Study Skills: Corporate Social Responsibility Literature Review Report

This report provides a comprehensive literature review on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), exploring its definition, objectives, and significance. It delves into the viewpoints of various authors on CSR, discussing its role in sustainable growth and profit maximization. The report examines the concept of a literature review, its objectives, and different approaches such as theoretical, systematic, methodological, and historical reviews. It analyzes key issues of CSR, including increased customer interest, combating corruption, and tax compliance. The report also highlights different types of CSR, such as environmental, community-based, human resource-based, and philanthropic initiatives. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of CSR for long-term growth, positive impacts on stakeholders, and sustainable business practices. The assignment provides a detailed analysis of CSR, offering insights into its multifaceted dimensions and its role in the modern business environment.

STUDY SKILLS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................2
1.What is a literature review and what does it achieve?.............................................................2
2.Write a literature review on the topic "Corporate Social Responsibility"...............................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Literature review refers to scholarly paper which consist of current knowledge including
meaningful findings, methodological contributions and theoretical information on a peculiar
topic (Crowther, and Seifi, eds., 2018) . This is based on secondary data which is concerned with
academic oriented literature. The main objective behind literature review is to identify research
gaps, requirement for additional research and lay down foundation on the research topic.
Corporate social responsibility refers to framework which encourages companies to lay down
emphasis towards society welfare and well-being. This is concerned with providing social and
economical benefits to stakeholders and focuses on development of society. Corporate social
responsibility leads to sustainable growth and profit maximisation in the competitive market. In
the literature review it will be discussed about viewpoints of various authors and opinions of
them. Further, the brief description for corporate responsibility and its various key issues. It also
emphasis on key areas of corporate social responsibility. Lastly, this report shows analysis and
recommendations on key issues of corporate social responsibility within an organisation.
MAIN BODY
1.What is a literature review and what does it achieve?
A literature review is known as systematic, reproducible and explicit method which his
used for identification, evaluation,and synthesizing the recorded work completed by scholars,
researchers and practitioners. It explains, discusses and analyses already published data related
to specific area of subject. It provides interpretations carried out from secondary data or
combines the information with primary data (etrenko, and et.al., 2016). The in-depth study on
the certain topic helps the researcher to evaluate the sources in relevant manner. The literature
reviews are planned for distinguishing the present literature on the topic which assist in
justification of finding deviations in current research. The review is based on four main
objectives which are defined below:-
 It shows the critical analysis of collected information for knowing the gaps on the current
research topic by discussing about limitations and developing areas for further research
and review of controversy areas.
 To present the literature in proper organised manner.
2

 To synthesis literature information into summarised way.
 To survey literature on the topic of research.
The purpose of literature review is defined below:-
 Identifying ways for interpretation of antecedent research.
 Finding out gaps and deviations which subsist in the literature.
 Determine the research in the context of existing literature.
 Conduct the research in the context of its endeavour for understanding the research
problem which is being studied.
 Describe the relationship between each work by considering research problem.
 To resolve conflicts which arises confounding to the previous study.
The literature review is very important because it shows the relevancy and original piece of work
related to research problem, provide justification of proposed methodology, demonstrates
readiness for culmination of research and explains how planned research is concerned with
preceding research in statistics (Ali, and et.al 2017). Literature reviews are prepared to provide
overview and synthesise various pertinent sources which are being explored. There are
approaches of literature review which are used for analysing the research study. The various
approaches are discussed below:-
 Theoretical Review- The main intent of this review is to analyse the principal of theory
that is assembled in the form of issue, theory, concept and phenomena. This theoretical
review helps to found about what theories exist, relationship between the theories, degree
of investigation of existing theories and to develop the hypothesis which needs to tested
(McWilliams, 2015). Further this theory also helps in which existing theory is inadequate
for solving the new or emerging research problem.
 Systematic Review- It is the overview of pertaining evidences of a clearly formulated
research question which uses predefined methods to determine and critically appraise
relevant research and examine data which has been enclosed in the review.
 Methodological Review- This review focuses on methods of analysis rather than
findings. Reviewing methods provides framework for understanding problems at
different levels of theory that includes approaches of research, substantive fields, analysis
techniques and data collection techniques.
3

