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This study aims to investigate employees’ perceptions of socially responsible financial services brands in Saudi Arabia. The study also identifies the motives and challenges for Islamic banks for higher involvement in social responsibility initiatives to enhance their brand values.

An inductive approach was used in this study to identify the motives and challenges related to corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. The research design uses a qualitative approach where in-depth interviews were carried out among the employees in the financial services sector in Saudi Arabia.

Findings provide insights about how CSR initiatives for financial services brands in a developing and Islamic country are perceived. Results show that the focus of CSR activities is on the attribute of CSR, the magnitude of CSR and attitude towards CSR. Results show two main motives to engage in CSR activities, which are instrumental and ethical motives. The main challenges are related to the government, business, charitable organisations and customers and society.

Implications exist for how CSR is perceived in a new context and in the financial services industry. Understanding the current perception of CSR from a financial service brand perspective helps policymakers to develop appropriate platforms for financial service providers to become more socially involved.

The major contribution of this study lies in investigating the CSR perception among the key stakeholder (i.e. the employees) from a brand management perspective in the Saudi Arabian financial services sector. Further, this study shows the main motives and challenges, which local financial service brands face to become socially responsible. The categories of attributes, magnitude and attitudes can be used to enhance brand value in one of the economically advanced countries in the Arabic world, Saudi Arabia. In the first category “attribute”, the perception of socially responsible banks are highlighted, while the elements of CSR, including its dimensions, are emphasised in the second category “magnitude”. The third category “attitude” shows two themes, including stakeholders’ issues and business-related issues.

The growing public concern that private corporations should not only earn reasonable profits and provide fair returns to shareholders, but also operate as good corporate citizens and socially responsible organizations, has spread to the largest transnational corporations (TNCs), and seems to have been taken up by companies in both richer and poorer countries. Sustainable development calls for people and organizations to meet their present needs in such a way that does not hinder future generations’ ability to do the same. Many TNCs are creating voluntary environmental programs to manage more effectively the environmental impacts of their plants, facilities, and operations. These initiatives are especially important in developing countries with hazardous environmental conditions, social conditions, and non‐existent or poorly implemented regulatory protection.

The purpose of this article is to improve our understanding of the nature of social responsibility in actual practices and, specifically, the influence of individuals on these processes.

An abductive approach is applied (Alvesson and Sköldberg 1994), i.e. theory is developed by moving between theory and four empirical cases. The stories highlight the importance of the individual and closeness to local stakeholders and the presence of overlapping rationales.

The individuals’ simultaneous roles – as owners, managers and community members – influence how they are held or see themselves as accountable and how they account for the firms’ engagement in the community. The activities are conducted in the name of the firm but originate from private as well as business-oriented concerns. Our conclusions encourage an extension of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) construct to approach it as an entangled phenomenon resulting from the firm and the individual embeddedness in internal and external cultures.

This study brings the individual managers and owner-managers into focus and how their interplay with the surrounding context can create additional dimensions of accountability, which impact on the decisions taken in regard to CSR. A micro-perspective is applied. Corporate community responsibility, particularly in smaller and rural communities, contributes to recognize and understand how individuals influence and are influenced by CSR.

This paper aims to investigate whether corporate image has a mediating effect on the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on customer loyalty in independent hotels.

Data were collected from customers of five-star hotels located in Istanbul in Turkey. The theoretical model was tested with 404 usable data. The results were analyzed by using structural equation modeling (SEM).

Findings show that CSR creates customer loyalty partially through corporate image in the independent hotels. In addition, it was found that the hotels included in the study carried out moderate level of CSR activities.

The research model was tested in independent five-star hotels. Further studies could be carried out using different independent hospitality companies. In addition, the research was conducted on a limited sample, as hotel managers were not willing to allow direct contact with customers. Further studies could be carried out on larger samples.

This study recommends that independent hotels carry out more CSR activities on social and environmental issues. In addition, direct effect of CSR on customer loyalty is lower than its indirect effect via corporate image. Therefore, if companies desire to create customer loyalty through CSR, they should introduce their CSR activities to customers via communication tools (website, media etc.)

This study examines CSR in terms of sustainable development in the independent hotels. Furthermore, it explains relationships between CSR and corporate image and customer loyalty through the principle of generalized reciprocity specified in the theory of social change.

The purpose of this paper is to understand differences between the strategic level and the operational level of corporate responsibility within an organization.

The research was conducted as a single case study of one of the more noteworthy Finnish firms with respect to corporate responsibility reporting.

