Exploring Corporate Social Responsibility Through a Literature Review

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Study Skills for Higher Education
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Table of Contents
Assessment 2..............................................................................................................................3
Introduction............................................................................................................................3
1. What is a literature review and what does it achieve?.......................................................3
2. Write a literature review on the topic Corporate Social Responsibility.............................4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
Reference list..............................................................................................................................9
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Assessment 2
Introduction
This assessment will focus on the meaning of literature review and the value of it in this field.
Details will be given about literature review and the reason behind using it to assess
situations or any topic. The achievement by the literature review will also be a part of this
discussion. The second question will deal with the literature review of corporate social
responsibilities. For this, a few journals and books will be used on this topic. Then the
various authors and their approach towards CSR will be in this report. This will be achieved
by comparing different articles and books.
1. What is a literature review and what does it achieve?
Literature review can be defined as an evaluation of literature, which is available for a given
subject. The content of the literature review deals with the topic in depth. The literature
review contains a few objectives. It performs a survey of the literature for the chosen topic
and also synthesises information regarding it by summarizing it. This also performs a critical
analysis for the information and also identifies the loopholes or gap found in recent
knowledge about the topic. It also shows limitations of various theories given by other
authors and points out further research areas. It also helps to present literature in an organized
manner. There are few more achievement of literature review. It helps in gaining credibility
of a particular work done by the learner by showing familiarity within vast amount of
knowledge. Literature review helps in summarizing research done before by others and
through that it connects the topic chosen by the learner (rlf.org.uk, 2019).
A literature review is an article or a scholarly paper that includes present knowledge and
future scope for further research regarding the topic. The literature review helps in addressing
the valuable information about a particular subject or topic. It is very much important to gain
knowledge and find errors within it. It helps in situating the focus of the research by helping
in finding various experts who wrote and researched about it previously. Finding the
academic community becomes easier through literature review as it enables a learner to
search and learn about various authors. Sometimes the approach of every author is not same
in a particular field. Therefore, a person can easily compare between their theories regarding
the topic and come to a better conclusion by performing a thorough literature review. After
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reading a literature review, the reader can easily come to the conclusion that the author of that
review is up to date with the topic (le.ac.uk, 2019).
A literature review is a systematic research process about a particular topic from accredited
sources. This involves finding relevant papers, journals and books about the topic. To do this
it is very important to have a proper plan regarding the subject. It helps in establishing a
theory and belief by gathering a massive amount of information. This includes crictical
evaluation of the topic by finding and assessing the amount of knowledge gathered by
performing this research. A literature review enables the learner to ask relevant questions
about the topic. These questions points out to the findings of other researchers who
previously went through a research about it. It also helps in finding the core concepts about
the subject in discussion. A literature review also helps in finding different point of views of
different countries. Stereotyping is a serious issue when it comes to writing about a topic but
literature review helps in avoiding it (Hart, 2018).
The achievement of literature review is huge. It is a step towards success for the learner.
There are a few steps for this. A step by step process like this is the main reason for its
success. The first step helps in recognizing and defining the problem for the topic. Second
step helps in developing the necessary tools for the argument. Step three includes searching
for the literature, collecting and organizing it. The fourth step includes surveying the
literature and the fifth step deals with performing a critical review. The final step is about
writing the review regarding the subject. It helps in focusing in a particular subject and it also
limits the interest. Conducting a literature review gives the option to select a perspective.
Another achievement for the literature review is that it helps to build a case. It also gives birth
to a lot of arguments within the mind of the learner (Machi and McEvoy, 2016).
2. Write a literature review on the topic Corporate Social Responsibility.
According to Crane et al. (2019), CSR is away by which, companies consider the impact on
the society for their operations and they then change or modify their principles according to
it. They do this by discussing about necessary changes with the members of the company and
also outsiders. It can also be said that CSR is promoted by a business organization and it is
the way to realise their social responsibility. Here they do not consider making profits only,
rather they consider what kind of harm it can produce during the operation their business.
According to these authors, many NGO’s do not consider CSR as a tool to maintain good
public relation. They believe that the companies use it as a tool to stay away from any kind of
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legal issues for their business. They also believe that business organizations are trying to
make this society a better place by keeping their CSR top notch.
In opinion of Tran (2019), CSR is a very old idea. According to the history, the society had a
tendency to give back something for religion and cultural purpose. Businesses will give the
society something back is an age old concept and he defined the CSR like this. The
businesses all across the world make a lot of profit due to the society. Therefore, there lies a
liability to them. They should perform deeds, which are good for the society too. The author
believes that the managers of a company are responsible for the employees and the people
outside of the company too. Therefore, they should consider various things before taking
decisions and should make regulations to strengthen the CSR. A strong CSR will have
appositive impact on the corporate and social life.
In the words of Saeidi et al. (2015), CSR contributes a lot to the financial performance of an
organization. It gives a lot of competitive advantage and customer satisfaction to the
company. Authors of this article say that there is much strong evidence that the customer
satisfaction is directly linked with a company’s financial performance. It helps them gain a
competitive advantage over their competitors. A good CSR is definitely behind the customer
satisfaction as is sets rule for many things. A company with good reputation is likely to
perform better than its competitors. Maintaining a good reputation in this market is not easy.
A good CSR ensures that a company does a lot of good social work and other activities that
are beneficial for the society. If people are satisfied by the image of a company, they will
automatically become the regular users of their product or services in most cases. Therefore,
the benefits are huge according to it.
