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Corporate social responsibility: investigating theory and research in the marketing context

Terje I. Vaaland (Department of Business Administration, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway)
Morten Heide (Department of Business Administration, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway)
Kjell Grønhaug (Department of Strategy and Management, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Bergen, Norway)

European Journal of Marketing

ISSN: 0309-0566

Article publication date: 19 September 2008

20058

Abstract

Purpose

This review article aims to develop an integrating overview of the present status of the theory of corporate social responsibility (CSR) applied in the marketing context and asks whether, to what extent and how the discipline of marketing has addressed CSR.

Design/methodology/approach

After clarifying core concepts and proposing a new definition of CSR, 54 articles in leading marketing journals between 1995 and 2005 are analyzed in terms of publication characteristics, research design, variables, sampling, level of analysis, issues raised, and key findings.

Findings

Recommendations include a broadened perspective in empirical research to address CSR in its entirety, expand the focus beyond consumers, include a broader range of samples and conduct more inductive, exploratory empirical studies. These steps will contribute to a multidimensional view of the future customer.

Research limitations/implications

The number and specific choice of journals was subject to a compromise between comprehensiveness and the availability of space for a review.

Practical implications

The way the scholarly marketing literature treats CSR impacts what our students and other constituencies learn.

Originality/value

Given the veritable explosion in CSR research in the recent years, there is a genuine need for the field to take stock of what has been learned so far and what that implies in terms of where researchers should be headed.

Keywords

Citation

Vaaland, T.I., Heide, M. and Grønhaug, K. (2008), "Corporate social responsibility: investigating theory and research in the marketing context", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 42 No. 9/10, pp. 927-953. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090560810891082

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2008, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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