The results show that strategic and operational levels differ in terms of their developmental stage of corporate responsibility. The strategic level is more focused on responsibility issues concerning external stakeholders, on reporting, on corporate image and on quantitative measures. The operational level emphasizes internal stakeholders, acting, daily existence, and qualitative criteria.

A well‐known corporate responsibility model was useful for identifying how perspectives concerning corporate social responsibility vary within the corporation. However, to explore the reasons for this variation, the actors, actions, outcomes and drivers of corporate responsibility need to be examined. The single case study method limits the generalizability of the results.

The research presents a unique case study with novel empirical data. The study contributes to the corporate responsibility research by discussing the differences between words and deeds of corporate responsibility, by testing the usefulness of a corporate responsibility framework and by trying to understand the reasons why different functions of an organization are at different developmental stages regarding corporate responsibility.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the corporate image in the banking sector. The focus of the study is on four main components of CSR, which are economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic.

A model was used in this study to show the impact of different CSR’s factors on corporate image; (240) banks customers were approached using a questionnaire, where (155) responses were received and (144) valid responses entered for analysis.

The findings revealed that customers perceive CSR activities as a main element when dealing with banks. The corporate image is strengthened when banks adopt such activities, and positive and significant relationships were statistically found between CSR activities and corporate image. These activities differ in importance as perceived by banks’ customers.

Enlarging sample size, involving more stakeholders such as employees and managers, and replicating the study in other countries would enrich the findings.

Banks are advised to consider the study factors in their activities and act as champions of CSR for the welfare of the society to strengthen their corporate image.

Many studies have discussed the issue of CSR, but very few are found in the Middle East, particularly in Bahrain, and in the banking sector. This paper calls for more investigation in this area for a better understanding of CSR activities and their effects on the corporate image.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of corporate governance and degree of multinational activities (DMAs) on corporate social responsibility disclosures (CSRD) within the context of a developing country.

Using the annual report of 33 listed firms spanning from 2008 to 2013, the authors employed content analysis based on an adapted index score of CSRD developed by Hackston and Milne (1996) as applied in similar studies (e.g. Deegan et al., 2002; Hassan, 2014). Guided by the authors’ hypotheses, the authors model quantity and quality of CSRD (two separate econometric models) as functions of multinational activity and corporate governance.

The results show that the DMA has a positive association with both quality and quality of CSRD. The results also show that certain corporate governance characteristics such as board size (quality and quantity) as well as the presence of a social responsibility sub-committee of the board (quality) have a positive relationship with CSRD. However, increasing the number of non-executive directors (NEDs) may not necessarily improve the quantity or quality of disclosure.

The study is limited by theory and geography. Theoretically, the study is based on the legitimacy theory and feels compelled to reiterate the importance of considering alternative theoretical perspective in future research. Again the study is limited geographically as the investigation is based on Ghana only and the authors suggest that future research be extended to other countries.

This study is important as it demonstrates the importance of providing quality of CSRD to stakeholders when the board of a firm has a sub-committee responsible for corporate social responsibility.

The results of the study extend the literature on CSRD by demonstrating a new evidence on how the degree of firm’s multinational activities together with corporate government mechanism affects both quantity and quality of CSRD in the context of unchartered developing country. The results support the theoretical view that companies engage in CSRD in attempt to legitimize their operations based on the pressure exerted on them and the mechanism put in place to respond to those pressures.

The novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic provided new and various opportunities for corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. This study intended to compare three types of CSR activities – product development, in-kind donation and CSR commercial – undertaken by two companies – Nike, Inc. and The Coca-Cola Company in response to the pandemic. The purpose of this study was to investigate how CSR activity type and their attributes affected effectiveness.

This study used an experiment using a 3 (CSR activity type) × 2 (company) mixed factorial design. CSR activity type was a between-subjects factor, and company was a within-subjects factor. The attributes of dynamism and innovativeness, corporate image, brand equity and social media sharing likelihood were dependent variables.

The findings underscored the importance of CSR activity type and their attributes of dynamism and innovativeness in the effects on corporate image and brand equity. Product development and in-kind donation, which were perceived as more dynamic than CSR commercial, resulted in more desirable corporate images. Product development, which was perceived as more innovative than in-kind donation and CSR commercial, did not result in greater brand equity than in-kind donation, but resulted in greater brand equity than CSR commercial. The CSR activity type and their attributes did not affect social media sharing likelihood. Differences in content modes could be considered.

This study advanced the knowledge on the effectiveness of CSR activities by comparing CSR activity types varying in dynamism and innovativeness in the context of a public health crisis that caused unprecedented societal changes and challenges.