 Historical Review- It focuses on examining research throughout the specific period of
time . The purpose of this review is to place the research in the context of historical data
to show the familiarity with the developments and finding out directions for future
research.
2.Write a literature review on the topic "Corporate Social Responsibility"
As per the viewpoints of (Grayson, and Hodges, 2017), there is significant changes in
the business environment. Business organisations has adopt many strategies with the integration
of Carroll's model of corporate social responsibility to survive in the dynamic business
environment. Thus, corporate social responsibility is universal concept in the continuous
dedication of organisations to perform its task in the ethical manner and contribute in the
development of economy and at the same moment raising the standard of living of employees
and society also.
According to the views of (Slack, and Morris, 2015) corporate social responsibility is
defined as the concept where management focuses on putting positive impact on the society. To
enhance their business operations and activities in effective and efficient manner they are
emphasising towards welfare of society at large. It provides benefits to both organisation and
society as it helps in promotion and attraction of attention on their benefits in positive manner.
Therefore, it can be defined as commitment of employees and members of organisation as they
have to fulfil ethical code of conduct towards the society. This also leads to contribution towards
the economic development of the country which leads to standard and quality of life to
employees, members their family , community and society at large scale.
In the views of (Supanti, and Fredline 2015) Corporate social responsibility is defined as
the way how organisations manages their business operations so that there is positive impact on
the society. This comprises of sustainability, ethics and impact on society which must be carried
out correctly as this is the way how organisations make money including their maximisation of
profits.
As per the opinion of ( Lins, Servaes, and Tamayo, 2017)Corporate social responsibility is
also referred to as corporate citizenship, responsible business, corporate social performance and
corporate responsibility which forms the part of corporate self-regulation into the model of
business where they manage to lay down positive impact on the society. It encompasses the
legal, ethical, philanthropic and economic expectations that society has on the organisation.
4

According to (Jamali, and Harwood,2015) Corporate social responsibility can be viewed
through three names namely which have been described below:-
 Sceptic View- As per this view, Corporate social responsibility is opposed to
discouraging business, democracy and freedom as their main motive is creation of
wealth. This undermines the foundations of society with freedom which focuses on
fulfilling social responsibility rather than making money as much as possible by
shareholders.
 Utopian View- This view reflects the ideas of companies having the prior duty of them
to fulfil social responsibility for stakeholders as well as shareholders and especially the
work exploited by the operations of business organisation. This view is based on
stakeholders theory where the company emphasises on giving recognition and respect the
essential interests of the stakeholders.
 Realistic View- This states that corporate social responsibility is not simply about the
investments and funds where companies choose to invest in community problems which
will help to resolve the issues of society. It is all about integration where company
governs towards fulfilling its mission, values and measure its impacts and report on its
activities.
Corporate social responsibility is more or less self-regulated business process which is
facilitated by many organisations. This assist organisations to become socially interactive and
accountable to the stakeholders which comprises of employees, customers, suppliers,
community, suppliers and creditors as a whole . Moreover, organisations are very much
conscious about their image and reputation because of competitive business environment so,
their focus is on operating business functions in such a way which creates positive impact in the
society. Also, this helps in accomplishing sustainable growth and objectives by being more
responsible towards the stakeholders (Ioannou, and Serafeim, 2015) . It basically comprises of
various types of environment sustainability initiatives like minimising greenhouse gas effect,
direct philanthropic and decreasing the level of pollution. This concept also helps to maintain
and fulfil economic responsibility by framing ethical standards, philanthropic and environmental
practices. Apart from this this is further types of corporate social responsibility can be performed
by the business organisation which have been defined below:-
5