Chernev and Blair (2015) said that a company can do well if they do a lot of good to the
society. Revisiting the past will reveal that companies do very less work for society and they
only thought about the ways of making profit only even if it proved to be harmful for the
people. According to the authors, managers believe that social activities benefit the company
to gain more market as it makes them popular amongst people. This also helps in maintaining
the brand and overall image of the organization. A lot of surveys and expert advice proved
this point. In 2012, more than 40 senior managers were asked that if they believe that giving
donation to society strengthens the belief of the customers or not. The result showed that
more than 85 percent respondents said that the performance of their product is not directly
linked with donating to social causes. Rest of the respondents believed that donating to
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causes can increase customer satisfaction and can increase the performance of product in the
market.
Crowther and Seifi (2018) believe that there are several challenges to maintain CSR. Some
important points must be considered before a company can make CSR regulations.
Maintaining the social contract is important while making regulations. The social contract
deals with government, society, individuals and organization. The company need to balance
the CSR according to it. They should consider each option carefully and weigh situations
before they make any CSR regulation. These four entities are connected with each other, thus
it becomes very difficult to make a CSR regulation without a single fault in it. Looking at
environmental factors all the time before starting production can be very much difficult for
companies. This is a huge barrier for CSR. Sometime a particular decision about business can
be harmful for the stakeholders even if it is beneficial for the society. The stakeholders are
managers, employees, investors, shareholders. They often lose money due to a decision taken
by the company for the good of society. This is another challenge for CSR.
Wang et al. (2016) say that the companies are facing difficulties to move beyond the value of
shareholders. They are finding it difficult to follow a perfect CSR. Therefore, the outcome
from CSR is continuously decreasing over the years. The shareholders do not believe that
participating in a social cause can actually do well for the company and prove to be beneficial
in the long run. Therefore, they only think of their own profit and money while working for
the company. They are failing to understand that CSR is connected with financial
performance of a company in modern times. The shareholders cannot understand that there
are mediating factors, which are influencing the overall performance of the company in a
large scale. There are many NGOs and government organizations who are taking the matter
of environment and other social issues seriously. If these companies do not take these issues
seriously, then in future they may lose the confidence of people and even lose license.
There are two types of barriers for CSR. One is subjective and another one is objective.
Subjective barrier deals with the managers. The managers often think that points related to
the responsibilities in the society are not practical. They often claim that it is very much
difficult to implement them. To follow a proper regulation they have to improve ethical
standards of an organization. It is also necessary to change the concept of management and its
structure. The CEO of a company also plays a huge part in this because if he or she does not
care about CSR, then no one else will. A good CSR deals with sustainable development.
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Rodriguez-Fernandez (2016) recommends various theories that can maintain CSR. Theories
like agency theory, stewardship theory, and resource dependence theory can actually prove to
be beneficial as these will determine the factors affecting the CSR. It will also provide
solutions for the barriers faced during maintaining the CSR. Agency theory says that a
conflict between managers and stakeholder may occur while running a company so they
should discuss before taking any decision. Stewardship theory says that the people associated
with the company have good motives and therefore there will be no conflict, which will harm
the company.
Harjoto et al. (2015) recommends that managers should be involved directly with the CSR as
they know much about the company and its engagement with goals, plans and programs.
They also claim that CSR can become a future prospect for a company. CSR provides more
communication to shareholders regarding financial matter. It also encourages a company to
reach higher value and reduces expense for equity. Therefore, the managers should
participate in more activities regarding CSR. This is the only recommendation made by this
group of authors.
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Conclusion
The report analyzed the reason behind using literature review while performing a research
regarding a subject. It clearly stated that a research becomes more effective and authentic if a
literature review is performed. The research paper becomes valuable due to taking more
perspective of various authors. Then a literature review on corporate social responsibility is
performed. Here various works by different authors are taken and critically analyzed. This
focuses on the concepts, benefits, challenges and recommendations of CSR. Ultimately, it can
be said that CSR is very much important and there are many theories, which can help a
company to maintain it.
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Reference list
Chernev, A. and Blair, S., 2015. Doing well by doing good: The benevolent halo of corporate
social responsibility. Journal of Consumer Research, 41(6), pp.1412-1425.
Crane, A., Matten, D. and Spence, L. eds., 2019. Corporate social responsibility: Readings
and cases in a global context. Routledge.
Crowther, D. and Seifi, S. eds., 2018. Redefining Corporate Social Responsibility. Emerald
Group Publishing.
Harjoto, M., Laksmana, I. and Lee, R., 2015. Board diversity and corporate social
responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 132(4), pp.641-660.
Hart, C., 2018. Doing a literature review: Releasing the research imagination. Sage.
Machi, L.A. and McEvoy, B.T., 2016. The literature review: Six steps to success. Corwin
Press.
Rodriguez-Fernandez, M., 2016. Social responsibility and financial performance: The role of
good corporate governance. BRQ Business Research Quarterly, 19(2), pp.137-151.
Saeidi, S.P., Sofian, S., Saeidi, P., Saeidi, S.P. and Saaeidi, S.A., 2015. How does corporate
social responsibility contribute to firm financial performance? The mediating role of
competitive advantage, reputation, and customer satisfaction. Journal of business
research, 68(2), pp.341-350.
The Royal Literary Fund. (2019). What is a literature review?. [online] Available at:
https://www.rlf.org.uk/resources/what-is-a-literature-review/ [Accessed 11 Apr. 2019].
Tran, B., 2019. Corporate social responsibility. In Advanced Methodologies and
Technologies in Business Operations and Management (pp. 270-281). IGI Global.
Wang, H., Tong, L., Takeuchi, R. and George, G., 2016. Corporate social responsibility: An
overview and new research directions: Thematic issue on corporate social responsibility.
Www2.le.ac.uk. (2019). Doing a literature review — University of Leicester. [online]
Available at: https://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/ld/resources/writing/writing-resources/literature-
review [Accessed 11 Apr. 2019]
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