1. Corporations Motives for Being Socially and Environmentally Responsible Devon Calhoun ENST 302: Environmental Research Design
Department of Environmental Studies, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pa.
Problem Statement
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a new and upcoming field in corporate America. Companies are becoming more and more socially responsible, as well as environmentally responsible, for the actions. The way that companies do this is by adopting different kinds of CSR initiatives and mechanisms that are personalized to their company’s goals. The question I am attempting to answer in this research project is why do companies adopt CSR initiatives? I have come to notice that the answer to this question isn’t always as simple as, “to become more socially responsible”. This is due to rumors that have circulated throughout the corporate world, such as; a company’s productivity will increase because customers care about whether the product or service they buy is produced in a moral and ethical manor. The reason why I classify this statement as a rumor is because all of the research I found on this topic has come up with no definite answer, always circulating around the phrase, “it depends”. So instead of spinning my wheels and attempting to run the same research of what the benefits of CSR are to a company, I decided to research what the companies believe the benefits to be. This research will be beneficial to tons of companies that specialize in creating CSR initiatives because they will know exactly how to convince the companies to adopt their programs.
Literature Review
Methods
Limitations
What is Corporate Social Responsibility?
= “a business organization’s configuration of principles of social responsibility, processes of social responsiveness, and policies, programs, and observable outcomes as they relate to the firm’s social relationships” (Wood 1991, p.693)
Assumed role or added benefit?
Why do companies adopt CSR initiatives?
Create value for stakeholders
Generate financial benefits
Positive effect on consumer behavior
What are the different initiatives and mechanism of CSR?
Categorical analysis
“community support, diversity, employee support, environment, non-U.S. operations, and the product” – Sen and Bhattacharya
Split into instrumental and philanthropic mechanisms
Dependent on “what the firm is trying to accomplish” – Griffin and Prakash
CSR defined as an added benefit to be able to better evaluate the different motives companies have for participating in CSR.
When companies look into CSR initiatives, they are trying to see what they can gain from it
Companies participate for their own different reasons
WeSpire: a company that designed a digital platform for CSR
Six Reasons:
saving money
reaching sustainability goals
an increase in customer loyalty
strengthening brand
attracting and retaining top talent
driving innovation
Observe the inner workings of the company
Gain and understanding of how they pitch their platform to companies and why they decide to use the leverage that they do
Interviewing employees
Sitting in on pitch meetings
Send surveys to compliant companies
Was your company interested in CSR before WeSpire reached out? Why?
What sold you on the WeSpire digital platform?
Quantify the results – which of the six reasons were used? .
Narrowing in on WeSpire limits this research to only their companies data
Can’t generalize with the results because it refers specifically to one company
Can’t be applied on a wide scale
However, if this research is successful for WeSpire, this proposal can be used as a platform for further research on other CSR companies similar to WeSpire
Ethics
Voluntary Participation
Every interview and survey conducted will be based on voluntary participation.
Informed consent
Every party involved will be informed of the research being conducted and how their input will be used
No harm
No emotional or physical harm will come to any participant
Reputational harm- companies may not want people to know that their reasons for CSR were strictly for the financial benefit
However this information will only be shared with WeSpire analysts
Confidentiality and Anonymity
Results will only be shared with the company WeSpire- use this information to better sell their platform
Will keep companies anonymous if asked- only structural information will be provided (size, industry, ect.)
Privacy
Everyone participating has to have given informed consent
References
Busch, Thorsten, and Tamara Shepherd. "Doing well by doing good? Normative tensions underlying Twitter’s corporate social responsibility ethos."Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies (2014):
Ducassy, Isabelle. "Does corporate social responsibility pay off in times of crisis? An alternate perspective on the relationship between financial and corporate social performance." Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management 20, no. 3 (2013):
Griffin, Jennifer J., and Aseem Prakash. "Corporate responsibility: initiatives and mechanisms." Business & Society (2013):
Hemingway, Christine A., and Patrick W. Maclagan. "Managers' personal values as drivers of corporate social responsibility." Journal of Business Ethics50, no. 1(2004):
Muller, Alan, Mike Pfarrer, and Laura Little. "A theory of collective empathy in corporate philanthropy decisions." Academy of Management Review (2013): amr-2012.   
Peloza, John, and Jingzhi Shang. "How can corporate social responsibility activities create value for stakeholders? Asystematic review." Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 39, no. 1 (2011):
Sen, Sankar, and Chitra Bhanu Bhattacharya. "Does doing good always lead to doing better? Consumer reactions to corporate social responsibility." Journal of marketing Research 38, no. 2 (2001):