20TH OF APRIL

2015

A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH PAPER ON THE DIFFERENT

PERCEPTIONS OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

INVESTIGATIVE ABILITIES 3RD YEAR

NADIA HASSOUNE | 123094

NHTV UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES | INTERNATIONAL HOTEL MANAGEMENT

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction .............................................................................................................................................2

Problem description .............................................................................................................................2

Purpose .................................................................................................................................................2

Main research question ........................................................................................................................2

Sub research questions ........................................................................................................................2

Literature review ....................................................................................................................................3

Methodology............................................................................................................................................4

Qualitative research method ................................................................................................................4

Snowball sample ...................................................................................................................................4

Semi-structured interview ....................................................................................................................4

Data analysis .........................................................................................................................................4

Results .....................................................................................................................................................5

Discussion.................................................................................................................................................6

Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................8

Appendices ..............................................................................................................................................9

Appendix 1. Interview guide ................................................................................................................9

Appendix 2. Interview coding system ............................................................................................... 10

Appendix 3. Consent form ................................................................................................................ 11

Appendix 4. Interview transcript Consultant ................................................................................... 12

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INTRODUCTION

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION

The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility has acquired such significance that today it is

commonly employed in the global business environment. However, the perception of CSR still varies

between different professionals. Furthermore we have no clear understanding as to why a company

may choose to embrace CSR. Is CSR a strategy that companies genuinely adopt or is it just a way to

be perceived as ethical by its stakeholders? Additionally we are interested in what the level of

importance will be for CSR in the future.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this research is to get a better understanding of how the CSR phenomenon is

perceived by professional experts that each occupy a different role.

MAIN RESEARCH QUESTION

How is Corporate Social Responsibility perceived?

SUB RESEARCH QUESTIONS

- How is Corporate Social Responsibility defined by academics and professionals?

- What can be reasons that companies choose to implement Corporate Social Responsibility

practices ?

- What will the future of Corporate Social Responsibility look like?

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LITERATURE REVIEW

The standard way of thinking is that Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is gaining more importance

day by day. In order to create more clarity on the importance of the subject, three topics are created;

the definition of CSR, CSR in a business and the future direction of CSR.

Dahlsrud (2008) gathered 37 different definitions on CSR and even though each definition is phrased

differently, most of the meanings seem to be congruent. According to Dahlrud’s study the definition

formulated by the Commission of the European Communities (CEC) in 2001 gives the most clarity to

the subject. The CEC defines CSR as “A concept whereby companies integrate social and

environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders

on a voluntary basis” (Dahlsrud, 2008, p.7).

In Porter’s and Kramer’s (2006) view there are four justifications as to why companies choose to

embrace CSR, namely: moral obligation, sustainability, license to operate and reputation. This

coincides with Van Marrewijk, who beliefs that there are three comparable reasons as to why

companies adopt CSR practises. “Simply stated: they either feel obliged to do it; are made to do it or

they want to do it” (Van Marrewijk, 2003, p.99). Corporations can feel obliged to implement CSR,

because they are under increasing pressure of civil society. However it might also be, that companies

are made to implement CSR, since the government is creating more regulations concerning the topic.

Finally it can also be that companies are simply concerned about society and the environment and

therefore want to implement CSR practises.

According to Werther et al (2005) CSR is in transition from being a minimal commitment to becoming

a strategic necessity. However Lee (2008) beliefs that there is still a great need for further research

towards CSR measurement tools. Until today, current studies have not been able to develop

common metrics that provide the ability to compare and measure CSR activities performed by

companies in a global way.

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METHODOLOGY

In this chapter the research method will be presented along with the sample and interview strategy

and the coding analysis.

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHOD

In order to get a deeper understanding of how the CSR phenomenon is perceived by professional

experts, we have chosen to conduct qualitative interviews with four respondents. Each respondent

occupies a different role, namely: Consultant, Manager, Researcher and Entrepreneur.

The qualitative research method seeks to understand a given research topic from different

perspectives of persons that are involved (Mack et al., 2005). The chosen method is in line with the

purpose of this study, because it provides information about the “human” side of an issue.

SNOWBALL SAMPLING

Snowball sampling is considered to be a technique for locating information-rich research subjects. A

participant provides the researcher with the name of another subject that might be of interest, who

in turn provides the contact details of a third person (Atkins, 2001).

