essay about social and environmental responsibility

News from the Columbia Climate School

The Role of Individual Responsibility in the Transition to Environmental Sustainability

Steve Cohen

We New Yorkers live in a city that is on a gradual transition toward environmental sustainability, but we are a long way from the place we need to end up. A circular economy where there is no waste and where all material outputs become inputs is well beyond our technological and organizational capacity today. But that does not mean we shouldn’t think about how to get from here to there. Much of the work in building environmental sustainability requires the development of systems that enable us to live our lives as we wish while damaging the planet as little as possible. Large-scale institutions are needed to manage sewage treatment and drinking water, to develop renewable energy and build a modern energy grid. Government policy is needed to ensure the conservation of forests, oceans, and biodiversity. Pandemic avoidance requires global, national and local systems of public health. Climate change mitigation and adaptation also require collective action. What then can individuals do?

As individuals, we make choices about our own activities and inevitably, they involve choices about resource consumption. I see little value in criticizing people who fly on airplanes to travel to global climate conferences. (I assume you do remember airplanes and conferences, don’t you?) But I see great value in considering the importance of your attendance at the conference and asking if the trip is an indulgence or if you will have an important opportunity to learn and teach. This year has taught us how to attend events virtually. There is little question that live presence at an event enables a type of communication that can’t be achieved virtually. Many times, you will judge that the financial and environmental cost of the trip is far outweighed by the benefits. Those are the times you should travel. My argument here is that it is the thought process, the analysis of environmental costs and benefits, that is at the heart of an individual’s responsibility for environmental sustainability. Individuals are responsible for thinking about their impact on the environment and, when possible, minimize the damage they do to the planet.

Everyone needs to turn on the lights at night, start the shower in the morning, turn on the air conditioning and possibly drive somewhere on Mother’s Day. I would never argue that you should give up these forms of consumption. Instead, I believe we should all pay attention to the resources we use and the impact it has. We are responsible for that thought process and the related analysis of how we, as individuals, might accomplish the same ends with less environmentally damaging means.

Some say that the fixation on individual responsibility is a distraction from the more important task of compelling government and major institutions to implement systemic change. This perspective was forcefully argued in 2019 in The Guardian by Professor Anders Levermann of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. According to Professor Levermann:

“Personal sacrifice alone cannot be the solution to tackling the climate crisis. There’s no other area in which the individual is held so responsible for what’s going wrong. And it’s true: people drive too much, eat too much meat, and fly too often. But reaching zero emissions requires very fundamental changes. Individual sacrifice alone will not bring us to zero. It can be achieved only by real structural change; by a new industrial revolution.   Looking for solutions to the climate crisis in individual responsibilities and actions risks obstructing this. It suggests that all we have to do is pull ourselves together over the next 30 years and save energy, walk, skip holidays abroad, and simply ‘do without.’ But these demands for individual action paralyse people, thereby preventing the large-scale change we so urgently need.”

Perhaps, but I do not see it that way. I consider individual responsibility and the thought process and value shift that stimulates individual action as the foundation of the social learning process required for effective collective action. In other words, individual change and collective system-level change are interconnected. The fact is that on a planet of nearly 8 billion people, it is too late for many of us to get back to the land and live as one with nature. There’s too many of us and not enough nature. There is an absolute limit to our ability as individuals to reduce our impact on the planet. Therefore, system-level change is absolutely needed. But system change requires individuals to understand the need for change along with a well-understood definition of the problem. The cognitive dissonance of identifying a problem but never acting on it is difficult to live with. If you see a poor child on the street begging for food, you can provide that child with food and money while continuing to support public policy that addresses the child poverty issue at the systems level. In fact, the emotional impact of that child’s face may well provide the drive that leads you to fight harder for the policy that would prevent that child from needing to beg. We learn by example, and vivid experiences and cases can lead to transformative systemic change.

While I consider individual and collective responsibility connected, without collective systems and infrastructure supporting environmental sustainability, there are distinct limits to what individual action can achieve. That is why I see no value in shaming individuals for consuming fossil fuels, eating meat, or buying a child a Mylar birthday balloon. I believe an attitude of moral superiority is particularly destructive in any effort to build the political support needed for systemic change.

