CSR in Developed Versus Developing Countries: A Comparative Glimpse (original) (raw)
There has been a growing level of interest in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with an increasing number of articles, books, and chapters written on the topic. The content and breadth of coverage is far-reaching with CSR being used as an umbrella term to account for the complex and multi-faceted relationships between business and society and the economic, social and environmental impacts of business activity. Much of the research advancing our understanding of CSR has concentrated on business-society relationships and dynamics in the developed economies of Europe and North America (Egri and Ralston 2008). More recently there has been a burgeoning interest in understanding the dynamics and peculiarities of CSR in developing economies, and in uncovering the interplay of specific antecedents and consequences of CSR that are relevant across these contexts (Blowfield and Frynas 2005; Newell and Frynas 2007; Idemudia 2011; Jamali and Neville 2011; Jamali and Sidani 2012). Indeed, recent work seems to suggest that CSR in developing countries is shaped by the institutional constellations of these specific contexts. The research on the context-dependence of CSR has indeed been accentuated in recent years (Jamali and Neville 2011) with increasing attention to the potential salience of a distinctive set of CSR agenda challenges in the developing world (Visser 2008). Hence, we set out in this book chapter to juxtapose insights derived from CSR research in developed versus developing economies, with the aim of exploring whether there are key distinctive themes that emerge from CSR research focused on developing economies that are not commonly or centrally explored in CSR research on the developed world. As a baseline, we use the work of Aguinis and Glavas (2012) in which these authors review and highlight key trends pertaining to research on CSR largely in the developed world. Their recent meta-analysis included a review of 588 journal articles of which only 88 (14.97 percent) focused on developing countries. We present, in contrast, the key findings from our own meta-analysis of 285 articles focusing on CSR in developing countries (Jamali and Karam under review). We believe that comparing the two sets of articles critically and analytically will be helpful in organizing and advancing our understanding of the peculiar themes and elements of CSR in the developing world.
Related papers
CSR in Developing Countries as An Emerging Field Of Study
Given rising interest in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) globally, its local expressions are as varied as they are increasingly visible in both developed and developing countries. We present in this paper a multilevel review of the literature on CSR in developing countries, and highlight the key differentiators and nuanced CSR-related considerations that qualify it as a distinctive field of study. Our review entails a content analysis of 452 articles spanning two-and-a-half decades (1990-2015). Based on this comprehensive review, we identify the key differentiating attributes of the literature on CSR in developing countries in relation to depictions of how CSR is conceived or " CSR Thinking " and depictions of how CSR is practiced and implemented or " CSR Doing ". We synthesize from there five key themes that capture the main aspects of variation in this literature, namely: 1) complex institutional antecedents within the national business system (NBS); 2) complex macro-level antecedents outside of the NBS; 3) the salience of multiple actors involved in formal and informal governance; 4) hybridized and other nuanced forms of CSR expressions; and 5) varied scope of developmental and detrimental CSR consequences. We conclude by accentuating how the nuanced forms of CSR in the developing world are invariably contextualized and locally shaped by multi-level factors and actors embedded within wider formal and informal governance systems.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Activities and the Developing Nations
2017
his paper presents the CSR activities among developing nations. CSR practices have got more momentum among the Western countries. However, the developing nations use philanthropic and other charitable CSR activities which account a very small fraction of CSR landscape. The authors of this paper present the detailed discussions why developing nations have not yet fully developed CSR discourses. The authors also argue that philanthropic discourse of CSR is also embedded among the European nations but they have transformed from philanthropic to more sustainable business. This paper uses literature review method to extract the relevant data of the CSR practices among developing nations. The list of developing nations is huge. Therefore, the authors of this paper have selected few developing nations including Middle East, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan and India. This paper argues that how CSR activities are carried among these countries, are their CSR activities fully develo...
International Affairs, 2006
The May 2005 issue of International Affairs addressed the theme of critical perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the developing world. The aim of this article is to take the debate a step further. Five researchers and practitioners on corporate social responsibility and development in various regions in the developing world—Central America, Pakistan, China, Vietnam, Argentina and India—using knowledge gained by their empirical research, argue that the management-oriented perspective on CSR and development is one-sided. While recognizing that critical approaches to the question have emerged, there is still a need to know which issues should form part of a critical research agenda on CSR and development.In this article the authors seek to fill this gap in order to facilitate a more in-depth investigation of what CSR initiatives can or cannot achieve in relation to improving conditions of workers and communities in the global South. They suggest that a critical research agenda on CSR and development should encompass four areas: a) the relationship between business and poverty reduction; b) the impact of CSR initiatives; c) governance dimensions of CSR; and d) power and participation in CSR. Such an alternative critical approach focuses on society's most vulnerable groups and adopts a ‘people-centred’ perspective as a counterbalance to the dominant ‘business case’ perspective. The authors conclude that this has significant implications for CSR practice.
CSR Institutionalized Myths in Developing Countries: An Imminent Threat of Selective Decoupling
This article examines joint action initiatives among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing industries in developing countries in the context of the ascendancy of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the proliferation of a variety of international accountability tools and standards. Through empirical fieldwork in the football manufacturing industry of Jalandhar in North India, the article documents how local cluster- based SMEs stay coupled with the global CSR agenda through joint CSR initiatives focusing on child labor. Probing further, however, also reveals patterns of selective decoupling in relation to core humanitarian and labor rights issues. Through in-depth interviews with a wide range of stakeholders involved in the export-oriented football manufacturing industry of Jalandhar in North India, the article highlights the dynamics of coupling and decoupling taking place, and how developing country firms can gain credit and traction by focusing on high visibility CSR issues, although the plight of workers remains fundamentally unchanged. The authors revisit these findings in the discussion and concluding sections, highlighting the main research and policy implications of the analysis.
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.