In a world where corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a meaningful trend valued by firm stakeholders, it is still not clear how the marketing department integrates corporate-level social responsibility strategy into its departmental activities i.e. socially responsible marketing activities (SRMA) and whether such activities can benefit the department. Using legitimacy as the underlying theoretical explanation, this paper aims to study two instrumental returns from SRMA at the marketing department level, i.e. marketing department’s performance – impact outside the firm on multiple marketing-related outcomes and influence within the firm – the power of the marketing department compared to other departments.

Three studies were performed. Study 1 is a survey that offers a validated measure of SRMA and examines its relationship with the focal outcome variables. Study 2 is also a survey that investigates the mediating role of the marketing department’s legitimacy and the moderating role of customers’ interest in social responsibility and uses actual sales data of firms. Study 3 is an experiment that examines the main findings in a controlled setting using participants other than marketing executives i.e. chief executive officers.

Study 1 shows that SRMA is different than the closely related variable socially responsible business strategy and is positively related to the marketing department’s performance and influence within the firm. Study 2 complements these findings by demonstrating these impacts are mediated by the marketing department’s legitimacy and strengthened with higher customers’ interest in social responsibility. Study 3 sets the causality between the focal variables and the mediating role of legitimacy.

This work extends the study of firm-level CSR to the department- and implementation-level, in the context of marketing departments. It reveals the underlying mechanism driving the positive impact of SRMA, i.e. legitimacy, and identifies a moderating condition, i.e. customers’ interest in social responsibility. It further extends research on the role of the marketing department and its contribution to firm performance.

Marketers can benefit from the reported findings by understanding when and how CSR-related, domain-specific activities that feature the traditional responsibilities of marketing, including market research, customer relationship management and the product, promotions, price and place (4Ps) may be reshaped to include a broader set of stakeholders and a socially responsible angle and thereby generate more legitimacy and impact – inside and outside the firm.

This study provides a novel perspective on how marketing departments evaluate CSR in their daily activities where such engagement vests increasing returns to the marketing department and underpins the successful implementation of CSR.

The term “social responsibility” bears different meanings among nations. Most studies on corporate social responsibility are conducted in Western countries, and literature shows a dearth of scientific research on the subject in developing countries. Meanwhile, the public sector, with its essential role in national development and social welfare, has been the focus of limited studies on social responsibility. In Iran, as a developing country, the concept of social responsibility has not yet found its rightful place inside organizations and companies. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to design a multi-level social responsibility model in the Iranian Social Security Organization (SSO), the largest public organization in the country.

In this paper, the thematic analysis was used along with interpretive structural modeling (ISM) to design a multi-level social responsibility model in a specific context. It was a field survey with 20 open interviews. The direct relationships between variables of different levels, identified via thematic analysis and ISM, were investigated in a study population of 510 SSO stakeholders using structural equation modeling (SEM).

In the designed model, service improvement and optional and voluntary activities variables were identified in the first level; economic and financial activities in the second level; political activities and education and research variables in the third level; and finally, laws and regulations, organizational components and organizational culture variables were identified in the fourth level. The results of SEM revealed the direct influence of all lower-level variables on their higher level counterparts, except the influence of laws and regulations on political activities. Based on the results, organizational components had direct effects on education and research (ß = 0.630), and political activities (ß = 0.341), the variable of organizational culture affected education and research (ß = 0.176) and political activities (ß = 0.613), the variable of political activities affected economic and financial activities (ß = 0.633), the variable of education and research affected economic and financial activities (ß = 0.381), the variable of economic and financial activities affected service improvement (ß = 0.925) and optional and voluntarily activities (ß = 0.877) and the variable of laws and regulations affected education and research (ß = 0.151).

The research results showed that social responsibility was a dynamic and context-based phenomenon, which should be used in accordance with the Iranian organizations and national conditions. According to the results, a qualitative research plan can give new insights into social responsibility through the phenomenological constructivism approach. Policymakers could perceive the subject better and take more effective actions by identifying the activities of social responsibility at the Iranian SSO from the perspective of key stakeholders and analyzing the interplay between them.

This model is the first designed and developed at the Iranian SSO by considering the expectations of major stakeholders affecting the SSO. Another advantage of this model is the use of qualitative approaches in model development, which increased integrity of the proposed model. Dimensions of the model showed the main bottlenecks hindering the realization of SSO responsibilities. Finally, this study recommends to the empirical researchers of social responsibility to consider the institutionalized conditions of every society in their work.