As my mentor, the late Professor Lester Milbrath, often argued, the only way to save the planet is through social learning that would enable us to “learn our way to a sustainable society.” He made this argument in his pathbreaking work: Envisioning a Sustainable Society: Learning Our Way Out . In Milbrath’s view, the key was to understand environmental perceptions and values and to build on those values and perceptions to change both individual behavior and the institutions their politics generated. To Milbrath, the human effort to dominate nature had worked too well, and a new approach was needed. As he observed in Envisioning a Sustainable Society :

“Learning how to reason together about values is crucial to saving our species. As a society we have to learn better how to learn, I call it social learning; it is the dynamic for change that could lead us to a new kind of society that will not destroy itself from its own excess.”

My view is that one method to pursue social learning is learning by doing — in other words by encouraging the individual behaviors we might each take to reduce our environmental impact. Those behaviors remind us to think about the planet’s wellbeing along with our own. They reinforce and remind us and as they become habit, they impact our values and our shared understanding of how the world works.

There is, therefore, no tradeoff between individual and collective responsibility for protecting the environment unless we insist on creating one. Additionally, in a world of extreme levels of income inequality, wealthy people who have given up eating meat have the resources to consume alternative sources of nourishment. They do not occupy the moral high ground criticizing an impoverished parent proudly serving meat to their hungry child. In our complex world, we should mistrust simple answers and instead work hard to understand the varied cultures, values and perceptions that can contribute to the transition to an environmentally sustainable global economy. The path to environmental sustainability is long and winding and will require decades of listening and learning from each other.

Related Posts

Environmental Sustainability and Consumption

Regulating Air Toxics from Petrochemical Plants

Garbage, Product Design, and the Circular Economy

Celebrate over 50 years of Earth Day with us all month long! Visit our Earth Day website for ideas, resources, and inspiration.

Steve, I appreciate your perspective on individual responsibility. I am developing a similar position and submitted an “OpEd” piece to Times about a month ago but alas it didn’t get published. I would like to share and develop the conversation with you so please reach out.

What are the responsibilities of individuals, governments and the international community in helping people have access to water?

While this highly educated society continues the GDP rat race and decimating all other patterns that create balance in the world we live in, here’s a little story of obvious stupidity for fun and profit. In 1975 my wife and I after several years of college chose to listen to scientists’ warnings about continued expansionism economically. We simplified our lives and did without things like electricity, fancy new vehicles and useless bling. We did without as a plausible direction for a template of living lightly and securing a viable future for more than just humans. We endured countless slurs ( tree huggers, eco-terrorists, hippies,) and were subjected to verbal and realistic abuse . Now at 72 and 68 we are wondering where the hell were the rest of you? Read the book “Small is Beautiful ” to see the wrongheaded direction your politicians and some clergy and certainly all greedy vulture capitalist have led the general public. I have no patience for obvious stupidity .Yeah, we were WOKE long before most people and feel no compulsion to be apologetic as all of you are to blame if you help continue the narrative of GDP unlimited growth and the population explosion. nats remark

“perhaps, but i do not see it that way” sorry but that kinda just means your guile is weak and you’re extremely credulous and succeptable to propeganda, dunno what to tell ya bud but this perspective is a total nothingburger. Of Course we must needs rely on some great measure of personal choice here, but if my choices are: Waste, Waste, Out of my Budget well i dont REALLY have a choice then Do I? which means that for the majority of americans there is no ethical choice list they can follow to fix the problem, only by compelling legislation can those choices be made available to them.

