Explicating firm international corporate social responsibility initiatives

The growth of the international business is a new global reality of emerging economy firms. The increasing international footprint of business firms is transpiring into firms being embedded in the nest of the international business landscape. corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives cater to stakeholders. Given this, it is imperative that International CSR (ICSR) initiatives are undertaken for meeting the expectations of international stakeholders. It is important that ICSR is both efficient and effective. The purpose of this paper is to explicate the concept of ICSR in this study.

This is an exploratory study and for this, a qualitative research approach is applied. Based upon the inputs from the literature a semi-structured open-ended questionnaire is prepared. Non-probabilistic purposive snowball sampling is used to identify experts on ICSR. Qualitative in-depth personal interviews are conducted. The qualitative data is collected by in-depth personal interviews with 31 Indian ICSR experts by using a semi-structured open-ended questionnaire. Data collection was stopped after reaching thematic saturation post 31 interviews. The data is thematic and relational content analysed for seeking an answer to the research questions posed.

The author for explicating ICSR developed a moderated mediation model. The developed moderated mediation model on ICSR is having nine factors, namely – firm ICSR perspective (FICSRP), ICSR practice (ICSRP), CSR planning function (ICSRPF), organisational ICSR commitment (OICSRC), organisational stakeholder inclusivity orientation (OSIO), firm international exposure (FIE), bounded rationality of ICSR practitioners (BRICSRP), ICSR management bounded reliability (ICSRMBR) and nature of ICSR footprint (NICSRF). The author found that “firm outlook”, “CSR planning plus implementation” and “CSR commitment” are the independent variables. While firm “international exposure” and “stakeholder inclusivity orientation” are the mediating variables. CSR bounded “reliability” and “rationality” are moderating variables. The “nature of ICSR” (classified as an island or mixed or extension) is the dependent variable.

This study is set in the context of internationalisation of the emerging economy firms of India. This qualitative empirical research study developed a moderated mediation model on ICSR. There are nine factors in the model, namely, “firm outlook”, “CSR planning plus implementation” and “CSR commitment” as independent variables, firm “international exposure” and “stakeholder inclusivity orientation” as the mediating variables, CSR bounded “reliability” and “rationality” as moderating variables and the “nature of ICSR” as the dependent variable.

Managers engaging in planning and implementation of ICSR initiatives in various foreign countries could best upon this study findings improve the ICSR delivery. Managers in their firms could improve the “firm outlook” to enhance ICSR, undertake increased “CSR planning plus implementation” and “CSR commitment”. Managers could base upon this study results to improve the moderating conditions of ICSR that is CSR bounded “reliability” and “rationality”. Better firm managers “international exposure” and “stakeholder inclusivity orientation” will better mediate ICSR action. All these would finally help the ICSR managers to better deliver the more effective “nature of ICSR”.

A better understanding of ICSR will help foreign managers to develop more efficient and effective foreign CSR initiatives. This will help a better quality of CSR work done in foreign countries. This will help the host country communities and society in general.

This study is one of the first set of studies in the context of ICSR. This qualitative empirical study is also one of the first studies to explicate ICSR through a moderated mediation model consisting of organisational variables such as “firm outlook”, “CSR planning plus implementation” and “CSR commitment” as the independent variables. The ICSR model is composed of the firm “international exposure” and “stakeholder inclusivity orientation” as the mediating variables, CSR bounded “reliability” and “rationality” as moderating variables and the “nature of ICSR” as the dependent variable.