Linking internal stakeholders’ pressure and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices: The moderating role of organizational culture

Abstract

AbstractThe central research question in the area of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been “Why do some businesses act responsibly, while others do not?” To contribute to answering this fundamental question, the study aimed at empirically determining the influence of stakeholders, which is operationalized as stakeholder pressure, on stakeholder-oriented CSR practices. Because of its generic and versatile nature, this link has been posited as being moderated by organizational culture. For doing so, large manufacturing firms in the Amhara region of Ethiopia, with a sample size of 53, were the target units of analysis. Randomly chosen 473 employees rated the current CSR and organizational culture practices of the firms. Because it is mainly felt by managers, internal stakeholders’ pressure has rather been judged by managers (sampled 253). Consequently, the aggregated process produced data at the organizational level. According to analysis using structural equation modeling, (1) internal stakeholders’ pressure and organizational culture have both been identified as potential factors influencing CSR practices and (2) organizational culture has a moderating role in the relationship between internal stakeholders’ pressure and CSR practices. Notwithstanding its limitations, the study has provided useful insights into both the theory and practice of CSR. Similar studies with tailored designs are encouraged for future research.

Keywords

• stakeholder theory
• cultural theory
• large manufacturing firms
• aggregation procedure
• Ethiopia
• business and society