The snowball sampling has been chosen, because it simplified the search for suitable participants.

furthermore the use of an existing social network to locate participants created a level of trust,

because referrals were made by a reliable acquaintance.

SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW

The method chosen to gather the data was a semi-structured, face-to-face interview, with a duration

of 40 minutes. This method was favoured, because the themes are written down in order to cover all

aspects, yet it also gives the interviewee the possibility to provide additional information.

DATA ANALYSIS

After having conducted the interviews a coding system was designed to analyse distinct concepts

and categories in the data. In order to uncover the ideas and meanings hold by the four interview

transcripts I made the decision to use open coding in the form of a line-by-line analysis. The focus of

this analysis was mainly on word repetitions, key-words-in-context and cutting and sorting.

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RESULTS

By analysing the interviews, it became apparent that each interviewee believes that Corporate Social

Responsibility (CSR) exists of more than merely the environmental area. All professionals mention

that CSR is the practice of managing the social, environmental and economic impacts of a

corporation. The analysis furthermore revealed that the level of commitment to CSR varies among

professionals. Especially the Manager had another opinion about the concept and agreed to

embrace it, as long as it would be economically feasible for the firm.

Even though each participant provided different motives for CSR, all of them agreed that CSR would

become a necessity in the future.

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DISCUSSION

The intentions with this research were to investigate the perceptions of Corporate Social

Responsibility among different academics and practitioners.

Research shows that CSR is a developing concept that currently does not have a generally accepted

definition, however it seems that all explanations refer to the same concept although each has a

different aim.

Robins (2008) states that the core idea of CSR is, that firms should go beyond their business-oriented

activities and take responsibility for the wellbeing of society. This coincides with the common

agreement amongst the four interviewees that CSR entails the responsibility people have towards

one another and the environment, with the objective to create a sustainable world. After analysing

the four interviews it can be said that even though formulated differently, all practitioners tend to

believe that CSR consists of three main areas: social, economic and environmental. According to the

Consultant, CSR starts with the social part, which refers to internal CSR practices in terms of how to

treat people. The Entrepreneur believes that the economic aspect involves support for local

businesses to save the economy from suffering declines. The Researcher and Manager than again

both agree that the environmental area involves companies adopting precautionary practices to

secure a healthy environment for future generations.

Academics in the literature argue that there can be multiple reasons as to why companies decide to

implement CSR. According to Porter and Kramer (2006) four justifications for embracing CSR can be:

moral obligation, sustainability, license to operate and reputation. The view of the Manager is that

taking responsibility for social and moral matters should only be undertaken when they are

economically feasible for a firm. This is in contrast with the other interviewees who believe that it is

in a firms best interest to embrace social responsibilities, solely because it is the right thing to do.

Although not all professionals think alike, Falck and Hebich (2007) suggest that if a corporation’s aim

is to survive and flourish, it should take a long term view and understand that if it treats society well,

society will return the favour.

To conclude, all interviewees agree that CSR is becoming mainstream and that global companies can

no longer afford to ignore this phenomenon. This aligns with Werther et al (2005) who states that

CSR will eventually become a strategic necessity. According to the consultant and researcher more

people are becoming willing to voluntarily embrace CSR. The reason for this is that people becomes

conscious of the shared value that CSR creates for business and society. However the Manager and

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Researcher believe that CSR will mainly grow in importance due to the increasing support the

concept receives by government legislation.

To take this research to a new level, it is recommended to interview multiple professionals that

occupy the same job role. Those results can show if there is a true difference between the

perceptions of different roles or if it is merely an individual view. Further research is therefore

suggested to get a broader understanding of how the CSR phenomenon is truly perceived by

practitioners.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alan Bryman & Emma Bell (2011). Business Research Methods. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University

Press . p1-p765.

Bogdan, R. C., & Biklen, S. K. (2003). Qualitative research for education: An introduction to theories

and methods (4th ed.). New York: Pearson.

Alexander Dahlsrud. (2006). How Corporate Social Responsibility is Defined: an Analysis of 37

Definitions. Wiley InterScience. 15 (1), p1-p13.

Fred Robins. (2008). Why corporate social responsibility should be popularised but not imposed.

Corporate Governance: The international journal of business in society. 8 (3), p330-p341.

Marcel van Marrewijk. (2003). Concepts and Definitions of CSR and Corporate Sustainability:

Between Agency and Communion. Journal of Business Ethics. 44 (4), p95-p105.

