Is corporate social responsibility pursuing pristine business goals for sustainable development?

Abstract

There is a continuing academic debate on corporate social responsibility (CSR), its goals and practices, and its impact on business and society. Following this debate, this study has made a critical investigation of CSR practices of business enterprises with a view to examining their spirit, intentions and roles in terms of pristine business goals. After analyzing the contents of pertinent literature (126 articles, of which 89 are empirical) in both developed and developing country contexts, the study finds that corporate managers are still less concerned about the meaning and essence of pristine business goals and the true goals and role of CSR. They practice CSR largely in a voluntary philanthropic fashion to build public image and primarily enhance business profit, not necessarily for social wellbeing. Their CSR practices have been found to be more of a cosmetic and face‐saving marketing strategy, undermining the social wellbeing goal for sustainable development. The CSR movement, therefore, needs reformation.

An extension of the industrial corporate social responsibility practices index: New information for stakeholder engagement under a multivariate approach

“…All these sectors show the highest positive values in the ICSRPI_39, which means that the environmental impact or risk of a company is the best indicator of its CSR practices, because the companies most exposed to these risks, due to the social pressure to disclose bad environmental news, seek to adopt or improve their practices in order to manage and increase user confidence (Casey & Grenier, ; Ekelenburg, ; Jackson & Apostolakou, ; Peters & Romi, ; Simnett et al, ). In these sectors, organizations can use CSR as a key factor in their corporate reputation because of its potential to foster a competitive advantage that is difficult to duplicate (Hoque, Rahman, Molla, Noman, & Bhuiyan, ; Melo & Garrido‐Morgado, ). In addition, several firms, instead of designing their own action plan, decide to imitate those reputable and leading companies in the sector; they adopt the commercial practices carried out by them to achieve fundamental social objectives like a good image or prestige and, accordingly, benefiting from the economic advantages linked with survival, growth, and performance (Blomgren, ; González‐Rodríguez, Díaz‐Fernández, & Simonetti, ).…”

Are cultural values sufficient to improve stakeholder engagement human and labour rights issues?

“…Thus, according to the arguments of Boiral (), the fact that large companies claim that they report in accordance with GRI guidelines but do not detail all the indicators established in them legitimises the practice of camouflaging real sustainability problems, an obstacle for increasing credibility of the CSR (Hedberg & Von Malmborg, ). In this sense, Hoque, Rahman, Molla, Noman, and Bhuiyan () finds that corporate managers practice CSR largely in a voluntary philanthropic fashion to build public image.…”

A study of corporate social responsibility practices of the top Bombay Stock Exchange 500 companies in India and their alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals

“…A number of studies have shown that the CSR varies depending upon the country, region, industry sector, and level at which it is being implemented (Alhaddi, ; Aguinis & Glavas, ; Bhalachandran, ; Hemingway, ; Desore et al, ; Thakur, Narula, & Zutshi, ; Jaworski & Kohli, ). The philanthropic motivations for pursuing CSR are higher in developing countries, and environmental and ethical concerns take priority in developed nations (Hoque, Rahman, Molla, Noman, & Bhuiyan, ; Arevalo & Aravind, ; Baskin, ; Krishnan & Balachandran, , Lee, ; Hyvönen & Tuominen, ; Cheung, Tan, Ahn, & Zhang, ). However, researchers in the developing nations face limited literature and systematic data for pursuing studies on the same.…”