Literature Review on Corporate Social Responsibility

This report presents a detailed literature review on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), examining its definition, key aspects, and impact on businesses and society. It analyzes various perspectives on CSR, including its role in ethical business practices, environmental sustainability, and social impact. The report also discusses the challenges and opportunities associated with implementing CSR initiatives.

Assessment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
1. Literature review......................................................................................................................1
2. Literature review on Corporate Social Responsibilities..........................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Literature review is the summary of any topic which is already published. It is used for
providing guidance and direction for performing the further research (Crowther and Seifi, 2018).
It includes detailed summary of current knowledge, theoretical along with methodologies which
contributes to specific topic. Such reviews are based on secondary sources. It provides a strong
background for providing directions towards any particular subject. Various types of activities
and thinkings are involved in the process of literature review. In this report, the topic corporate
social responsibility is selected and accordingly literature review is written. It includes a detailed
understanding about literature review and corporate social responsibility. In addition, literature
review on corporate social responsibility.
MAIN BODY
1. Literature review
Literature review is a type of research which provides a detailed analysis of published
information related to available literature of the particular topic along with area done in certain
time period. It analysis various articles and books which are related to topic. It helps in
explaining the current and complete knowledge of the subject matter. The secondary sources
used are the articles, books along with various other resources for collecting the matter of the
relevant topic (Denney and Tewksbury, 2013). They acts as the basis of the further research in
the academic field. At the time of writing research paper various researcher provides their
opinion for reviewing and explaining their experiences as well as the gained knowledge in the
process of research. A good literature review leads to enumerate, describe as well as evaluate
previous research. The research structure includes three main parts. The description of each are
the following:
 Introduction: the introductory part includes the explanation and importance of the topic.
It explains the type of work done and helps in identification of controversies in any recent
researches and about previous assumptions. It helps in providing the background, purpose
along with thesis statements. The statements are used for summing up and evaluating the
findings. Based on this, suggestions are reviewed which helps the researcher to lead the
research in further direction.
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 Body: Body includes the headings as well as sub headings. It summarizes and evaluates
the current knowledge for the purpose of justifying the arguments of research report. The
major topics, important trends and findings are noted with the statement of agree or
disagree. It discusses the preliminary reviews of research thesis. The purpose of such
element is to justify the arguments of proposed research. In addition, the discussions are
directly related to project report only.
 Conclusion: It includes the presentation of all evidences and presents the significance of
the subject matter. The gaps are highlighted and suggestions related to practical
applications along with implications and possibilities are submitted for future research.
Purpose of literature review
Literature review serves various purposes (Galati and Moessner, 2013). Some of them are
discussed below:
 Demonstrate knowledge and strengths: literature review is done for providing the
knowledge with the strengths and weaknesses of the topic to various researchers and
users.
 Avoiding duplication of works: These are prepared for ensuring that users or
researchers do not copy the subject matter which is used by the original researcher for
the purpose of ensuring that duplication of work is eliminated.
 Economical to researchers: Literature review saves the time and cost of researchers
who performs research practices for any topic.
 Resolves conflicts: It helps in resolving conflicts related to contradictory arguments of
the previous research.
 Identifies key areas: these are prepared to identify the key areas for preventing or
reducing the duplication of efforts.
 Providing conclusion: At the end, the reviews are concludes for providing significance
of investigation by preparing the report to form opinion or judgement where researcher
discusses findings and learning related to topic.
 Identifying new ways: it helps in identifying various new and innovative ways along
with methods to conduct the research in proper manner.
 Analysing gaps: The literature reviews are prepared for analysing the previous gaps and
issues related to previous research.
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Literature review helps in placing each work according to the contribution of the research
for describing the relationships of the work between various researchers. It helps in identifying
new techniques to solve the problems associated with previous research and reveals the gaps to
describing key areas to achieve the high quality of work in the existing research (Grayson and
Hodges, 2017).
2. Literature review on Corporate Social Responsibilities
According to Mallen baker, corporate social responsibility refers to distinct ways or
methods through which any organisation manages its operations and activities for producing
positive impact in society (Mallen Baker, 2019). It is a continue commitment by different
entrepreneurs to perform work ethically for the purpose of economic development. It is all about
building capacity to sustaining and respecting the cultural differences. It helps in achieving
higher success by assessing the influence of working in the society. Such aspect is used by the
companies to fulfil all the obligations towards the upliftment of the society. Social responsibility
is an important part for creating the wealth of an organisation by properly enhancing the level of
competition for maximising the value in society. It plays very important role for succeeding
towards the goals and preserving the social environment. The activities of any business are
related to the cost structure, and benefit analysis. In addition, it helps a business to meet the
commercial, ethical and public expectations for contributing towards the betterment of society
along with cleaner environment.
According to Belal, Corporate social responsibility refers to integration of programs and
practices into business models as well as cultures to provide benefits to the society (Belal,
2016.). It aims to provide long term profits to businesses by resolving the issues related to
corporate social responsibility. The issues are as followings:
 Inequality at work: Such issue is related to providing unequal rights to all employees
at work place. It leads to dividing the work force according to the income level, gender
as well as religion. This impacts in building negativity and decreases motivation level
among employees.
 Discrimination and harassment: Issue is regarding discriminating between employees
and harassments downsizing the work force moral to perform operations.
 Working environment: Unfavourable environment to employees at work place
increases the absenteeism and leads to have negative effects on the sustainability.
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Every organisation is facing some or the other issue but it is their responsibility to
overcome them and deal with ethical, environmental, legal and social impacts. It helps in
understanding the interest of business towards resolving wider social issues and problems for
attracting customer to share their values.