Michael E. Porter & Mark R. Kramer. (2006). Strategy & Society: The link between competitive

advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility. Harvard Business Review. 84 (12), p78-p93.

Min-Dong P. Lee. (2008). A review of the theories of corporate social responsibility: Its evolutionary

path and the road ahead. International journal of management reviews, 10(1), 53-73.

Natasha Mack, Cynthia Woodsong, Kathleen Macqueen, Greg Guest, Emily Namey . (2005).

Qualitative Research Methods Overview. In: . Qualitative Research Methods: A Data Collector's Field

Guide . North Carolina: Family Health International. p1-p12.

Oliver Falck & Stephan Heblich. (2007). Corporate social responsibility: Doing well by doing good.

Business Horizons. 50 (3), 247–254.

Rowland Atkinson & John Flint. (2001). Accessing Hidden and Hard-to-Reach Populations: Snowball

Research Strategies. Social research update. 33 (.), p1-p4.

William B. Werther & David Chandler. (2005). Strategic corporate social responsibility as global brand

insurance. Business Horizons. 43 (1), p93-p114.

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APPENDIX 1. INTERVIEW GUIDE

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APPENDIX 2. INTERVIEW CODING SYSTEM

After collecting the data, the gathered information needed to be organized. According to Bogdan et

al (2003), data analysis entails the process of systematically arranging and searching the interview

transcripts. This should be done to increase understanding of what has been said and to present

what is discovered to others. The focus of the data analysis has principally been on word repetitions,

key-words-in-context and cutting and sorting.

Forms of CSR

Social part

Environmental

part

Drive

electric cars Reduce

consumption

Waste

reduction Help people

getting a job

Mutual

Respect

Donate to

charity

Being

against child

labour

Economical

part

part

Subsidize

organizations

CSR

justifications

Reputation

and image Legal

obligation

Pressure

Profit Feeling of

responsibility

Necessary

to survive

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APPENDIX 3. CONSENT FORM

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APPENDIX 4. INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT CONSULTANT

( Interviewer ): Student

( Consultant ): Consultant at Deloitte Consulting

Interview setting: Interview conducted in the headquarter of TNT Express. The interview was

conducted on the 3rd of March 2015 at 11.h30 am.

( Interviewer ): I would like to start by introducing ourselves. We are 4 students of NHTV

international hotel management. Naomi, Lisa, Shanna and myself Nadia.

At this moment we are doing a project for the theme investigative abilities. The assignment is to

write a report on the perspectives of 4 different disciplines , on the by us chosen subject, which is in

this case Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Experience has taught us that this interview will take approximately between twenty and thirty

minutes. We would like to ask you, if it is possible to continue the interview in English, since we are

participating in an English education and it will make it easier to edit the results in the end.

( Consultant ): Sure

( Interviewer ): Perfect, let me explain the set-up of the interview to you. As mentioned before, CSR

is the main topic. However we have chosen 3 subheadings that we will use as a the common thread

for this interview, mainly; your personal vision on CSR, your vision on CSR in a business and your

perspective on the future of CSR.

( Interviewer ): To start with we would like to ask if you could provide us a brief explanation about

yourself and what your duties are within the company you are working for.

( Consultant ): My name is “Interviewee 4” and I work at Deloitte consulting in the Netherlands. I

work within the department Strategy & Operations and I am leading a group of 40 people that are

specialized in integrating performance and risk management. So, that is my main responsibility. I

usually do large Finance projects within the private sector, mainly in the TMT market. TMT is

Technology, Media and Telecom and lately it is more specialized towards Telecom.

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( Interviewer ): Thank you for this short introduction. Could you tell us how you would define CSR,

what is your perspective on the subject?

( Consultant ): I would define CSR as an awakening of the business world. People are becoming

aware, due to CSR, of the responsibility the have towards the world and how they leave it behind.

I am very much in favour of CSR and support environmental friendly choices. For me personally it

means that I am driving in an electric car and before a hybrid car. Furthermore I try to reduce the

consumption of eating damaging goods. I am a vegetarian and I find it important that food

manufacturers describe more precisely what is in their products.

On the other hand I have a home with a huge living room and I always make sure that it has a nice

temperature for myself, my wife and children. As you can see we are not always making extreme

choices, but I think that we do our part and try to live a conscious life.

( Interviewer ): You are mainly referring to the environmental part of CSR. Do you also think that this

is what the global population finds the most important aspect of the term CSR or are there also other

aspects within CSR of importance?

