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The study aims to understand how corporate social responsibility (CSR) and happiness are used together in various research studies to serve the ultimate goal of corporate sustainability (CS), which in turn contributes to sustainable development.

A systematic literature review (SLR) was made using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) method in the two most-reputable databases of Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus, revealing a final list of 54 studies to analyse.

The review concludes that the literature on CSR and happiness provides three main findings: first, concerning the pillars of sustainability, most of the studies concentrate on people, neglecting the planet and profit, second, employees are subject to the highest number of studies as the target of CSR initiative and third, almost all studies employed the hedonic aspect of happiness in CSR literature.

This particular research finding points to the need for developing a comprehensive framework to assess stakeholder happiness from both hedonic and eudaimonic aspects from a CSR perspective which is then represented under the three pillars of sustainability.

To contribute to the ultimate goal of CS, management would design CSR initiatives for all stakeholders to increase both hedonic and eudaimonic happiness of them.

The literature provides reviews of research in CSR and happiness separately; however, there is not any research revealing how these two concepts are used together in studies and how this association could be read to serve the goal of CS.

The present study aims to explore the concepts involved in the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and customer and employee satisfaction in service industries.

The research literature over the recent decade has been analyzed using a systematic review. Through thematic analysis and coding the findings of the final selected articles, the authors presented an integrative framework of the relationship between CSR and the satisfaction of critical stakeholders of service companies, namely, customers and employees.

The research framework encompasses six main categories called CSR, satisfaction, moderators, conditional variables, contextual variables and satisfaction outcomes. All categories but CSR are divided into customer and employee sections to make the research framework further comprehensible.

The results show that in service industries, employees need as much attention as customers, and CSR efforts to satisfy customers and employees can lead to several positive outputs for companies.

Failure of service companies to commit to their social responsibility may harm the environment, society’s ethics and laws and long-term corporate profitability. On the other hand, adherence to CSR can lead to social development and economic growth.

This study is one of the most comprehensive studies in the field of CSR and satisfaction, which simultaneously considers the two key stakeholders of a service company. In addition, it provides valuable avenues for further studies.

This study aims to examine whether the association between stakeholders and corporate social responsibility (CSR) documented in developed countries exists in China.

This study tests the hypothesis and examines the impact of the central government, political connection, shareholders, customers, suppliers, employees and foreign investors on CSR practices by estimating the ordinary least squares regressions.

Using the CSR indexes developed by the Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS), this study finds that the central government, supplier concentration and foreign investors are positively associated with CSR, whereas shareholder concentration and customer concentration are negatively associated with CSR in China. Inconsistent with findings documented in developed countries, the result indicates that employee power is not associated with CSR.

This paper extends prior research by including stakeholders, such as government and foreign investors, who have a unique impact on CSR activities in emerging markets in addition to other stakeholders. The findings have implications in other countries where state ownership is also prevalent (Claessens et al., 2000; Faccio and Lang, 2002). While the issue of CSR has attracted growing research interest in recent years, most empirical results are based on the US data. This paper contributes to the empirical CSR research by examining determinants of CSR in an emerging market. Interestingly, some of the findings are contrary to those documented in developed countries. The contradiction suggests the danger in generalizing CSR–stakeholder research findings in developed countries to emerging economies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the stakeholder engagement approach, level, rationale and implications for corporate social responsibility (CSR) management and governance in the Nigerian tobacco sub‐sector.

Data were obtained from the published social reports of British American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN). These data are used to analyse BATN's CSR initiatives and stakeholder engagement against Arnstein's citizenship participation model and reasons for companies' engagement in CSR initiatives. Other literature, such as news reports and articles were used to contextualise the analysis.

Findings suggest that the engagement appears too controlled and lacking in authenticity; and that the stakeholder engagement framework needs to be developed to improve informed and balanced stakeholder participation and progressive CSR programmes.