Get the Columbia Climate School Newsletter →

The role of social responsibility in protecting the environment – a case of the petrochemical companies in Alexandria Governorate

Review of Economics and Political Science

ISSN : 2631-3561

Article publication date: 14 October 2019

Issue publication date: 11 December 2023

The purpose of this paper is as follows: First, understanding the nature of the relationship between corporate adoption of the concept of societal responsibility [availability of environmental awareness, clear vision of the impact of societal responsibility on financial performance, managers informing employees of the latest developments in societal responsibility programs, managers' response to their corporate social responsibility (CSR) proposals] in the form of an annual report that supports the success of the company's objectives, the company's management encourages employees to participate collectively in societal responsibility programs and to protect the environment from pollution in the petrochemical industry. Second, understand the nature of the relationship between the dimensions of corporate social responsibility concept (cultural, social, economic, ethical and legal) and protect the environment from pollution in the petrochemical industry. Third, the research also seeks to show the role of societal responsibility and its application in the petrochemical companies to protect the environment from pollution in The Governorate of Alexandria – Egypt, and come out with results and recommendations that could help protect the environment from the forms of environmental pollution resulting from the production processes of this industry.

Design/methodology/approach

The researcher has relied on each of the following approaches: Case study methodology is a research strategy aimed at solving a problem or facing a particular situation. It is based on preliminary hypotheses through full analysis of all data collected and recorded. Which depends on the study of a limited number of cases or vocabulary in-depth comprehensive study through the study of all or a large number of variables overlapping and interrelated and influential on the problem under consideration. Thus, it provides a deep and rich understanding of what is going on around the research and the processes that are related to it, and not only the external or apparent description of the situation or phenomenon; it cares about the total description and looks at the particles, in relation to the whole. Quantitative approach: by giving a numerical description indicating the size or size of the phenomenon or the degree of association with the phenomenon. Other phenomena. Accordingly, the role of the petrochemical companies in Alexandria Governorate, and the social responsibility programs carried out within the governorate in terms of importance, growth and requirements, and the most important characteristics and constraints and components and methods of work and developments have been described. Thus, the researcher can analyze the relationship between CSR and environmental protection from pollution in Alexandria Governorate.

There is paucity in the studies that dealt with the relationship between CSR and environmental protection against pollution in public organizations. There is agreement among the sample on the importance and feasibility of adopting the concept of social responsibility and placing it at the top of the top management concerns, especially in the field of petrochemical companies. With the need to take concrete implementation measures to support social responsibility programs aimed at serving the community among all stakeholders. The effective implementation of the mechanisms for the implementation of meaningful social responsibility programs requires fundamental changes in management practices, existing organizational structures and the quality of personnel working in the relevant departments, in general, and the social responsibility group, in particular, which may be difficult for political and economic reasons.

Research limitations/implications

Time: The study period was set from 2015 to 2017. Place: The study focuses on the petrochemical companies operating in Alexandria. Humanity: The study focuses on the employees of the petrochemical companies operating in Alexandria Governorate.

Practical implications

The adoption of social responsibility positively affects the protection of the environment from pollution, and this effect shows that the adoption of the concept of corporate social responsibility is influenced by the following factors: increasing the participation of workers with healthy environmental contributions to the productive process; increasing the companies' economic and social activities toward protecting the environment from pollution; increasing the capacity of companies to pay greater costs to preserve the environment; increasing the awareness of green consumers with the products it offers Companies; development of continuous internal work environment companies; and clearly defined strategy followed in social responsibility programs.

Social implications

The social responsibility of the public organizations derives their strength through, first, the keenness of these organizations to analyze the variables of the ethical dimension of social responsibility and their availability, which will lead the organizations to provide their services with the highest quality and sincerity. That this analysis (ethics of individuals) as training members of the social responsibility team to solve problems using brainstorming and provide employees with official data related to improving work (ethics of leadership), such as the identification of business objectives through the participation of managers with subordinates, and the punishment of workers who exhibit immoral behaviors (ethics of productive processes) as a decision-making process to ethical standards regardless of the costs involved. When there is an immoral behavior and managers are responsible for implementing the changes needed to reach the targeted outcomes), second, promote partnerships with other relevant sectors for community service.

Originality/value

According to the results of the previous studies and the applied study results, the researcher would like to submit a mechanism to the directors and heads of the boards of directors of the Egyptian petrochemical companies under study.

• Corporate social responsibility
• Environment protection
• Petrochemical industry

El-Mallah, R.K.E.-D. , Aref, A.A.e.H. and Sherif, S. (2023), "The role of social responsibility in protecting the environment – a case of the petrochemical companies in Alexandria Governorate", Review of Economics and Political Science , Vol. 8 No. 6, pp. 487-519. https://doi.org/10.1108/REPS-04-2019-0052

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Rasha Kamal El-Deen El-Mallah, Alia Abd el Hamid Aref and Sherifa Sherif.

