Corporate Social Responsibility Practices In Bangladesh: An Empirical Study From The Perspective Of Institutional Theory
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the term that has been widely used to denote fundamental corporate responsibility in ensuring social well-being, environmental conservation and business sustainability. However, corporate leaders, managers, shareholders and other stakeholders have conceived t...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | en_US |
| Subjects: | |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the term that has been widely used to denote fundamental corporate responsibility in ensuring social well-being, environmental conservation and business sustainability. However, corporate leaders, managers, shareholders and other stakeholders have conceived the meanings of CSR in many different ways. There are continuous academic debates on CSR including its goals and practices, and as well as its impact on businesses and societies. Following those debates, this study has investigated the understanding, nature, and practices of CSR by the business leaders and managers in Bangladesh. The study examines the CSR practices along with the roles of key personnel in institutionalizing CSR. The study has employed a ‗convergent parallel mixed methods design‘ research approach by utilizing both qualitative and quantitative data. Accordingly, the data were collected through in-depth interviews and questionnaire survey from purposively selected business entrepreneurs and managers of various industrial sectors. To have a meaningful and comprehensive understanding of the nature of the problem domain, the study also analyzed the contents of their CSR publications, annual reports, websites, and brochures. Subsequently, Institutional Theory (IT) was applied to explain the findings. The study has found that there is no significant difference between the CSR practices of the sample business enterprises, despite the heterogeneity of the organizations. The study also reveals that coercive, normative and mimetic mechanisms of IT have influenced the sample business enterprises towards this isomorphic nature of CSR practices. Interestingly, the study indicates that zakah (compulsory religious `poor-tax‘ in Islam) and sadakah (voluntary donations for the poor in Islam) are being utilized by many of these Muslim business entrepreneurs to finance their CSR projects. This highlights the underlying influence of their religious commitments to CSR activities. The findings also suggested that the integration of zakah and sadakah with CSR, particularly for Muslim business entrepreneurs would make funds conveniently and readily available for their benevolent CSR projects aimed at improving social well-being of the impoverished. This will be a unique and convenient way to promote and extend their CSR projects. This underlying role of the religious commitments to CSR is in fact a new dimension relating to normative mechanism of the Institutional Theory. |
|---|