Corporate Social Performance - Research Proposal Example

Research Proposal Submitted by s: Research problem Recently, there has been increasing interest in understanding the interaction of firms with the society in a global environment. It has also become a core aspect in the debate concerning corporate social responsibility even though research in this area is still seen as embryonic (Ho, Wang and Vitell. 2011, 427). A significant issue in CSR that needs further attention is the factors that influence organizations to take part in increasingly robust CSR programs. Literature has been predominantly divided between approaches that see CSR as extrinsically driven and the ones that see it to be driven intrinsically. The initiatives that are founded on extrinsic drivers of the social behavior of organizations attempt to establish a connection to external pressures such as the demands of shareholders, regulation or pressure from the media. On the other hand, more intrinsic viewpoints are of the opinion that CSR is influenced by morality and this makes it a goal in its own right while focusing mainly on managerial motivations (Ho, Wang and Vitell. 2011, 427). Even though most of the management studies stress on the extrinsically driven model of CSR, some strive to integrate the two approaches in a conceptual manner are argue in support for their parallel existence. There should be more research on the main drivers of corporate social performances in order to get a better understanding of the phenomena and its overall effects on business and management. The top management of organizations have an ability to motivate employees while at the same time conduct training sessions that will emphasize on proper social practices. Members of top management who are result oriented can have more sensibility to issues that develop from enteral pressures from the stakeholders while reacting to any risk related to the pressure. Research objective / questions From a CSR viewpoint, firms appear as the core drivers in the attempts of coming up with a better world and thus there is increasing pressure for organizations to display good and responsible corporate responsibility. Apart from the main requirement of delivering profits to the shareholders of the company, firms are often subject to broader interests from the stakeholders and should therefore have a balanced perspective. This has resulted in organizations developing and updating their initiatives and policies while at the same time trying to assess their performance in social and environmental aspects. They also engage their stakeholders in consultations in order to communicate the value of the company to the employees, environmental groups as well as the local communities and the government. It can therefore be concluded that CSR has shifted from ideology to reality and has now been recognised as a critical dimension in modern business practices. Business managers consider this aspect as being of extreme importance and are aware that CSR is a key component of the survival of a business as well as its success in the twenty-first century. Literature on marketing and management has made considerable contributions towards the definition and characterization of CSR, while at the same time developing discussions linked to best practices. Nonetheless, an area that has not been explored fully is issues that influence and drive corporate social performances. This factor has informed this study and will be used in forming the research objective that will seek to increase the level of knowledge in this area. As this research progresses, a number of questions will need to be answered in order to ascertain that the results will provide information, which is useful. The questions that follow should be answered after the study is completed: 1. What is corporate social performance? 2. What are the factors that drive corporate social performance? 3. How is corporate social performance beneficial to organizations? 4. What are the indicators of corporate social performance? 5. What factors make corporate social performance successful in different companies? 6. What factors might hinder effective corporate social performance in different companies? Brief literature review Luo and Bhattacharya (2009, 200), refer to social responsibility initiatives as corporate behaviors of a pro-social nature as they are manifested in a wide array of organizational programs that vary from cause-related marketing and green marketing activities to corporate philanthropy. They also include any other activities that attempt to safeguard and come up with improvements to the wellbeing of the society. Ultimately, CSP is considered as the overall performance of an organization in these assorted corporate programs of a pro-social nature compared to the ones associated with its main competition within the industry (Luo and Bhattacharya, 2006, 3). CSR defines the positive components of CSP and this leads to a preferred brand or organizational behavior. On the other hand, corporate social irresponsibility can be linked to the negative aspects of the same performance (Huber, Meyer, Vogel and Vollmann, 2011, 230). Brower and Mahajan, (2011, 315) are of the opinion previous research demonstrates that CSP has a huge impact on a number of imperceptible marketing assets in an organization. More precisely, the CSP of a firm results in higher degrees of customer identification with the organization, better evaluations of the company that result in better attitudes and evaluations of products as well as more differentiation from the competitors in the same industry (Lichtenstein, Drumwright and Braig, 2004, 18). It also leads to the creation of a reservoir of goodwill and an ethical capital that creates some form of protection from negative information, more likelihood of purchases, faithfulness and advocacy conduct among numerous other aspects that are of benefit to the organization in the short and long run (Sen and Bhattacharya, 2001, 227). In most of the cases, the top management of organizations never acknowledges the benefits of CSP even though most of the companies are aware that they need to incorporate it into their strategic plans (Carroll and Shabana 2010, 85). It is important to note that with only a few exceptions, literature concerning CSR has not assessed the indicators of CSP and how the nature of the company, whether industrial or consumer, affect it. Rather, the work in existence explored if precise CSP related aspects had an influence on CSP without looking at any other factors apart from this. Conversely, there is a general belief that the findings of studies that have concentrated on adjacent aspects of CSP have ramifications concerning the impact of institutional structures making them relevant to the research question of this study. Even though some studies have considered CSR from a regional point of view, the ones that are closest to this research are those, which investigate CSR in a national comparative way, like those that