Published in Review of Economics and Political Science . Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

1. Introduction

The evaluation of industrial companies is no longer measured by the extent to which the company achieves financial profits or a larger quantity of goods and services. A number of modern concepts have emerged in which organizations have become a legal entity that is treated as a citizen with direct social effects on the surrounding society, especially on the environmental field in which it operates.

The most important of these concepts is the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) towards the society in which it is located, the safety and health of its products, and contribution to a range of social activities from combating poverty and pollution control, and the pivotal role it plays in sustainable development processes in its continuous commitment to providing services and goods that achieve a better standard of living and contribute to the development of the environment to benefit them at the community level, and attention to societal responsibility towards the external environment and internal of those organizations.

Nowadays, the importance of applying the concept of societal responsibility in Egyptian public sector has become a new matter of interest for researchers and practicing administrators. How can societal responsibility be an integral part of a company's strategy to interact with society?; Which are supposed to undertake the tasks of making and implementing public policies in general and implementing of environmental policies in particular?; Where the planning of these companies did not include consideration of the environmental and community aspects and increase development, especially in the poor and marginalized areas and increase the green areas and reduce the rates of desertification and reduce the emission of carbon dioxide which is caused of the activities of factories, and increasing afforestation rates and reduce unemployment rates, awareness of fresh water purification and wastewater treatment, treatment of harmful waste and finding safe places for disposal; maintain non-renewable resources, reduce the rates of corruption and bribery and increase levels of transparency, accountability and accountability.

Just as there is a large group of organizations with a high commitment to the environment and the surrounding society, there are, on the other hand, organizations that are not committed and have no initiative in seeking to protect the environment from pollution as a result of the environmental effects of polluting the environment. The environment provides the food consumed by the community and provides it with the air and clean water it needs, and the raw materials that these organizations receive from the environment are brought back to them in the form of waste of various shapes and species, which leads to the rapid work to protect the human and the environment from pollution.

The petrochemical industry is one of the most important strategic industries in Egypt. However, these companies are a source of environmental pollution, which was monitored according to the reports of the Ministry of Environment in some industrial areas of Alexandria, Egypt.

The industrial companies in general and the petrochemical companies in particular are not charitable companies, but their first concern is to achieve a financial return commensurate with the size of their investment. Therefore, these industrial companies adopt their societal responsibilities in general and the environment in particular, which entails additional costs that may not result from other competitors, these companies in solving their environmental problems are working to add competitive advantage to others, as well as supporting the reputation of their products in the internal and external markets. It also helps to accomplish its tasks with different parties with its environmental commitment and obtaining various certificates in this field, the environmental public ecology of the government supports the trend to protect the environment from pollution.

Undoubtedly, urging organizations to adopt societal responsibility leads them to fulfill their commitments to the environment and to support their environmental management within their capabilities and responsibilities as this commitment is an integral part of social commitment.

2. Literature review

The petrochemical industry is based upon the production of chemicals from petroleum and also deals with chemicals manufactured from the byproducts of petroleum refinery. At the preliminary stages of chemical plant development and design, the choice of chemical process route is the key design decision. In the past, economics were the most important criterion in choosing the chemical process route. Modified studies imply that the two of the important planning objectives for a petrochemical industry, environmental risk and the industrial safety involved in the development. So the environmental issues especially CSR and environmental protection from pollution has now become important considerations due to the potential harmful impacts produced by petrochemical industry.

1.1 Theoretical background of corporate social responsibility

Frynas and Yamahaki (2016 , pp. 265-270), summarized the theories used to account for the CSR phenomenon. In a nutshell, the stakeholder theory ( Freeman, 1984 ) was most frequently used in CSR studies, followed by institutional theory ( Scott, 2001 ) and legitimacy theory ( Suchman, 1995 , p. 578). Moreover, the authors classified the theories with respect to CSR practices into the external- and internal-driver groups. The stakeholder theory, institutional theory, legitimacy theory and resource independence theory ( Pfeffer and Salancik, 1978 ) belong to the external-driver group, while the internal-driver group includes the Edith Penrose’s resource-based view ( Lockett and Thompson, 2004 , p. 199; Rugman and Verbeke, 2002 , p. 777) and ( Jensen and Meckling, 1976 , p. 325) agency theory.