( Consultant ): It are not only the environmental things. It is also about how you treat other people.

For me personally that starts on a small scale, with how I treat my children. I spend a lot of time with

them. In my opinion there are a lot of parents that have children and put them in day-care

afterwards. My Wife is a doctor, who had a busy job before, but we have made the decision to work

part-time, so that one of us is always home to take care of our children.

If I look at the people aspect I think that you should treat people as you wish to be treated yourself.

However even I notice sometimes that I am *** about other people. Sometimes I notice that I am

doing it in the surroundings of my little son, making me conscious of the thing I am doing. Do people

really deserve my negativity, just because I am annoyed in traffic? I think you should be conscious of

what your actions can do to other people.

( Interviewer ): Do you also think that the way people are treated is the main value of CSR or is it

more the environmental aspect?

( Consultant ): I believe the key aspect of CSR is the Planet part. Making sure that there is not too

much Co2 in the air and that a company leaves not too much garbage behind.

I am also very much in favour of the Cradle2Cradle concept of Baumgarten. It explains an entire

different way of looking at things. You design something and as soon as you develop it, you think

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about the lifespan of the product and what are we going to do with the materials. Are we going to

burn them or are we going to re-use them and if so and how are we going to re-use them? At the end

people see that it is cheaper to re-use materials, because you’re not throwing anything away.

( Interviewer ): So people are considering the long term effect of something more nowadays than in

the past?

( Consultant ): Well some of the people are. However as mentioned before CSR is an awakening, but

that does not mean that everyone is wide awake. A lot of people still turn their heads away. There

are many people in this world that do not seem to care or they are too busy with other stuff that

they do not realise the effects of their decisions. An example is that still a lot of people are dumping

toxic waste everywhere.

( Interviewer ): Do you think that the negligent behaviour of some people towards CSR is because of

the costs that are often involved?. If we take polluting companies as an example, can it be a reason

that they are doing this, because they do not want to spend additional costs?

( Consultant ): Yes, definitely. Many companies are not focused and they just want to be cost

efficient. They do not care about the planet.

One of the problems at this moment is that the price of pollution and wasting the planet is not

calculated in the price of goods, but it actually should be. However, this is a very difficult and delicate

issue, because how do you decide on the cost of a ton of co2? It is not one person that is polluting, so

how can the cost of throwing a bucket of paint in the river be calculated?

( Interviewer ): Do you also see this as one of the pitfalls of CSR?

( Consultant ): In my opinion the pitfalls are that not everyone is busy with CSR, creating an uneven

advantage for some people. People that wish to be more sustainable, have to take in a lot of costs,

making it unfair.

Another pitfall are the measurement standards used at this moment. There are a few different

sustainability indexes, but they are still arbitrary. The government should do more to align the way

companies are measured on CSR. At this moment many companies are only focused on public

relations. They implement certain CSR aspects within the company, but this is often purely because

they want to have a good image and not because they truly do it to improve their business.

( Interviewer ): Do you think that a company will lose from its competitors if they do not start

implementing CSR?

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( Consultant ): A few years ago we had a different management at TNT. The previous CEO was very

much in favour of CSR. He had a vision that if the company did not implement CSR, it would be out of

business within ten years.

TNT started to measure carbon dioxide outputs and all other kind of things. As soon as companies

are obligated by the government to measure everything they pollute, they also have to take into

account the pollution of transportation. If companies do not take the best choice for the

environment they have the chance too loose customers and additionally they will lose their

competitive advantage. That’s one of the reasons that TNT started to invest in electric cars.

Another action taken by the government is the additional tax liability on lease cars. This is a

monetary incentive, that stimulates people, because they have to pay less tax. If the government had

not given this incentive, a lot of people would not bother.

( Interviewer ): Am I correct if your saying that it is a two side way? That the consumer will care more

if they also benefit?

( Consultant ): Yes and it is important for people that they can measure the effects of their actions,

otherwise it does not exist to them. As the previous CEO said, we have to make our actions

transparent to gain our competitive advantage. To give an illustration, he showed us the pollution

output of the company in the form of a circle. Next to the circle, was a another circle that of three

times the size. That circle stood for the pollution outcome of all the people working at the company.

He provided each of his staff tools in how they could reduce energy outputs and waste consumption .

In his opinion it was not the introduction of environmental cars that could help better the world, but

the company could also influence the staffs way of thinking.