Environment corporate social responsibility: This is based on responsibility towards fulfilling
economic issues which are focused on climate change. This factor has major focus towards
economic development by taking steps towards diminishing negative impact of production
towards the environment.
Community based corporate social responsibility: According to this corporate social
responsibility the associates of business organisations works with the motive of raising the
quality of for the members of community. This practice further further leads to economic
development by offering job opportunities for needy and poor people.
Human resource based corporate social responsibilities: This responsibility focuses on
giving equal and fair treatment to employees. Also, taking proper care in improvement of well
being of employees and staff members.
Philanthropy: This is the basic and foremost corporate social responsibility in which business
organisations focuses on donating money to charitable funds, NGOs as well as providing help to
needy and poor people which are done with the aim of social welfare (Ioannou, and Serafeim,
2015) .
Key issues of Corporate social responsibility
There are various key issues of corporate social responsibility which are defined below:-
 Increased customer interest- The ethical code of conduct fulfilled by companies has led
to positive impact on the society. As the companies are adopting corporate social
responsibility practices which lead to good quality products at low rates which helps in
increasing the interest of customers and satisfaction.
 Combating corruption- Corruption has extremely harmful effect on the society,
corporate governance and competition at international level. Organisations can combat
corruption by introduction of control mechanisms to avoid the corruption. It is also
important to communicate the policy for combating corruption to take the support of
management and impart training within employees regarding measures to reduce
corruption in the society.
 Taxes- If every business organisation lawfully pays its taxes in the home country as well
as at the international level is issues of corporate social responsibility. This avoids
6

putting the investors funds, and reputation at risk. The organisation paying taxes
appropriately will help the business organisation to attain relevant tax rates and rebates.
From the above discussion it has been analysed that different authors have different
viewpoints and opinions regarding the concept of corporate social responsibility. As this
concept provides certain benefits to the business organisations as well as for the society.
According to this concept companies besides profitability, survival and growth it also considers
the interest of society by fulfilling responsibility towards the impact of activities on
stakeholders, environment all members of society. From the discussion it has also been analysed
that corporate social responsibility is not same as philanthropy and charity because it is not
selfless act of giving and deriving long term benefits by the corporate social responsibility
initiatives.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that the application of corporate social
responsibility plays important role for each and very organisation as it leads to long-term growth
and profit maximisation in the competitive market. Moreover it lays down positive impact on the
society, employees, brand image, suppliers, creditors, suppliers and other members of
stakeholders. Further this report analyses that With the application of the concept of corporate
social responsibility it assist organisation in upliftment of standard of living of employees as
well as society. The organisations perform the corporate social responsibility with the motive of
gaining certain advantages such as business opportunities, reduction of cost in effective manner
and satisfaction of employees and customers in the market of cut throat competition.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
7

Crowther, D. and Seifi, S. eds., 2018. Redefining Corporate Social Responsibility. Emerald
Group Publishing.
Petrenko, O. V., Aime, F., Ridge, J. and Hill, A., 2016. Corporate social responsibility or CEO
narcissism? CSR motivations and organizational performance. Strategic Management
Journal. 37(2). pp.262-279.
McWilliams, A., 2015. Corporate social responsibility. Wiley encyclopedia of management.
pp.1-4.
Ali, W., Frynas, J. G. and Mahmood, Z., 2017. Determinants of corporate social responsibility
(CSR) disclosure in developed and developing countries: A literature review. Corporate
Social Responsibility and Environmental Management. 24(4). pp.273-294.
Grayson, D. and Hodges, A., 2017. Corporate social opportunity!: Seven steps to make
corporate social responsibility work for your business. Routledge.
Slack, R. E., Corlett, S. and Morris, R., 2015. Exploring employee engagement with (corporate)
social responsibility: A social exchange perspective on organisational
participation. Journal of Business Ethics. 127(3). pp.537-548.
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.
Lins, K. V., Servaes, H. and Tamayo, A., 2017. Social capital, trust, and firm performance: The
value of corporate social responsibility during the financial crisis. The Journal of
Finance.72(4). pp.1785-1824.
Jamali, D. R., El Dirani, A. M. and Harwood, I. A., 2015. Exploring human resource
management roles in corporate social responsibility: the CSR‐HRM co‐creation
model. Business Ethics: A European Review.24(2). pp.125-143.
Ioannou, I. and Serafeim, G., 2015. The impact of corporate social responsibility on investment
recommendations: Analysts' perceptions and shifting institutional logics. Strategic
Management Journal.36(7).pp.1053-1081.
8

1

2

3