According to the resource-based view, firms exploit internal resources (e.g. specialized skills) to create competitive advantages. Under the agency theory, management engages in CSR to communicate to stakeholders about firms’ transparency ( Frynas and Yamahaki, 2016 , p. 260). However, there are replications between different external and internal-driver theories; therefore, the collective use of theories, rather than individually, would offer a more comprehensive view of the CSR phenomenon ( Frynas and Yamahaki, 2016 , p. 281; Reverte, 2009 , p. 358).

As this research aims to determine the role of societal responsibility and its application in the petrochemical companies to protect the environment from pollution in The Governorate of Alexandria – Egypt.

Companies should work to balance their participation in CSR programs, as very limited participation can have an impact on the company's reputation, and the very broad participation of the company may incur financial losses. It must focus on “social responsibility programs” Ideal for businesses. Regardless of the size of the company is small, medium or large, it must describe its strategy of social responsibility with clearly defined objectives, key performance indicators are measurable and disclosure of frameworks in place.

1.2 Corporate social responsibility in Egypt

Although research studies have become more attentive to examining CSR in developing countries, studies from African countries are still limited ( Kolk and Lenfant, 2010 , p. 247). With the exception of South Africa, Nigeria and Lebanon ( Jamali et al. , 2017 , p. 18).

According to the World Bank projections, Egypt’s economic growth was expected to improve significantly reaching 4 per cent in 2017. This indicates that the Egyptian economy experienced a rapid recovery and maintained its stability in spite of unfavorable political and social conditions. In this respect, the Arab Spring had major consequences for firm operations but did not result in a breakdown of the economy ( Letmathe and El-Bassiouny, 2019 , p. 6).

Marquis and Raynard (2015 , pp. 297-299) highlighted corporate institutional strategies that are mainly applied in weak and challenging institutional environments. The authors classified them into three main strategies, namely, relational, infrastructure-building and socio-cultural bridging. Organizations undertaking relational strategies manage their relationships with both internal and external stakeholder groups and the government to increase the stability and certainty of their resources and to improve their competitive place in the market. Infrastructure building strategies, on the other hand, focus on building absent or limited regulatory and physical infrastructure to facilitate business activities. Organizations adopting sociocultural- bridging strategies focus on improving their socio-cultural and demographic environment, including poverty and political and social unrest, to enhance economic development and trade. All of these strategies aim at effectively managing challenging institutional environments to enhance the firms’ performance and to ensure their long-term survival.

The findings of Letmathe and El-Bassiouny (2019 , p. 12) that some companies added a “CSR” section to their 2012 annual reports. However, there is no substantial change in the disclosure of CSR-related content in the 2012 annual reports compared to Years ago. The political context in which these findings are assessed needs to be taken into account. The national and the institutional environments in which the firm operates affect the promotion of the CSR practice. Egyptian companies suffered financial deficiencies (at least during the revolution year) that would normally redirect their efforts to “survival” economic factors, such as productivity and profitability, rather than to “luxurious” CSR initiatives. However, in spite of these restrictions, sample companies continued their involvement in CSR practices.

There is no doubt that the Egyptian companies contribute annually to a large amount of donations in various charitable aspects. It has contributed to the construction of mosques, the establishment of schools and hospitals, and the support of orphanages, the handicapped and many aspects of righteousness.

However, these donations are spontaneous and ill-considered, which neglects national priorities and focuses on specific areas. As most companies are located within Cairo and Alexandria, this makes them serve certain specific groups without the other. These donations also go to individuals, which makes them go to spend my life and do not go to establish large institutions and facilities, or long-term projects.

Therefore, a central mechanism must be developed that sets out a plan to redistribute corporate contributions according to national and social priorities to achieve real sustainable development.