Another thing that he did is contact Mercedes, since they provided 90% of all the company cars to

inform if they were going to make environmental cars in the near future. The CEO of Mercedes

answered that they were not planning to make environmental cars. The CEO than said that no one

globally, working for the company was allowed to use any Mercedes cars anymore. He kept to his

word and all the cars from Mercedes were banned.

( Interviewer: ) You just mentioned a few environmental things and pressure received from the

external environment that steer CSR in a specific direction. Are there any other trends that are

influencing CSR?

( Consultant ): CSR is becoming a necessity. If you look at some Chinese cities, they are so polluted

and the grow of the people is so fast that they have calculated that in a few years nothing can be

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thrown away anymore, otherwise the city will become a large garbage pile. One of the actions that

the government took, is that they hired Baumgarten (of the Cradle2Cradle concept). They are

designing cities that are almost entirely environmental friendly. All the houses are bio degradable

and are built for a fixed time. They can even replace specific parts of the houses. Even though they

are one of the worst polluters in the world, they see that they cannot continue this way, if they want

to build a sustainable future. The thing is that the Chinese government has a lot of power and

money, more than the world combined, to undertake these steps. In contrast to the west, that

maybe plans ahead 5 to 10 years, china has started thinking ahead 50 years from now.

( Interviewer ): Do you think that the things that are going on in china, are influencing the rest of the

world as well?

( Consultant ): No, the situation in China is much worse than in the west. Like the case that they are

still polluting baby food. They think it is cheaper to use other stuff, leading to the dead of many

babies. Therefore we have a shortage on baby food, because everything has to be exported. But you

do notice that the living standards in china are going up. This is also visible in outsourcing. Many

production companies are moving to countries such as Bangladesh, because it is cheaper.

( Interviewer ): Do you foresee other trends, concerning CSR?

( Consultant ): For me there are 3 key aspects that are impacting the world. These are:

the amount of people; We can’t continue to grow, but where will it stop? Besides China, who only

allows couples to have one child, no other country has taken this measure. The question is also if it is

ethical to make this decision. Here in the west we can’t influence how many children a couple can

have, but in the future this will become a problem.

production; For example nowadays you can make a coca bottle in a way that it is fully bio degradable.

However they are still not doing it this way.

the level of consumption; People now are sharing cars and loaning each other equipment, so they do

not have to buy one. These are excellent examples of solutions of how we can reduce our level of

consumption.

( Interviewer ): It is interesting, because before we started this Interview, the main thing that came

to my mind concerning CSR was the environmental part. I have never thought that things as sharing

equipment and the cultural aspects were also part of the subject.

( Consultant ): On the people side we have a big thing to gain. An example is the financial industry.

People working in these industries take such big risks, with the environment and the life of others.

They do not care, they just want to make a lot of profit.

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( Interviewer ): Do you see this as ignorance?

( Consultant ): Well I more see the problem in group thinking. “Others are doing it, so I also do it” and

they are afraid that someone else will take their place. They do not take responsibility and they do

not want to be involved in problems.

On the other side, there are also many companies that try to make an effort. An example is Axo

Industries. They have made sure that the fumes of their paints are not poisonous anymore. They are

way ahead of their competitors.

( Interviewer ): Is this one of the companies that you admire for their approach?

( Consultant ): Yes. They have not only developed the paint, but they continue to invest in CSR. I also

think that their competitors will follow, because more and more companies require these products.

However It is a movement like cars. It is not only riding an electric car, but is concerns also the way

they are produced.

( Interviewer ): Next to Axo, are there also other companies that you admire for their approach?

( Consultant ): Tesla, who build electric cars. Not only the cars, but they are also building a new

factory in which they are investing in building more environmental friendly batteries.

The advantage is that people are becoming more aware of the impact that their actions have on the

world. Not only on the environment, but also on the people around you. What is the impact of

building a factory in a remote environment in Bangladesh and is this a good or a bad thing? There are

many things to consider while making such decisions. Often children will be put in such factories,

which means, that they will have money to eat. However on the other side, children of that age

should play instead of work.

( Interviewer ): We have already talked about the many developments that are going on around CSR.

How do you see the future of CSR?

( Consultant ): I think it will be more transparent, because people demand it. An example is the food

you are buying in the stores. More and more people look at all the E numbers on the back of the

packages and decide to buy a substitute product, because they do not want to eat rubbish anymore.

People are getting more and more conscious.

( Interviewer ): I think we have come to the end of this interview. We would like to thank you for your

time.

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