As per Claire, corporate social responsibilities is used for filtering the practices, actions
and policies of any business entity (Claire, 2017.). CSR includes corporate citizenship, corporate
social responses, corporate philanthropy along with corporate social responsiveness. All these
are used to improve the management disciplines. It is a mechanism used to deal with current
issues regarding conflicts between suppliers, communities, employees as well as customers.
Various provisions are formulated for protects the rights of an individual at work place and
society. It leads to build effective relationships with customers as well as workers by enhancing
loyalty and commitment for improving the organisation's business. It is mandatory for all sizes of
business whether large or small and includes various activities which have significant impact
business.
According to Segerlund, corporate social responsibility is a business model of self
regulating activities (Segerlund, 2016.). It influences leadership skills as well as performance of
organisation through addressing the changes required for every group of society. Various
organisations performs tasks to focus on minimizing risks and increasing reputation in the
market. The execution of such activities may not be restricted to achievement of corporate
interests only rather should fulfil the socio-legal aspects. The applicability of such aspect is
required for attracting effective and efficient workforce which are important for performing
operations to achieve objectives without any issues. It can be used a corporate advantage for
various firms for utilising appropriate and optimum resources. The major aspect of CSR is linked
with improving financial performance of any business. Organisations performs various duties
society which impacts the financial performances.
Analysis
As per Supanti, Butcher, and Fredline, CSR is required in all types of business. The
plans, programmes and policies are prepared after considering the legal, social and
environmental factors (Supanti, Butcher and Fredline, 2015). The organisations can not
formulate any objective which affects the society. For all the firms it is mandatory to align its
business ethics for satisfying and fulfilling social and organisational responsibilities. The
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managers are developing interests for formulating the business norms, standards for increasing
the involvement of employees as well as stakeholders for influencing the activities towards
fulfilling the social responsibilities. By fulfilling all the responsibilities any entity can avoid the
dynamic and competitive impacts of the environment and leads to achieve all the results.
According to Kang, Germann and Grewal, corporate social responsibility is a framework
required for building and maintaining the efficient as well as long term relationships (Kang,
Germann and Grewal, 2016.). Such relationships helps in building trust and loyal customers and
clients for delivering the outcomes. Such framework are used for preparing the organisations to
become proactive to recognise the issues and problems for sustaining its competitive position in
the society. It involves distinct efforts to improve the situations of any society. It is a
philanthropic activity mandatory for all to follow for contributing towards the development of
society as a whole. Various laws are provided by the different governments of different countries
such as women employment, reduction in child mortality, environment sustainability, eradication
of poverty, promotion of child education. All such laws are followed by all the businesses to
increase the economic level with the other countries. Various entities performs activities for
following all the laws by merging with any NGO or trusts and foundations to pool and share the
resources (Hart, 2018). The government role is increasing to enhance the corporate social
responsibilities by the owners of businesses. The government plays significant role of
formulation plans, laws for the organisations to achieve the loyal relationships. It is very crucial
element for the success of any firm. CSR properly utilizes the experiences for preparing policies
to achieve the profitability. It ensures protection of national heritage, conservation of natural
resources, promoting gender equality, promoting development of rural areas. It is a factor where
any firm considers the growth and development of society rather than the profitability by taking
the responsibilities to perform all the activities which do not harm the society.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that literature review comprises detailed
information and summary of topic and prepared on the basis of the researcher interpretation. It
uses the articles and books which are relevant to concerned topic. It is a combination of summary
as well as synthesis. It provides direction and guidance about the relevant topic. Corporate social
responsibility was the selected topic of such report which concerned with performing the
business operations by considering legal, ethical, environmental and social aspects. Various
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organisations applies such framework to improve its image by fulfilling the corporate social
responsibilities.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Belal, A. R., 2016. Corporate social responsibility reporting in developing countries: The case
of Bangladesh. Routledge.
Claire, M. D., 2017. Human rights: The emerging norm of corporate social responsibility. In
Human Rights and Corporations (pp. 149-178). Routledge.
Crowther, D. and Seifi, S. eds., 2018. Redefining Corporate Social Responsibility. Emerald
Group Publishing.
Denney, A. S. and Tewksbury, R., 2013. How to write a literature review. Journal of criminal
justice education. 24(2). pp.218-234.
Galati, G. and Moessner, R., 2013. Macroprudential policy–a literature review. Journal of
Economic Surveys. 27(5). pp.846-878.
Grayson, D. and Hodges, A., 2017. Corporate social opportunity!: Seven steps to make
corporate social responsibility work for your business. Routledge.
Habisch, A., Jonker, J., Wegner, M. and Schmidpeter, R. eds., 2015.Corporate social
responsibility across Europe. Springer Science & Business Media.
Hart, C., 2018. Doing a literature review: Releasing the research imagination. Sage.
Kang, C., Germann, F. and Grewal, R., 2016. Washing away your sins? Corporate social
responsibility, corporate social irresponsibility, and firm performance.Journal of
Marketing. 80(2). pp.59-79.
Segerlund, L., 2016. Making corporate social responsibility a global concern: norm construction
in a globalizing world. Routledge.
Supanti, D., Butcher, K. and Fredline, L., 2015. Enhancing the employer-employee relationship
through corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement. International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management. 27(7). pp.1479-1498.
Online
Mallen Baker. 2019. [Online]. Available through: <http://mallenbaker.net/article/clear-
reflection/definitions-of-corporate-social-responsibility-what-is-csr>
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