1.3 The literature review of the relationship between societal responsibility and environmental protection

To develop sustainable business through the implementation of corporate social responsibility, the following are essential: informing and sensitizing all stakeholders, opening channels of communication and transparency between companies and stakeholders, cooperation, strengthening the legal and institutional framework, and voluntary commitment to look at the environment in the long run by companies ( Stojanović et al. , 2016 , p. 11).

Protecting the environment is essential for companies to take care of environmental issues through the management of societal responsibility programs that promote environmental protection, as well as the need for investors and investors to invest in green, and to formulate their investment strategies to take into consideration the environmental aspects ( Andrei et al. , 2014 , p. 5).

The leaders of companies are responsible for the impact of their companies on society and the natural environment beyond the legal commitment and responsibility of individuals and more experienced leaders can gain new perspectives on how to grow in their approach to sustainability and how to develop innovative business models, A pioneer in the principle of senior management and entrepreneurs ( Bhagwat, 2011 , p. 8).

The Polish public sector institutions are taking their first steps in developing internal environmental responsibility because there are no internal mechanisms for environmental responsibility and that there is a significant difference between the environmental responsibility of the organizations in Poland and their counterparts abroad ( Hawrysz and Foltys, 2015 , p. 5).

The laws of environmental protection in India in 1986, in addition to a variety of the environmental policy laws of 2006 are not complied with by companies, which led to the condemnation of industries that damaged the environment and resulted in environmental imbalances. The CSR agenda is only formal as they announce societal responsibility programs to prove that they Officials Socially and human society as a whole to save face, but the fact is that they do this to hide the real activities that they do and do not care about the issues and environmental damage that result ( Tiwari, 2010 , p. 4).

Companies should adopt the concept of social responsibility for their impact on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all members of society. Accordingly, these companies are working to promote the public interest by encouraging the growth and development of society, and eliminating practices harmful to society.

It must also set limits and controls for growth and progress to be the basis for the well-being, prosperity and happiness of the community to live in a clean, pollution-free environment, and not to waste their time in exploiting natural resources and neglecting the right of future generations to benefit as much as they enjoyed.

1.4 The literature review on societal responsibility

The results of some studies show a positive association between financial performance and CSR ( Platonova et al. , 2018 , p. 461), corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices and models are mainly Western-driven ( Jammulamadaka, 2018 , p. 12).

And the enabling environment is a product of a strong institutional environment that is commonly found in developed markets. On the other hand, lack of competition among firms, inefficient enforcement of regulations and marginal roles of NGOs and employee unions are likely to cause institutional voids that create challenging CSR environments ( Amaeshi et al. , 2016 , p. 137).

The findings of Amaeshi et al. (2016 , p. 149) suggest that in weak institutional environments, companies adopt “CSR adaptive mechanisms” that act as an “institutional buffer,” which immunes companies from their surrounding non-enabling institutional environment and enable them to successfully implement CSR practices.

The impact of the dimensions (responsibility for handling customer complaints, responsibility for providing security to customers when using the service, responsibility for providing adequate and adequate information about the service) on customer satisfaction is greater than the impact of dimensions (responsibility for maintaining customer health, Showing products in suitable places for customers), which illustrates the need to prioritize corporate social responsibility concerns ( Abu-Halaqan, 2014 , p. 133).

an impact on the ethical responsibility of the organization to empower its employees;

the commitment of organizations to assume ethical responsibility for the environment in which they operate; and

there are some fears of departmental directors of delegation of powers and responsibilities.

Ethical codes and moral training do not affect the performance of local government employees, and that the most important element of behavior promotion is ethical leadership, the most important factor in encouraging employees to be ethical. The study noted that the lack of ethical leadership will lead to fraud waste, corruption, ill-treatment and the collapse of the organization ( Elmore, 2011 , p. 163).

There is an inverse relationship between financial performance and CSR over the years of study, which may be due to the recent application of CSR practices by Egyptian companies. Consequently, the positive impact of these practices has not yet been reflected in financial performance in a stable general climate for most periods studying ( Mustafa, 2013 , p. 120).

The study of Al-Tira (2012) concluded that societal responsibility should be integrated into the message, vision and philosophy of Libyan companies and their culture, as well as the need for Libyan industrial companies to fully disclose information related to the social activities carried out during the year and the social costs resulting from them.

