Organizations increasingly are embracing the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR). In this study CSR refers to actions that further some social good, beyond the interests of the firm and that which is required by law (McWilliams et al., 2006). Specifically, CSR consists of economic citizenship, legal citizenship, ethical citizenship, and discretionary citizenship (Maignan, 1997; Maignan and Fer-rell, 2001; Maignan et al., 1999). Despite the fact that CSR is popular, with its theoretical underpinnings having been the topic of frequent discussions, empirical studies often involve only limited aspects. This state of affair implies that theory may not be congruent with actual practices, which again may impede our understanding and further development of CSR. We examine actual CSR practices that relate to five different stakeholder groups; subsequently, we develop an instrument to measure those CSR practices and apply it to a survey of 401 U.S. organizations. We identify four different clusters of organizations, depending on the CSR practice focus. The distinctive features of each cluster relate to organizational demographics, perceived influence of stakeholders, managers' perceptions of the influence of CSR on performance, and organizational performance.
Keywords
- Corporate Social Responsibility
- Business Ethic
- Corporate Social Responsibility Activity
- Corporate Social Performance
- Corporate Reputation
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Andriof, J.: 2000, ‘Mapping the Research within Corporate Citizenship: Concepts, Evidence, and Implications’, working paper.
Andriof, J. and C. Marsden: 2000, ‘Corporate Citizenship: What Is It and How to Assess It?’ in M. McIntosh and A. Warhurst (eds.), Third Annual Warwick Corporate Citizenship Unit Conference (University of Warwick, Coventry).
Aupperle, K.E., A.B. Carroll, and J.D. Hatfield: 1985, ‘An Empirical Examination of the Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility and Profitability’, Academy of Management Journal 28(2), 446–463.
Beltz, F., M.-P. Kestemont, and L. Strannegard: 1997, International Business Environmental Barometer (Cappelen Akademisk Forlag, Copenhagen).
Bhattacharya, C.B. and S. Sen: 2004, ‘Doing Better at Doing Good: When, Why, and How Consumers Respond to Corporate Social Initiatives’, California Management Review, 47(1), 9–24.
Bowen, H.R: 1953, Social Responsibilities of the Businessman (Harper-Row, New York).
Brown, T.J. and P.A. Dacin: 1997, ‘The Company and the Product: Corporate Associations and Consumer Product Responses’, Journal of Marketing 61(1), 68–84.
Business Ethics: 1997a, ‘Does It Pay to be Ethical?’ (March/April), 15.
Business Ethics: 1997b, ‘NLC Names Corporate Names in Sweatshop Reports’, (January– February), 9.
Carroll, A.B.: 1979, ‘A Three-dimensional Conceptual Model of Corporate Performance’, Academy of Management Review 4(4), 497–505.
Chand, M.: 2006, ‘The Relationship between Corporate Social Performance and Corporate Financial Performance: Industry Type as a Boundary Condition’, The Business Review, 5(1), 240–245.
Clarkson, M.B.E: 1995, ‘A Stakeholder Framework for Analyzing and Evaluating Corporate Social Performance’, Academy of Management Review, 20(1), 92–117.
Cone Corporate Citizenship Study: 2004, http://www.mybizwarehouse.com/2ndbusiness/ 2004ConeCorporateCitizenshipStudy.pdf.
Crane, A., and D. Matten: 2004, Business Ethics: A European Perspective (Oxford University Press, Oxford).
Davis, K.: 1973 , ‘The Case For and Against Business Assumption of Social Responsibilities’, Academy of Management Journal 16(3), 312–22.
Davis, K. and R.L. Blomstrom: 1975, Business and Society: Environment and Responsibility (McGraw-Hill, New York).
Deshpandé, R. and F.E. Webster: 1989, ‘Organizational Culture and Marketing: Defining the Research Agenda’, Journal of Marketing 53(1), 3–15.
Drumwright, M.E.: 1994, ‘Socially Responsible Organizational Buying: Environmental Concern as a Noneconomic Buying Criterion’, Journal of Marketing 58(3), 1–19.
Fombrun, C. and M. Shanley: 1990, ‘What's in a Name? Reputation Building and Corporate Strategy’, Academy of Management Journal 33(2), 233–258.
Greening, D.W. and B. Gray: 1994, ‘Testing a Model of Organizational Response to Social and Political Issues’, Academy of Management Journal 37(3), 467–498.
Griffin, J.J. and J.F. Mahon: 1997, ‘The Corporate Social Performance and Corporate Financial Performance Debate’, Business and Society 36(1), 5–31.
Hair, J.F., R.E. Anderson, R.L. Tatham, and W.C. Black: 1998, Multivariate Data Analysis, 5th ed. (Prentice-Hall International, Upper Saddle River, NJ).
Holmes, Lord and R. Watts: 1999, ‘Making Good Business Sense’, in The World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Conches-Geneva.
Jones, T.M.: 1980, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility Revisited, Redefined’, California Management Review, 22(3), 59–67.
Kennedy, M.S., L.K. Ferrell, and D.T. LeClair: 2001, ‘Consumers' Trust of Salesperson and Manufacturer: An Empirical Study’, Journal of Business Research 51(1), 73–86.
