IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i11p6418-d822889.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Managing Sustainability Projects for Social Impact from a Corporate Social Responsibility Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Meera Al-Marri

    (School of Business and Quality Management, Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University, Dubai P.O. Box 71400, United Arab Emirates)

  • Ashly H. Pinnington

    (Organisational Behaviour and Human Resource Management Department, Nottingham University Business School, Jubilee Campus, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG8 1BB, UK)

Abstract

Initiatives in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can contribute to many programs for sustainable development. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is considered to have been slower to change in CSR than have other Western developed countries. The purpose of this research is to explore examples in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of how project initiatives in CSR and sustainable development can facilitate heightened awareness, engagement, and execution of action for sustainability. This research utilizes qualitative case study methods analysing a United Nations (UN) supported annual youth engagement program focused on implementation of sustainable development projects in the UAE. The varying degrees of project complexity and “programmification” of sustainability activities in the UAE reveals a more systematic and mature stage of CSR and sustainable development projects and programs than is reported in the literature. The application of project management to organize, implement, align, and monitor sustainability-centred programs provides knowledge relevant to the UAE and other countries interested in the strategic management of change. The study demonstrates the application and value of project management for implementing sustainable development initiatives and highlights the collaborative contribution of corporate and governmental stakeholders to project management in organizations. An important area for future research on sustainable development in the MENA region is to study corporate and public sector partnerships in CSR projects and sustainability programs.