One of the pillars of the companies' start up is the complete conviction of shareholders, owners, board of directors and executive management of the importance and importance of social contribution and community service based on a sense of social responsibility and the principle of social solidarity, and any start of companies that are simple and simple are donations and donations to committees and charities accredited and participate in events and events social issues.

Therefore, there is an institutional shift in the establishment of specialized departments in the management and supervision of areas of social responsibility in an institutional and professional manner, which is administratively linked to the executive heads of companies and the allocation of independent financial budgets.

1.5 The literature review on environmental protection

In India TNCs are more effective in paying taxes than local companies, and that foreign affiliates with knowledge of CSR implementation are paying taxes at a higher rate than those of foreign companies less familiar with the concept. This set of findings suggests that TNCs operating in India believe that paying taxes in developing countries has to do with the implementation of CSR ( Muller and Kolk, 2012 , p. 22).

The activity of the economic institutions in Algeria has negative effects on the environment. A large group of these institutions do not pay much attention to integrating the environmental dimension into their activities.

The economic institutions in Algeria are trying to show their interest in the environment by participating in scientific conferences related to the preservation of the environment and protection from pollution. Environmental awareness has been established in these institutions by attempting to contribute to reducing the environmental pollution.

Environmental taxes and fees are an instrument by which the state intervenes to guide the environmental behavior of economic institutions, but they remain very weak, due to their low rates, poor productivity, and inefficient methods of collection.

Pressures of parties with an active interest in the environmental field, these institutions to absorb this pressure through some environmental initiatives, which are few in view of the environmental damage caused by the economic institution.

There are significant effects of different components of environmental management at the level of current output.

The most important ingredient for the compost industry is the environmental component.

The full implementation of ISO 14001 certification in the fertilizer industry in Bangladesh contributes to sustainable development.

Environmental law in Egypt is based on the importance of linking sustainable development and the environment with all its elements and contents. The Environmental Law has been concerned with the studies of environmental impact assessment, which is the new line of defense for environmental protection in the future. No project or facility will be allowed to start its activities without the EIA studies for this project. The law was also called for the establishment of an environmental protection fund to support the project, studies of environmental protection, the establishment of environmental monitoring networks covering the Egyptian territory and recording all pollution and declare emergency at risk.

3. Conceptual framework

Before analyzing the relationship between corporate social responsibility and protect the environment from pollution, we first should define them separately.

3.1 Corporate social responsibility

3.1.1 define corporate social responsibilty according to professional organizations..

According to the increasing importance of societal responsibility as concept, many professional organizations many professional organizations have tried to provide a specific definition of CSR. These definitions are:

Definition of the Organization of International Standards (ISO): Societal responsibility can be defined as “the responsibility of the organization for the effects of its decisions and activities on society and the environment, represented by transparency and ethical behavior consistent with sustainable development and the welfare of society, as well as taking the expectations of shareholders”. As (ISO 26000): Societal responsibility is defined as “translating the decisions and activities of the organization towards society and the environment by adopting transparent and ethical behavior that contributes to sustainable development (including health and welfare in society) takes into account the expectations of stakeholders, And conforms to international standards, so that this concept is incorporated into the organization as a whole, and is practiced and applied at different administrative levels”. (The Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship – BCCCC) defines Corporate social responsibility as “the business strategy that defines the value model on which the company is based in carrying out its tasks and choices by executives, managers, and employees for engagement in the community”.

3.1.2 Definition of societal responsibility according to academic studies.

Academic studies sought to define CSR as follows:

In terms of modern management, the origin of the societal responsibility concept goes back to the 1950s ( Carroll, 1999 , p. 70). As ( Carroll, 1999 , p. 70): CSR is “The business commitments of policy-making, decision-making and the pursuit of a set of desired behaviors in the light of the goals and values of society” ( Othman, 1999 , p. 9) defines the responsibility of the establishment for the negative environmental effects resulting from its activity in response to social pressure forces, which necessitate carrying out certain mandatory activities to satisfy the social requirements imposed by the prevailing laws, policies and social norms”.

the need for the Organization to examine its decisions and actions so as to take into account the interests of the relevant parties – the parties of workers, customers, the community and the environment – as well as the pursuit of profits.