The findings may not be readily generalisable, as the study was based on one company, although the data included a seven year company social report and other independent and external literature, e.g. news reports, to help contextualise the social reports. More research may be needed from other sub‐sectors to demonstrate generalisability.

The findings suggest that entirely discretionary CSR and stakeholder engagement may reduce its developmental impact and sustainability. To avert this, especially in Nigeria, some framework is needed to increase informed participation of relevant stakeholders and encourage a sustainable CSR practice.

To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first case study that explores CSR and stakeholder engagement in the Nigeria tobacco sub‐sector.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate perceptions of the relative importance of different stakeholders (owners, employees, customers, non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) and governmental authorities) as agents motivating managers to engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR). The aim is to determine which stakeholders are viewed as key motivators and which the respondents think ought to be key stakeholders.

This is an empirical study. Three stakeholder groups – corporate leaders, MSc business students and NGOs – were consulted through a paper survey (n = 264).

The findings reveal that the three stakeholder groups roughly agree that owners are the main motivators for managers to pursue CSR, followed by customers, governments, employees and NGOs, in that order. The paper then turned from perceptions of how things are to opinions about how things ought to be, asking who should be the main motivator. In this case, customers moved up to first place, followed by employees, owners, government and NGOs. Age, but not gender, was a significant variable. The older the respondents, the smaller the discrepancy between perceptions of what is and opinions about what ought to be.

This study was conducted in Norway and generalization is therefore limited. By replicating the study in other countries cultural differences can be investigated.

The findings are applicable for evaluating different avenues for understanding and influencing managerial and stakeholder CSR behaviour.

Several studies have concluded that stakeholders are of key importance in the CSR setting. However, few studies so far have compared the perceived relative “power” held by stakeholders. This type of knowledge can provide a key to understanding the development of CSR.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate organisational accountability to less economically powerful stakeholders in the absence of formal corporate social reporting (CSR) guidelines. In addition, this study emphasises the role of administrative and institutional reforms in empowering stakeholders in a developing country context, namely, Bangladesh.

Consistent with prior literature, this qualitative study collected data through semi-structured interviews with 23 representatives from NGOs, media, civil society, customers, regulators, trade union leaders and employees who are considered as less economically powerful stakeholders. This paper draws on the demand for administrative reforms along with an institutional support structure (Owen et al., 1997) to enhance CSR and corporate accountability.

The empirical evidence shows that there is a need for a stand-alone mandatory CSR to achieve stakeholder accountability. It also shows that there are demands from “stakeholders to right to know” about the company’s social and environmental performance along with stakeholder engagements. There is a perceived demand for administrative reform along with institutional supports that can contribute to the CSR development in Bangladesh. These administrative reforms would encourage transparent corporate social and environmental practices. Given the socio-economic and vulnerable environmental conditions of Bangladesh, stakeholders in this study suggested contextually relevant CSR guidelines towards greater accountability.

This paper is one of the few engagement-based studies which explore the perceptions of less economically powerful stakeholders towards CSR developments in an emerging economy – Bangladesh. The findings of this study using the theoretical lens of accountability with administrative and institutional reforms lead us to conclude that companies in Bangladesh have low level of CSR towards stakeholder accountability and stakeholder engagements.

The paper contributes to the CSR literature by highlighting the needs of CSR from the stakeholder’s accountability perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how stakeholders perceive the motives behind fast food companies’ public health-related corporate social responsibility (CSR) and general social issue-related CSR initiatives, and their responses toward CSR in terms of supportive communication intent, investment intent, and purchase intent. The authors further examine the impact of perceived CSR motives on intent and whether a healthier chain image has an effect on stakeholder responses.

An online experiment was conducted. This study employed a randomized 2 (CSR type: health-related CSR vs generic social issue-related CSR)×2 (chain image: healthier chain vs general fast-food chain) full factorial design using general stakeholder samples.

