to consider the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) polices and practices in forming store image. Results from a study of 460 consumers indicate CSR influences consumer store image. CSR is particularly effective at influencing store image when the retailer experiences a positive performance perception among its customers. Consumers shopping at such stores are more receptive to CSR programs, and experience significant increases in their level of satisfaction and loyalty to the store through the addition of these programs.     

Corporate social responsibility: Doing well by doing good

Saving the rain forest from yet another palm oil plantation would certainly garner a company favorable attention from environmentalists, but how would its shareholders react? In this article, we show that by strategically practicing corporate social responsibility (CSR), a company can ‘do well by doing good’; in other words, it can make a profit and make the world a better place at the same time. CSR is regarded as voluntary corporate commitment to exceed the explicit and implicit obligations imposed on a company by society's expectations of conventional corporate behavior. Hence, CSR is a way of promoting social trends in order to enhance society's basic order, which we define as consisting of obligations that cover both the legal framework and social conventions. Due to globalization, companies are now less constrained by society's basic order than they have been in the past. Because different countries have different laws and standards, there are more ways to get away with less than ideal behavior in the quest for greater and greater profits. Nearly everyone agrees that this is not a good thing, but what can be done? Via this article, we offer an understanding of CSR that could be the answer. Herein, we contend that practicing CSR is not altruistic do-gooding, but rather a way for both companies and society to prosper. This is especially true when CSR is conceived of as a long-range plan of action.     

Corporate communication,sustainability, and social media: It's not easy (really) being green

This empirical research explores how 16 global corporations from four different industry sectors—retail, technology equipment, food/beverage/tobacco, and consumer goods—use social media platforms and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports to communicate about sustainability. Facebook, Twitter, CEO letters from annual reports and CSR/sustainability reports, and other company documentation are examined to compare the content and scope of these firms’ corporate communication. The sample is divided into two subsamples (Green and Not Green firms) using Newsweek's Greenest Company 2012 rankings, and compared for differential use of social media and corporate reports. Results show that communication varies across firm and industry regarding types of sustainability initiatives reported, metrics employed, and communication media utilized, and that Green firms are more active than Not Green firms both in addressing sustainability and in general social media activity. Implications are discussed herein and recommendations are presented for companies seeking to better understand the effective use of social media and sustainability communication.     

Using consumer perceived ethicality as a guideline for corporate social responsibility strategy: A commentary essay

“Consumer Perceived Ethicality” presents a framework of perceived consumer ethicality as summarized from in-depth interviews with 20 citizens of the United Kingdom and Germany. The framework identifies six broad domains and 36 sub-items (6 for each domain) that serve as examples of consumer-generated “unethical corporate behaviors.” This commentary highlights the contributions, discusses the limitations and presents an alternative perspective on the study of consumer perceived ethicality.     

The link between corporate social responsibility and customer loyalty: Empirical evidence from the Islamic banking industry

Increased support from customers for Islamic financial services is very important to create resilience and competitiveness in the Islamic banking industry. By highlighting certain social activities, this paper estimates the role of Islamic banks’ CSR in influencing customer loyalty, both individually and through the integrated roles of image, trust, satisfaction, and reputation. These paths explore how CSR makes customers impressed, convinced, satisfied, amazed, and ultimately loyal to Islamic banks. The empirical analysis of partial least square structural equation modeling (n = 283) has shown that CSR directly and positively impacts loyalty. Indirectly, these two aspects have an insignificant relationship through the serial roles of image-reputation and satisfaction-reputation, but significant through the single role of reputation and the serial role of trust-reputation. This study has resulted in an updated prediction model of Islamic banking customer loyalty. The practical implication lies in the importance of developing CSR to generate trust and reputation which ultimately increase customer loyalty toward Islamic banks.     

The pivotal roles of product knowledge and corporate social responsibility in event sponsorship effectiveness

The authors apply consumer theories of cognition to event marketing specifically in relation to corporate sponsorships. Upon conducting field surveys with attendees (n = 1636) at an international sporting event with a multinational sponsor, the authors demonstrate the pivotal roles that 1) attendees' knowledge regarding the sponsor's product, and 2) perception of the sponsor's commitment to corporate social responsibility have on successful event sponsorship. Specifically, structural model results show how attendees' knowledge of the event sponsor's products and perceptions of the sponsor as socially responsible enhance attendees' commitment to the sponsor and intentions to purchase the sponsor's products. These results provide scholars and managers with means of improving event marketing communications.     

Consumers' perception of corporate social responsibility in a developing country

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) increasingly receives attention from managers and researchers, especially in the area of consumer perception and response of CSR. However, most of this research was conducted in the context of developed countries. It shows that research on consumer perception towards CSR in developing countries needs to be developed. This paper will examine consumer perception in the developing country of Indonesia. This research produced mixed results, suggesting that CSR is still a concept waiting to be applied in the developing country. Consumers are often unaware and unsupportive towards CSR. This is the opposite finding of consumer perception in developed countries, where most consumers are willing to support CSR launched by corporations. Nevertheless, there is an interesting finding: When consumers have to buy similar products with the same price and quality, CSR could be the determining factor. They would buy from the firm that has a socially responsible reputation.     

Understanding customer participation in CSR activities: The impact of perceptions of CSR,affective commitment,brand equity,and corporate reputation

This study investigates the mediating role of affective commitment in the link between perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the intention to participate in CSR activities. We also examine the moderating role of firms' brand equity and corporate reputation in the relationship between perceived CSR and affective commitment. The data were collected from two online surveys and analyzed using Hayes' PROCESS macro. The results indicate a partial mediating effect of affective commitment and a significant moderating effect of brand equity. However, the moderating effect of corporate reputation is not significant. This study contributes to uncovering the process of enhancing CSR performance.     

Dealing with poor online ratings in the hospitality service industry: The mitigating power of corporate social responsibility activities

Hospitality service providers' reputation and sales can be strongly damaged by low ratings on platforms such as Tripadvisor, Booking, or Yelp. In this research, we investigate how the potential damaging effects of poor ratings of a hospitality service providers' can be mitigated by corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Building on the self-affirmation theory, we suggest and provide evidence for the notion that CSR (vs. non-CSR) cues affect more positively guests’ evaluation of a service provider when online ratings are low. When the ratings increase, CSR cues are not better than other cues to improve evaluations. Further, we detail the underlying mechanism whereby guests allocate more weight to CSR (vs. non-CSR) cues when they form an evaluation of a low-rated (vs. higher-rated) service provider, which increases the warm-glow feelings that they anticipate and, eventually, their evaluation. We test our model with two experiments on two different samples (US and European), involving different CSR cues (environmental and social) and different types of service provider (hotel and restaurant). We then discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of our research for hospitality professionals, as well as for policy makers.