CSR Research: Comparing Frameworks, Actions, and Outcomes

This report provides a comparative analysis of four research papers on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). It begins with a brief overview of each study, including Masoud's international CSR model, Aguinis and Glavas' framework focusing on proactive and reactive actions, Tai and Chuang's research on CSR's impact on revenue, and Korschun, Bhattacharya, and Swain's study on CSR as an employee motivator. The report highlights common themes across the articles, such as the focus on CSR actions and outcomes, while also detailing the differences in their approaches, including the levels of analysis and the specific aspects of CSR investigated. The report discusses the limitations of each study's research design, such as the potential for biased outcomes and the lack of consideration for associated factors. Finally, the report suggests future research directions, including applying Masoud's model to societal issues, leveraging multilevel approaches, and implementing CSR strategies to enhance revenue and employee motivation. The report concludes with a list of the cited references.

Running head: CSR 0
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

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Table of Contents
Brief summary of the theory:......................................................................................................................1
Common themes across all the four articles:..............................................................................................1
Difference in the themes across all the articles:..........................................................................................2
Limitations of the study and the difference in the research design:............................................................2
Future research directions:.........................................................................................................................3
References:..................................................................................................................................................3

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Brief summary of the theory:
Masoud has read many articles and studies to understand the basic concept of corporate social
responsibility. He has integrated the two models of Caroll and Vissser in order to develop a new
international model of corporate social responsibility. That model is known as The Pyramid
Model of CSR. The model involves various aspects of CSR concept such as legal, global, ethical,
economic etc. Aguinis and Glavas on the other hand reviewed many articles and journals and
developed a framework of CSR that involves institutional, organizational and individual level of
analysis for CSR. This framework is majorly about the proactive and reactive CSR actions and
the related outcomes. Contingency is another aspect that has also been considered by the author
in order to see the effect of the situations of the outcomes. Tai and Chuang focuses on different
aspect of the CSR concept. It focuses on reviewing the active and passive ways of CSR that
helps the companies at multinational level to earn high revenues for long term. The research in
this study is related to the CSR activities and the revenue earned by the companies at
international level. Korschun, Bhattacharya and Swain have studied customer’s social
responsibility and its relation with the job performance of the employees and customer
orientation. This study focuses on CSR role in order to motivate the employees the author has
argues that CSR can be used as the motivator for motivating the employees of the frontline
operations.
Common themes across all the four articles:
As discussed that Masoud has studied the framework of corporate social responsibility that is at
the international level but the study focuses on the impact of CSR at international level that is
about the action the CSR. Likewise, Aguinis and Glavas also discusses about the proactive and
reactive actions of CSR at different levels. Tai and Chuang’s argues that there is the impact of
CSR action on the revenue of the company. This also focuses on the fact of CSR on the
company’s outcomes in terms of revenue just like the above two articles. The last journal article
or the study of Korschun, Bhattacharya and Swain also argues for the actions of CSR that helps
the company to motivate the employees who works at frontline operations. It has been analysed
that the actions of the CSR and the relative outcomes is the basis of all the studies that has been
disused in the report.

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Difference in the themes across all the articles:
The similarities of all the studies have already been discussed above. As far as the differences are
considered, it has been analysed that these articles have similar basis but different aspects that
are being studied related to CSR.as far as the study of Masoud is considered, it has been analysed
that the framework that has been formed by the author for CSR is at the international level and
the integration of two models is done to frame the same. The next article of Aguinis and Glavas
also deals with model but it has considered the aspect of three levels that are organizational,
institutional and individual. The article discusses about the actions of CSR with proactive or
reactive nature. Outcomes of the actions have also been analysed. In the study of Tai and
Chuang’s, the discussion is about the actions of CSR but the major element that has been
considered is the revenue of the companies and the effect of CSR on them. The aspect of
international factors is also argued by Masoud but the focus of his study was the factors such as
global, economic, legal etc. and their impact on CSR on the other hand, in the article of Tai and
Chuang, the international factor is revenue of the company. The study of Korschun, Bhattacharya
and Swain is very different as it focuses on the CSR as the motivation factor.
Limitations of the study and the difference in the research design:
In the study of Masoud, it has been analysed that an international framework that has been
formed with regard to CSR study involves integration of the various factors such as social,
ethical, legal etc. all these factors can be different at different places. Thus, integrating such
factors and treating them as similar for all the countries is the major limitation of this study.
Aguinis and Glavas study involves the factors at different levels. The major limitation of this
study is that only the qualitative aspect is considered which may lead to biased outcomes. Tai
and Chuang’s study considered the impact of CSR on revenue. But, it has been identified that
CSR does not directly affect the revenue of the company and this study has not involve the
associated factors. It is difficult to find out the limitation in the study of Korschun, Bhattacharya
and Swain because it has considered CSR as motivation factor but only considering the
quantitative aspect is not acceptable for an appropriate study. It has been analysed that
motivation is the factor that needs to be mentioned qualitatively as well.

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Future research directions:
Masoud has developed the new international model of CSR that is recommended to be applied
on different societal issues in future so that its effects can be seen and analysed on the same. On
the other hand, as far as the study of Aguinis and Glavas is considered, it has been analysed that
this study cam be used in future to gain the knowledge about multilevel and individual level
approaches as most of the articles that has been reviews in this study are related to organisational
and institutional level. Tai and Chuang’s study can helps in identifying the CSR activities as the
strategies to enhance the revenue of the company. The companies can implement the strategies
of CSR to earn high revenue after realizing its effect on the same. The study of Korschun,
Bhattacharya and Swain can be used to implement the motivational strategy in the organizations
so as to motivate the employees as discussed in the study that CSR activities have their impact
on the motivation level of the employees and especially the frontline employees.

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References:
Aguinis, H. and Glavas, A., 2012. What we know and don’t know about corporate social
responsibility: A review and research agenda. Journal of management, 38(4), pp.932-968.
Korschun, D., Bhattacharya, C.B. and Swain, S.D., 2014. Corporate social responsibility,
customer orientation, and the job performance of frontline employees. Journal of
Marketing, 78(3), pp.20-37.
Masoud, N., 2017. How to win the battle of ideas in corporate social responsibility: the
International Pyramid Model of CSR. International Journal of Corporate Social
Responsibility, 2(1), p.4.
Tai, F.M. and Chuang, S.H., 2014. Corporate social responsibility. Ibusiness, 6(03), p.117.