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On the resilience of Corporate Social Responsibility

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  • Harwood, Ian
  • Humby, Stuart
  • Harwood, Audrey

Abstract

Summary Given that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), by definition, is a voluntary activity, there has been speculation as to how resilient such activities are, particularly in times of economic constraint. In 2008, Mallen Baker administered a simple online voting poll which resulted in the majority of respondents predicting either cutting back or stopping CSR activities in response to extended economic recession. This study now aims to garner detailed views across a range of UK organisations in order to assess the resilience of their CSR activities together with capturing the key drivers behind their intentions. A survey approach has been adopted, with responses gained from 121 members of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, all of whom were senior executives, directors or managers. Results show that the most common reason for undertaking CSR was "it's just the right thing to do", indicating relational and moral motives that go beyond pure instrumentalism, although compliance to regulation is also a factor. Respondents (70.3%) were content with their organisation's current levels of CSR activity and 29.7% felt that they were doing too little CSR. Over the next 5Â years, 90.8% of respondents predicted an increase in environmentally responsible activity and 88.3% predicted an increase in socially responsible actions (within which a significant number were forecasting a substantial increase). Various drivers behind this forecast increase in CSR activity are given. This study therefore finds that CSR appears to be a more resilient concept than some previous reports have suggested.

Suggested Citation

  • Harwood, Ian & Humby, Stuart & Harwood, Audrey, 2011. "On the resilience of Corporate Social Responsibility," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 283-290, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:eurman:v:29:y:2011:i:4:p:283-290
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    Cited by:

    1. Paraskevi (Evi) Dekoulou & Anna Anastasopoulou & Panagiotis Trivellas, 2023. "Employee Performance Implications of CSR for Organizational Resilience in the Banking Industry: The Mediation Role of Psychological Empowerment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-20, August.
    2. Riikka Sievänen & Hannu Rita & Bert Scholtens, 2013. "The Drivers of Responsible Investment: The Case of European Pension Funds," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 117(1), pages 137-151, September.
    3. M. Rosario González-Rodríguez & M. Carmen Díaz Fernández & Biagio Simonetti, 2016. "Corporate Social Responsibility perception versus human values: a structural equation modeling approach," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(13), pages 2396-2415, October.
    4. Björn Mestdagh & Olivier Sempiga & Luc Van Liedekerke, 2023. "The Impact of External Shocks on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Linking the COVID-19 Pandemic to SDG Implementation at the Local Government Level," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-18, April.
    5. Bocquet, Rachel & Le Bas, Christian & Mothe, Caroline & Poussing, Nicolas, 2013. "Are firms with different CSR profiles equally innovative? Empirical analysis with survey data," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 642-654.
    6. Leo Aldianto & Grisna Anggadwita & Anggraeni Permatasari & Isti Raafaldini Mirzanti & Ian O. Williamson, 2021. "Toward a Business Resilience Framework for Startups," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-19, March.
    7. repec:hal:journl:hal-00918528 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Herzig, Christian & Moon, Jeremy, 2013. "Discourses on corporate social ir/responsibility in the financial sector," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(10), pages 1870-1880.
    9. Angeloantonio Russo & Massimo Mariani & Francesco Perrini, 2016. "Cherry Picking or Depth-Oriented Strategic Investing? Evidence from SRI Activity," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(11), pages 1-13, October.
    10. Nollet, Joscha & Filis, George & Mitrokostas, Evangelos, 2016. "Corporate social responsibility and financial performance: A non-linear and disaggregated approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 52(PB), pages 400-407.
    11. Miltiadis Staboulis & Grigoris Zarotiadis, 2015. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Dialogue in Human Resources Management in the Banking Sector in Greece: A Case Study of Elder Bank Employees," South-Eastern Europe Journal of Economics, Association of Economic Universities of South and Eastern Europe and the Black Sea Region, vol. 13(2), pages 135-156.
    12. Shanshan Yao, 2023. "Corporate Social Responsibility Regulatory System Based on Sustainable Corporation Law Pathway," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-17, January.
    13. La Rosa, Fabio & Liberatore, Giovanni & Mazzi, Francesco & Terzani, Simone, 2018. "The impact of corporate social performance on the cost of debt and access to debt financing for listed European non-financial firms," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 519-529.
    14. Hanwen Chen & Siyi Liu & Xin Liu & Daoguang Yang, 2022. "Adversity Tries Friends: A Multilevel Analysis of Corporate Philanthropic Response to the Local Spread of COVID-19 in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(3), pages 585-612, May.
    15. Blanca de-Miguel-Molina & Vicente Chirivella-González & Beatriz García-Ortega, 2016. "Corporate philanthropy and community involvement. Analysing companies from France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 50(6), pages 2741-2766, November.
    16. González Rodríguez, María Del Rosario & Díaz Fernádez, María Del Carmen & Spers, Valéria Rueda Elias & Leite, Marcelo da Silva, 2016. "Relação entre variáveis de base, valores e responsabilidade social corporativa," RAE - Revista de Administração de Empresas, FGV-EAESP Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo (Brazil), vol. 56(1), January.
    17. Fridolin Simon Brand & Richard Blaese & Giulia Weber & Herbert Winistoerfer, 2022. "Changes in Corporate Responsibility Management during COVID-19 Crisis and Their Effects on Business Resilience: An Empirical Study of Swiss and German Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-18, March.
    18. Zhu, Qinghua & Liu, Junjun & Lai, Kee-hung, 2016. "Corporate social responsibility practices and performance improvement among Chinese national state-owned enterprises," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(P3), pages 417-426.
    19. Seles, Bruno Michel Roman Pais & Lopes de Sousa Jabbour, Ana Beatriz & Jabbour, Charbel Jose Chiappetta & Latan, Hengky & Roubaud, David, 2019. "Do Environmental Practices Improve Business Performance Even in an Economic Crisis? Extending the Win-Win Perspective," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 189-204.

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