Suggested Citation

  • Meera Al-Marri & Ashly H. Pinnington, 2022. "Managing Sustainability Projects for Social Impact from a Corporate Social Responsibility Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-16, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:11:p:6418-:d:822889
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/11/6418/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/11/6418/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Abagail McWilliams & Donald S. Siegel & Patrick M. Wright, 2006. "Corporate Social Responsibility: Strategic Implications," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(1), pages 1-18, January.
    2. Lamia Laguir & Issam Laguir & Emmanuel Tchemeni, 2019. "Implementing CSR activities through management control systems," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 32(2), pages 531-555, May.
    3. Adam Lindgreen & Valérie Swaen & Timothy Campbell, 2009. "Corporate Social Responsibility Practices in Developing and Transitional Countries: Botswana and Malawi," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 90(3), pages 429-440, December.
    4. Gemünden, Hans Georg & Lehner, Patrick & Kock, Alexander, 2018. "The Project-oriented Organization and its Contribution to Innovation," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 92880, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    5. Carroll, Archie B., 1991. "The pyramid of corporate social responsibility: Toward the moral management of organizational stakeholders," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 39-48.
    6. Yaprak Anadol & Mohamed A. Youssef & Eappen Thiruvattal, 2015. "Consumer reaction towards corporate social responsibility in United Arab Emirates," Social Responsibility Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 11(1), pages 19-35, March.
    7. Dima Jamali & Ben Neville, 2011. "Convergence Versus Divergence of CSR in Developing Countries: An Embedded Multi-Layered Institutional Lens," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 102(4), pages 599-621, September.
    8. Dima Jamali & Ramez Mirshak, 2007. "Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Theory and Practice in a Developing Country Context," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 72(3), pages 243-262, May.
    9. Shallini Taneja & Pawan Taneja & Rajen Gupta, 2011. "Researches in Corporate Social Responsibility: A Review of Shifting Focus, Paradigms, and Methodologies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 101(3), pages 343-364, July.
    10. Carin Labuschagne & Alan C. Brent & Schalk J. Claasen, 2005. "Environmental and social impact considerations for sustainable project life cycle management in the process industry," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(1), pages 38-54, March.
    11. Jaakko Siltaloppi & Risto Rajala & Henri Hietala, 2021. "Integrating CSR with Business Strategy: A Tension Management Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 174(3), pages 507-527, December.
    12. Rachel Bocquet & Christian Le Bas & Caroline Danièle Mothe & Nicolas Poussing, 2019. "Strategic CSR for innovation in SMEs: Does diversity matter?," Post-Print hal-02380559, HAL.
    13. Stefano Armenia & Rosa Maria Dangelico & Fabio Nonino & Alessandro Pompei, 2019. "Sustainable Project Management: A Conceptualization-Oriented Review and a Framework Proposal for Future Studies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-16, May.
    14. Renneboog, Luc & Ter Horst, Jenke & Zhang, Chendi, 2008. "Socially responsible investments: Institutional aspects, performance, and investor behavior," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1723-1742, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alla Mostepaniuk & Elsie Nasr & Razan Ibrahim Awwad & Sameer Hamdan & Hasan Yousef Aljuhmani, 2022. "Managing a Relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-23, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bongani Munkuli & Renee Horne, 2018. "Financial Markets Value Reputation for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) – A Study of the South African Mining Sector," Africagrowth Agenda, Africagrowth Institute, vol. 15(2), pages 17-22.
    2. Upadhaya, Bedanand & Munir, Rahat & Blount, Yvette & Su, Sophia, 2018. "Does organizational culture mediate the CSR – strategy relationship? Evidence from a developing country, Nepal," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 108-122.
    3. Najeb Masoud, 2017. "How to win the battle of ideas in corporate social responsibility: the International Pyramid Model of CSR," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 1-22, December.
    4. Wenjuan Sui & Chunwei Yang & Huiyu Zhang, 2019. "Is Corporate Social Responsibility Used to Mask Corporate Speculation? Evidence from Emerging China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-23, June.
    5. Garanina, Tatiana & Kim, Oksana, 2023. "The relationship between CSR disclosure and accounting conservatism: The role of state ownership," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    6. Petya Koleva, 2021. "Towards the Development of an Empirical Model for Islamic Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from the Middle East," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(4), pages 789-813, July.
    7. Francesco Gangi & Jérôme Méric & Rémi Jardat & Lucia Michela Daniele, 2019. "Business for society," Post-Print hal-02382307, HAL.
    8. Gangi, Francesco & Meles, Antonio & Monferrà, Stefano & Mustilli, Mario, 2020. "Does corporate social responsibility help the survivorship of SMEs and large firms?," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    9. Nguyen Minh Ha & Le Quoc Phong & Tran Kiem Viet Thang & Huynh Luong Tam & Tran Hai Dang & Nguyen Thi Mai Hoa, 2023. "Mediating role of corporate reputation in the relationship between corporate social responsibility and repurchase intention: A case study of McDonald’s fast food restaurant chain," HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE - ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY, vol. 13(2), pages 19-38.
    10. Dolores Gallardo-Vázquez & Luis Enrique Valdez-Juárez & Ángela María Castuera-Díaz, 2019. "Corporate Social Responsibility as an Antecedent of Innovation, Reputation, Performance, and Competitive Success: A Multiple Mediation Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-28, October.
    11. Qinqin Zheng & Yadong Luo & Stephanie Wang, 2014. "Moral Degradation, Business Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility in a Transitional Economy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 120(3), pages 405-421, March.
    12. Valerie Priscilla Goby & Catherine Nickerson, 2016. "Conceptualization of CSR Among Muslim Consumers in Dubai: Evolving from Philanthropy to Ethical and Economic Orientations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(1), pages 167-179, June.
    13. Justin Tan, 2009. "Institutional Structure and Firm Social Performance in Transitional Economies: Evidence of Multinational Corporations in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 86(2), pages 171-189, March.
    14. Mobin Fatma & Imran Khan, 2023. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Brand Advocacy among Consumers: The Mediating Role of Brand Trust," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-10, February.
    15. Mohammad Sohail Yunis & Dima Jamali & Hina Hashim, 2018. "Corporate Social Responsibility of Foreign Multinationals in a Developing Country Context: Insights from Pakistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-20, September.
    16. Monowar Mahmood & Janet Humphrey, 2013. "Stakeholder Expectation of Corporate Social Responsibility Practices: A Study on Local and Multinational Corporations in Kazakhstan," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(3), pages 168-181, May.
    17. Gaurav Dawar & Seema Singh, 2022. "How Can Small and Medium Enterprises Effectively Implement Corporate Social Responsibility?: An Indian Perspective," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 23(3), pages 756-784, June.
    18. Finger, Maya & Gavious, Ilanit & Manos, Ronny, 2018. "Environmental risk management and financial performance in the banking industry: A cross-country comparison," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 240-261.
    19. Ahmed Al‐Abdin & Taposh Roy & John D. Nicholson, 2018. "Researching Corporate Social Responsibility in the Middle East: The Current State and Future Directions," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(1), pages 47-65, January.
    20. Harjoto, Maretno A. & Hoepner, Andreas G.F. & Li, Qian, 2021. "Corporate social irresponsibility and portfolio performance: A cross-national study," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:11:p:6418-:d:822889. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.