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Corporate social responsibility: an avenue for sustainable benefit for society and the firm?

Sharon Gyves (AIB Business Banking, Dublin, Ireland)
Eleanor O'Higgins (Graduate School of Business, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland)

Society and Business Review

ISSN: 1746-5680

Article publication date: 3 October 2008

9953

Abstract

Purpose

The objective of this paper is to investigate the benefits arising from various corporate social responsibility (CSR) approaches, to determine which approach generated the most sustainable mutual benefit accruing both to the focal firm, as well as to society and the firm's stakeholders.

Design/methodology/approach

The ethnographic case studies are based on interviews with senior managers from six companies which are members of Business in the Community Ireland, a not‐for‐profit organization comprised of companies which are active about CSR initiatives.

Findings

Results show that for the companies interviewed, CSR initiatives that are voluntary and strategic, as opposed to coerced and/or non‐strategic, generate the most sustainable mutual benefit to the firm itself and its social beneficiaries.

Originality/value

The paper presents a framework to analyze approaches to CSR, using the dimensions of strategic/non‐strategic, voluntary/coerced. The study discovers ways to reconcile the conventionally competing shareholder and stakeholder mindsets. The paper concludes that if firms pursue CSR activities in a voluntary and strategic manner they can satisfy both shareholders' and stakeholders' demands.

Keywords

Citation

Gyves, S. and O'Higgins, E. (2008), "Corporate social responsibility: an avenue for sustainable benefit for society and the firm?", Society and Business Review, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 207-223. https://doi.org/10.1108/17465680810907297

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2008, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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