The use of corporate social responsibility: antecedents and the impact on organisational outcomes

This study examines the antecedents of CSR use and the subsequent impact of the use of CSR on organisational outcomes. Specifically, this interdisciplinary study empirically examines the influence of institutional pressures, management control systems (MCSs), organisational market orientation, and organisational culture on the use of CSR. This study also examines the subsequent impact of CSR use on organisational outcomes (financial and non-financial performance, and competitive advantage). Data was collected through a mail questionnaire survey distributed to a total of 460 Bangladeshi organisations, with the proposed hypotheses tested based on the responses of 201 higher and/or middle level managerial staff including Directors/Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), Chief Financial Officers (CFOs), General Managers (GMs) or similar titles and Senior Executives, employing Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) utilising the AMOS 25 standalone software.

The study consists of three interrelated, albeit independent, empirical research papers prepared in publishable journal article format. The first paper (Chapter Two), draws on the New Institutional Sociology (NIS) strand of Institutional Theory, to empirically examine the influence of institutional pressures (namely coercive, mimetic and normative) on CSR use, and the impact of CSR use on competitive advantage. Drawing on the 52 principles of CSR use provided by the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2011), the study proposes a seven-dimensional model of CSR use, and provides evidence of a significant association between coercive, mimetic and normative pressures with the different dimensions of CSR use. The findings further reveal that two CSR dimensions ('consumer rights' and 'minimising illegal activities') are positively associated with competitive advantage while two other dimensions ('accountability to external stakeholders' and 'compliance with science, technology, and competition requirements') are negatively associated with competitive advantage.

The second paper examines the mediating role of an organisation's market orientation (i.e., customer orientation, competitor orientation, and interfunctional coordination) on the association between MCSs, specifically Simons' (1995) four levers of control (i.e., belief, boundary, diagnostic and interactive), and CSR use. The study reveals that the different components of market orientation significantly mediate the positive associations between the levers of control and CSR use. In particular, customer orientation mediates the positive associations between three of Simons' levers of control (belief, boundary, and interactive) and four dimensions of CSR use ('environmental, occupational, and public health and safety'; 'human rights'; 'consumer rights'; and 'minimising illegal activities'); competitor orientation mediates the associations between boundary and interactive controls and two dimensions of CSR use (namely 'accountability to external stakeholders'; and 'compliance with science, technology, and competition requirements'); and interfunctional coordination mediates the association between all four levers of control and one dimension of CSR use ('environmental, occupational, and public health and safety'). The study also reveals that each individual lever of control exhibits a direct influence on specific dimensions of CSR use. In particular, belief systems and boundary controls are positively associated with one dimension of CSR use ('minimising illegal activities'; and 'compliance with science, technology, and competition requirements' respectively), diagnostic controls are positively associated with six of the seven dimensions of CSR use (all except 'accountability to external stakeholders'), and interactive controls are positively associated with five dimensions of CSR use (all except 'consumer rights' and 'minimising illegal activities').

The third paper examines the influence of organisational culture, specifically O'Reilly et al.'s (1991) six Organisational Culture Profile (OCP) dimensions (respect for people, outcome orientation, team orientation, innovation, attention to detail and stability) on the use of CSR, and the subsequent impact of CSR use on organisational performance (financial and nonfinancial performance). The findings provide evidence of the influence of the six different dimensions of organisational culture on the different dimensions of CSR use. The findings also highlight the diverse impact (i.e., positive and negative) of CSR practices on organisational performance, and the direct influence of organisational culture on both financial and non-financial performance. In particular, the outcome and team orientation culture dimensions are positively associated with non-financial and financial performance respectively, while an innovative culture is negatively associated with both non-financial and financial performance.

The study contributes to the contingency based CSR, Management Accounting, Marketing, and Strategic Management literature, providing original and significant insights into the influence of institutional and organisational characteristics on CSR use and the impact of CSR use on organisational outcomes. Specifically, the study contributes to the CSR literature by providing a new measurement model of CSR use, and an insight into the role of institutional pressures, MCSs, market orientation and organisational culture as antecedents of CSR use. The study contributes to the Management Accounting literature by providing insights into the influence of MCSs on market orientation and CSR use. The study further contributes to the ongoing debate in the Management Accounting literature by providing an empirical insight into the impact of CSR use on organisational performance (financial and non-financial). The study also contributes to the Marketing Literature by providing an insight into the unique impact of different components of market orientation on CSR use. Specifically, it contributes to the sparse Marketing literature by providing initial empirical evidence of the mediating role of Narver and Slater's (1990) three different components of market orientation (customer orientation, competitor orientation, and interfunctional coordination) on the association between MCSs and CSR use. Finally, this study extends the sparse Strategic Management literature by providing an empirical insight into the strategic implications of CSR use in respect to competitive advantage.

The findings provide practitioners, internal (the managers and business owners of both the local and multinational organisations) and external policymakers (the governments of OECD member and non-member countries), and foreign investors in emerging economies, with new insights into the role of intra and extra-organisational factors on the adoption of CSR use, and the subsequent impact of CSR use on organisational outcomes. Governments can use such findings to develop and implement policies relevant to the promotion of the use of CSR in organisations.