For an ordinary fast food restaurant, generic social issue-related CSR programs elicited significantly more positive perceptions of CSR motives, supportive communication intent and investment intent, than public-health related CSR. When a company has a healthier image, stakeholders do not distinguish between CSR types. Stakeholders perceive both CSR types as stemming from mutually beneficial motives and show neutral to slightly positive reactions to both CSR. A positively perceived CSR motive plays a determinant role in anticipating communication, investment, and purchase intents.

This is the first study that examines stakeholder perception of motives behind and responses toward fast food chains’ health-related vs generic social issue-related CSR initiatives, in light of corporate image. The study findings help public relations practitioners, public health professionals, parent groups, and legislators understand stakeholders’ reactions toward CSR initiatives in the fast food industry and help them monitor practices for improvements.

The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the political dimensions in the relationships between mining companies and their aboriginal stakeholders in Australia. Practical applications of stakeholder approaches to corporate social responsibility (CSR) can overlook indigenous people at the local level of those who are most affected by mining.

Informed by critical discourse analysis, the paper reports on a critical web‐based study that synthesises disparate community and business perspectives to explore the representations of CSR relationships between mining companies and aboriginal stakeholders.

Through their rhetorical manipulation of the CSR discourse, mining companies construct a homogeneous representation of aboriginal peoples, for strategic purposes. Companies maintain a public image as good corporate citizens, while using the rhetoric to divert their CSR activities to less problematic indigenous groups, thus ignoring the claims of stakeholders who are more directly affected by mining.

While web‐based research of CSR relationships can incorporate disparate perspectives to reveal the critical complexities of the relationships, the resultant interpretations cannot be conclusive. Thus more comprehensive on‐site ethnographic fieldwork is required, and the web‐based studies can be used to identify issues and contradictions to be investigated in the field.

This critical evaluation of the CSR relationships between mining companies and their indigenous stakeholders offers an independent appreciation of those relationships and the political nuances in them. The paper provides evidence of the corporate appropriation of the CSR discourse for corporate image‐enhancing purposes and shows how the mining companies adopt this approach in their practice of the CSR rhetoric.

The purpose of this study provides the enhancing factors of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and examines their differential effects on corporate social performances for business-stakeholder groups (i.e. investors, employees, suppliers and customers) and public-stakeholder groups (i.e. communities and the environment).

This study uses a differenced-equation model to test the differential effects of CSR-enhancing factors. The study tests the impact of each factor controlling the effects of the other CSR-enhancing factors in one multivariate analysis with survey data of 776 small and medium-sized enterprises from Hong Kong.

This study finds that firms give more CSR efforts for public stakeholders than for business stakeholders as firms’ financial resources, institutional conformity and their perceived regulatory pressure increase. On the other hand, firms provide more CSR efforts for business stakeholders than for public stakeholders when such efforts are based on their strategic motivation.

The main contribution of this study is to clarify diverse CSR-enhancing factors for different stakeholders, in particular, business vs public stakeholders, thus to help firms understand the effective ways to increase CSR actions for specific target stakeholder groups.

The chapter addresses the use of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as an indicator of social change and progress towards sustainability by analysing how stakeholders shift their CSR perceptions in different economic conjunctures between visions that are closer to communication or to governance as structures of network interaction. A matrix is presented that defines four models of CSR perception by integrating theoretical approaches of CSR framed by market or by society, by communication or by governance. Stakeholders’ perceptions are then positioned in the matrix through qualitative analysis of the diverse definitions, constructions and positions with respect to CSR made and adopted by corporate agents, social stakeholders and communicators in their discourses. The study proves that changes in how actors perceive and explain self-governed CSR do not depend so much on economic factors as on the networks of stakeholder interaction through communication and governance. Mapping CSR stakeholders’ perceptions indicates changes and limiting actors, but is not enough to isolate the triggers of those changes. The maps provide a starting point for further exploration of (de)politicization, framing, and understanding of CSR communication and governance, and for the analysis of the limitations of the current model of CSR self-governance. The theoretical approach and methodology provide a framework that integrates communication and governance as relational structures of network interaction in CSR.