Corporate social responsibility: Perception, practices and performance of listed companies of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Purpose

The world is becoming global, digital, health conscious and spiritual. In this new and evolving international environment with a large private sector and global integration of world capital markets, Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become the prominent topic of institutional reform. This issue of CSR is of great importance as the Saudi economy is opening up and the government is trying to diversify its investments and reduce its reliance on the petroleum sector. The proposed research study is aimed at identifying perceptions of managers, company practices and performance of companies concerning CSR practices of 21 listed companies in Saudi Arabia.

Design/methodology/approach

From each company, ten managers were chosen randomly totaling two hundred and ten respondents. Primary and secondary data was collected for the study. Primary data were collected by conducting interviews and discussions with management respondents through questionnaires structured for the purpose.

Findings

The empirical findings in the KSA study support the applicability of Carroll's Pyramid of CSR constructs and Lawrence et al.'s charity and stewardship principles.

Research limitations/implications

There is excellent scope for future research on the current topic and in improving the instruments, measures and constituent concepts of CSR constructs in order to provide better guidance to policy makers and managers, as well as academic interest.

Originality/value

Saudi Arabia is known for its charity and stewardship principles, but not much empirical work based on CSR constructs has been done. Hence, this study attempts to measure perception and construct validity.

Citation

Ahamad Nalband, N. and Al‐Amri, M.S. (2013), "Corporate social responsibility: Perception, practices and performance of listed companies of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia", Competitiveness Review, Vol. 23 No. 3, pp. 284-295. https://doi.org/10.1108/10595421311319843