Khireche-Oldache, B.: 1998, ‘L'entreprise citoyenne, une approche par les normes environnemen-tales’, Cahier de Recherche 1998–10, Grefige-Université Nancy 2, Nance.
Leonard, M.: 1997, ‘Count on Them in. Corporate America Is Eager to Volunteer Help to the Needy. The Reason Is the Bottom-line’, The Boston Globe, (April 20), F1.
Lichtenstein, D.R., M.E. Drumwright, and B.M. Braig: 2004, ‘The Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility on Customer Donations to Corporate-supported Nonprofits’, Journal of Marketing 68(4), 16–32.
Lindgreen, A. and V. Swaen: 2004, ‘Corporate Citizenship: Let not Relationship Marketing Escape the Management Toolbox’, Corporate Reputation Review 7(4), 346–363.
Luo, X. and C.B. Bhattacharya: 2006, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility, Customer Satisfaction, and Market Value’, Journal of Marketing 70(4), 1–18.
Maignan, I.: 1997 , Antecedents and Benefits of Corporate Citizenship: A Comparison of U.S. and French Businesses, unpublished PhD thesis (University of Memphis at Tampa, TN).
Maignan, I. and O.C. Ferrell: 2001, ‘Antecedents and Benefits of Corporate Citizenship: An Investigation of French businesses’, Journal of Business Research 51(1), 37–51.
Maignan, I., O.C. Ferrell, and T. Hult: 1999, ‘Corporate Citizenship: Cultural Antecedents and Business Benefits’, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 27(4), 455–469.
Maignan, I. and V. Swaen: 2004, ‘La Responsabilité Sociale d'une Organisation: Intégration des Perspectives Marketing et Manageriale’, Revue Franc¸aise du Marketing 200(5), 51–66.
Marsden, C. and J. Andriof: 1998, ‘Towards an Understanding of Corporate Citizenship and How to Influence It’, Citizenship Studies 2(2), 329–352.
Martin, R.L.: 2002, ‘The Virtue Matrix: Calculating the Return on Corporate Responsibility’, Harvard Business Review 80(3), 68–75.
McIntosh, M., D. Leipziger, K. Jones, and G. Coleman: 1998, Corporate Citizenship: Successful Strategies for Responsible Companies (Pitman Publishing, London).
McStravic, S.: 2000, ‘Strategic Differentiation becoming “Watchword” for Health Care Organizations’, Health Care Strategic Management 18(8), 15–18.
McWilliams, A. and D. Siegel: 2001, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility: A Theory of the Firm Perspective’, The Academy of Management Review 26(1), 117–127.
McWilliams, A., D.S. Siegel, and P.M. Wright: 2006, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility: Strategic Implications’, Journal of Management Studies 43(1), 1–18.
McWilliams, A., D.D. Van Fleet, and K. Cory: 2002, ‘Raising Rivals' Costs Through Political Strategy: An Extension of the Resource-based Theory’, Journal of Management Studies 39(5), 707–723.
Menon, A. and A. Menon: 1997, ‘Enviropreneurial Marketing Strategy: The Emergence of Corporate Environmentalism as Marketing Strategy’, Journal of Marketing 61(1), 51–67.
Pinkston, T.S. and A.B. Carroll: 1994, ‘Corporate Citizenship Perspectives and Foreign Direct Investment in the US’, Journal of Business Ethics 13(2), 157–169.
Pinkston, T.S. and A.B. Carroll: 1996, ‘A Retrospective Examination of CSR Orientations: Have They Changed?’ Journal of Business Ethics 15(2), 199–206.
Sethi, S.P.: 1975, ‘Dimensions of Corporate Social Performance: An Analytical Framework’, California Management Review 17(3), 58–64.
Snider, J., R.P. Hill, and D. Martin: 2003, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility in the 21st Century: A View from the World's Most Successful Firms’, Journal of Business Ethics 48(2), 175–187.
Stanwick, S.D. and P.A. Stanwick: 1998, ‘Corporate Social Responsiveness: an Empirical Examination Using the Environmental Disclosure Index’, International Journal of Commerce and Management 8(3/4), 26–40.
Swaen, V. (2004), Etude des perceptions et des réactions des consommateurs face aux activité s citoyennes des entreprises: Application à deux catégories de produits, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve.
Swaen, V., R. Chumpitaz, E. Bigné, and L. Andreu: 2003, ‘Being a Socially Responsible Company: What does it Mean for European Young Consumers? Analysis of the Impact of Perceived Environment, Culture and Values’, Proceedings of the European Marketing Academy Conference, May 20–22, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.
Turban, D.B. and D.W. Greening: 1997, ‘Corporate Social Performance and Organizational Attractiveness to Prospective Employees’, Academy of Management Journal 40(3), 658–672.
Warhurst, A.: 2001, ‘Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Social Investment: Drivers of Tri-Sector Partnerships’, Journal of Corporate Citizenship 1(Spring), 57–73
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lindgreen, A., Swaen, V., Johnston, W.J. (2009). United States of America: A Snapshot of US' Practices. In: Idowu, S.O., Filho, W.L. (eds) Global Practices of Corporate Social Responsibility. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-68815-0_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-68815-0_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-68812-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-68815-0
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsEconomics and Finance (R0)