Exploring the relationship between CSR and innovation

Abstract

Purpose The paper aims at summarizing the state of knowledge on the relationship between a company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its innovation performance. Design/methodology/approach The research relied on a systematic literature review with the use of SALSA (Search, AppraisaL, Synthesis, Analysis) and backwards-snowballing methods. The search encompassed one electronic database – Scopus. Finally, the set of papers analyzed amounted to 24 publications. The relationship between innovation and CSR reported in these papers were synthesized in the form of a mapping review. Findings The results indicated the lack of scientific consensus on many aspects of the relationship studied. CSR was assumed to influence innovation performance, and inversely, innovations were presumed to have an impact on the company’s CSR. However, the relation’s determinants were strongly diversified in the set of articles studied. Research limitations/implications The present paper omitted articles published in languages other than English. Also, it limited the papers studied to those published between January 2000 and August 2014 in journals listed on the Journal Citation Report. The paper contributes to the research by highlighting the most important research gaps and implications for further research. Practical implications The present paper constitutes an up-to-date summary on the studied relationship, which is important for practitioners in the management process. Originality/value According to the authors’ knowledge, no systematic reviews dedicated to the relationship between a company’s CSR and its innovation performance were made before. Thus, it fulfils an important research gap.

Is the corporate social responsibility–innovation link homogeneous?: Looking for sustainable innovation in the Spanish context

“…From a theoretical point of view, although some authors accept the existence of a relationship between CSR and innovation (e.g., Gallego-Alvarez et al, 2011), others highlight the difficulty of finding an acceptable theory to explain this link (Ratajczak & Szutowski, 2016). Consistent with Gallego-Alvarez et al (2011) and Luo and Du (2015), this relationship can be explained by a joint integration of the resource-based view (RBV) and the knowledge-based view (KBV).…”

“…Second, to analyse contingencies on the relationship between innovation and CSR, we use the broadly accepted view of the "triple bottom line" (Bohlmann, Krumbholz, & Zacher, 2018;Martínez-Conesa, Soto-Acosta, & Palacios-Manzano, 2017;Vanelslander, 2016), which covers three core fields: economic, social, and environmental. Although there is no consensus about the best definition of the CSR concept, there is some degree of agreement about its multidimensional nature (Anser et al, 2018;Gallagher, Hrivnak, Valcea, Mahoney, & LaWong, 2018;Ratajczak & Szutowski, 2016) and how CSR allows firms to show their commitment to economic, social, and environmental development (Guerrero-Villegas, Sierra-García, & Palacios-Florencio, 2018). However, the previous literature has failed to use a measure that includes all three dimensions (Gallagher et al, 2018) and has been mostly focused on limited dimensions of CSR (i.e., Shu, Zhou, Xiao, & Gao, 2016;Wagner, 2010) and/or on a unique construct of CSR (i.e., Luo & Du, 2015;Mahmoud & Hinson, 2012;Wagner, 2010).…”

The role of sustainable development and innovation on firm performance

“…In this line, a recent study conducted by Marin, Martín, and Rubio (2017) has specified that in spite of CSR increasingly becoming part of company discussions worldwide in the quest for greater competitiveness and value, CSR and innovation have seldom been explicitly discussed in combination in the literature. Therefore, the relationship between CSR and innovation still lacks even basic conclusions (Ratajczak & Szutowski, 2016).…”

Responsible Research and Innovation in Enterprises: Benefits, Barriers and the Problem of Assessment

“…the available CSR metrics and indicators are suitable, optimal and transparent [24], and what is the relationship between CSR and firm performance [25]. Metrics and indicators presented in Tab.…”