Reporting to God. The religious background of corporate social responsibility in Islamic enterprises – airlines

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of the article is to present the role played by ethics and religion in shaping the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the example of Islam. Therefore, this paper focuses on CSR in Islamic companies and attempts to discover whether Islamic countries are a cultural circle where culture and religion are advantageous when developing CSR. Methodology/approach: A case study was used to determine CSR disclosure in airlines. Findings: The results showed that ethics and philanthropy were important to CSR disclosure in Islamic companies. Religion in Islamic countries has a huge impact on companies disclosing their philanthropical and ethical activities. Practical implications: This paper will better enable academics and practitioners to understand CSR problems in Islamic countries. Our research underlines the role of ethics and religion in the context of CSR. Originality/value: This paper makes an important contribution by highlighting the importance of ethics to CSR in Islam countries and raises the possibility of CSR reporting being adopted in Islamic companies.

Keywords

• Corporate social responsibility
• Islam
• ethics
• religion
• reporting
• non-financial indicators