investigate the level of public commitment of firms to socially responsible conduct in different nations through the postings they put on their corporate websites. Influence on CSR practice tends to overlap or interact in a complex manner; an example of this is when organizations direct funds at the media with the aim of educating potential financial consumers on the advantages of social investment funds (Bauman and Skitka 2012, 64). Nonetheless, researchers are analytically distinct in regards to their internal logistics as well as their instantaneous experimental referents. They continue to identify six influences, which might encourage socially responsible actions in organizations including pressure on business managers, competition, consumers and investors as well as pressure that originates from both governmental and non-governmental organizations. Their research further addresses each aspect in a sequential manner with respect to internal logic, experimental salience in regards to the latest relevant research as well as a considered perspective on its prospects of being a critical dynamic in the promotion of outcomes that are consistent with social well-being. Vlachos (2012, 161), states that consumers view companies that engage in charitable activities to be providing indirect assistance to them as they help others similar to cause-related marketing. Therefore, charitable activities through cause-related marketing are an efficient approach that consumers can depend on in order to satisfy their wish to assist other people. Since CSR entails companies doing good, consumers may utilize their evaluations of the actions of the company in their definition of themselves as well as retaining a positive image of themselves socially. Ultimately, organizations may consider this aspect as one of their drivers as they seek come up with CSR activities. It therefore becomes clear that even though a lot of research has been conducted in regard to CSP and CSR as well as the factors that drive them, these research has not directly touched on issues such as consumer or industrial companies as determinants of CSP. Most of them do not appear to provide this information, and their intention was not to provide a methodical and comprehensive analysis of the impact of these form of businesses on CSP as well as the main dynamics that drive the CSP of various organizations. In order to fill this gap in the understanding of the mention aspects, the research has to be conducted with the research questions as the guiding principles in order to end up with sufficient information. Method As far as quantitative research is concerned, data collection usually involves interaction with the source of the data through survey tools like questionnaires and other methods of data collection. As the methods used to gather quantitative data are consume a lot of time, the data for the quantitative research will be gathered from a small sample. This research will assume a quantitative approach that will involve gathering data of about five hundred companies from the Bloomberg database that compares and analyses them in regard to social corporate performance. The advantage of choosing the quantitative method is that the information that will be gathered will be rich and deep in insight while at the same time providing the best outcomes for the issues being investigated. The data collection will entail writing an application to Bloomberg asking for their assistance in proving the database with the 500 hundred companies that can be compared and analysed for social corporate performance data. Upon receipt of these databases from Bloomberg, the next step will involve randomly sampling two hundred companies as it will be too time consuming to analyse and compare data for all these companies. Finally, data linked to the companies that will have been chosen will be analysed and compared against each other in accordance with the research questions that were identified earlier. Finally, the data collected from the databases will be analysed to confirm if they have answered the research questions and find out if there is any further research concerning the topic that should be conducted in future. Analysis of the data that will come from the Bloomberg database will done through frequency distribution that will be done using histograms in Microsoft Excel. The Anderson-Darling test, which is a variation of Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test, will be used to test the sample data that will come from the Bloomberg database as the data has a particular distribution. This test is free of distribution as the critical values are not dependent on a particular distribution being tested as the parameters are known. This has the benefit of enabling a test that is more sensitive but unfortunately, the critical values have to be calculated for every distribution. Bibliography Brower, Jacob, and Vijay Mahajan. 2012. Driven To Be Good: A Stakeholder Theory Perspective On The Drivers Of Corporate Social Performance. Journal Of Business Ethics 117 (2): doi:10.1007/s10551-012-1523-z. Bauman, Christopher W., and Linda J. Skitka. 2012. Corporate Social Responsibility As A Source Of Employee Satisfaction. Research In Organizational Behavior 32: 63-86. doi:10.1016/j.riob.2012.11.002. Carroll, Archie B., and Kareem M. Shabana. 2010. The Business Case For Corporate Social Responsibility: A Review Of Concepts, Research And Practice. International Journal Of Management Reviews 12 (1): 85-105. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2370.2009.00275.x. Ho, Foo Nin, Hui-Ming Deanna Wang, and Scott J. Vitell. 2011. A Global Analysis Of Corporate Social Performance: The Effects Of Cultural And Geographic Environments. Journal Of Business Ethics 107 (4). doi:10.1007/s10551-011-1047-y. Huber, Frank, Frederik Meyer, Johannes Vogel, and Stefan Vollmann. 2011. Corporate Social Performance As Antecedent Of Consumers Brand Perception. J Brand Manag 19 (3): doi:10.1057/bm.2011.37. Lichtenstein, Donald R., Minette E. Drumwright, and Bridgette M. Braig. 2004. The Effect Of Corporate Social Responsibility On Customer Donations To Corporate-Supported Nonprofits. Journal Of Marketing 68 (4): 16-32. doi:10.1509/jmkg.68.4.16.42726. Luo, Xueming, and C.B Bhattacharya. 2006. Corporate Social Responsibility, Customer Satisfaction, And Market Value. Journal Of Marketing 70 (4): doi:10.1509/jmkg.70.4.1. Luo, Xueming, and C.B Bhattacharya. 2009. The Debate Over Doing Good: Corporate Social Performance, Strategic Marketing Levers, And Firm-Idiosyncratic Risk. Journal Of Marketing 73 (6): doi:10.1509/jmkg.73.6.198. Sen, Sankar, and C.B. Bhattacharya. 2001. Does Doing Good Always Lead To Doing Better? Consumer Reactions To Corporate Social Responsibility. Journal Of Marketing Research 38 (2): doi:10.1509/jmkr.38.2.225.18838. Vlachos, Pavlos A. 2012. Corporate Social Performance And Consumer‐Retailer Emotional Attachment. European Journal Of Marketing 46 (11/12):. doi:10.1108/03090561211259989. Read More