Corporate social responsibility, as undertaken by a corporation or directed by a state, includes activities that internalize costs for externalities resulting directly or indirectly from corporate actions, or processes and actions to consider and address the impact of corporate actions on affected stakeholders, which are undertaken at least in part because of a recognized moral or ethical duty to society and stakeholders beyond the corporation’s owner/shareholders.

3.1.3 Setting the corporate social responsibility definition for this study.

The current study concludes that CSR is defined as a culture of commitment to the responsibility of companies towards society, so that the interests of all parties to the activity become part of their strategic plans, while providing support from senior management towards sustainable development, including Ensuring the development, prosperity and well-being of society as a whole, protecting and reducing pollution from the environment, developing programs for the training and development of corporate personnel, improving the quality of products and services provided and complying with the laws, regulations and policies of the state.

3.2 Environment protection

In recent decades, many environmental problems have increased as the result of human activities and unplanned management of the technological development those interference eco-systems.

Environmental protection is a social movement. The protection of environment has assumed even more importance in recent times with increased industrialization resulting not only in overdraw of natural resources but also pollution of air, water, flora and fauna. While development is essential to every economy, it is also essential that no irreparable damage be caused to the eco-system ( The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), 2005 , p. 301).

[…] the change in the natural characteristics of the elements controlling the environment in which effect human beings live -air, water and soil- change that is detrimental to the improper use of these elements by adding substances that are alien to them. The contamination may be biologically, chemically, Waste and harmful waste or lack of hygiene ( Al-Maazawy, 2004 , p. 8).

Any change in the characteristics of the environment that directly or indirectly affects human health and influences the exercise of its natural life, or damage to natural factors, organisms or biological diversity.

And it also defined as “quantitative change” And qualitative in the environmental components leads to imbalance in nature” Christopher J. ( Barrow, 2000 , p. 25). Or “an undesirable change in the characteristics of the chemical, physical and biological component of environment” ( Wagner, 1994 , p. 20). And it can be “any quantitative or qualitative change in the components of the living or non-living environment that ecosystems cannot absorb without losing their equilibrium” (Dabis, 1997, p. 15).

[…] any change in environmental properties that leads directly or indirectly to undermining man's health, negatively impacting his ability to lead a normal life, or harming natural habitats, living organisms or biological diversity

[…] protecting and promoting the components of the environment and preventing or reducing their degradation or pollution, these components encompass air, seas, internal waters, including the river Nile, lakes and subterranean water, land, natural protectorates, and other natural resources.

Environmental protection can be defined as the prevention of unwanted changes to ecosystems and their constituent parts. This includes the protection of ecosystems and their constituent parts from changes associated with human activities; and the prevention of unwanted natural changes to ecosystems and their constituent parts. Environmental remediation is distinct from environmental protection as its primary objective is to restore an ecosystem or natural environment to a previous state; that is, like exploitation, it is associated with deliberately induced change, as opposed to the prevention of change ( Hamilton and Bastianoni, 2019 , p. 320). And it is policies and procedures aimed at conserving the natural resources, preserving the current state of natural environment and, where possible, reversing its degradation ( Zhang et al. , 2019 , p. 1027).

It is necessary to gain a good understanding of the socio-economic aspects of environmental protection to ensure that measures taken to protect the environment do not place undue burdens on enterprise and society ( Environmental Protection Agency, 2013 , p. 11).

3.3 Setting the environmental protection definition for this study

However, the vision of the current study is that environmental pollution can be defined as all that affects total elements of the living environment of plants, animals, humans and non-living organisms like air, soil and water, whether affects directly or indirectly. This means that any change in the natural qualities of the elements that control the environment in which man lives. Therefore, the concept of Environmental protection can define as preserve and improve the environment components, prevent their degradation or pollution and reduce pollution. These components include air, sea and inland waters including the Nile River, lakes, groundwater and land, natural reserves and other natural resources.

And it determinate the competent administrative agency concerned that protection of the Water Environment; Protection of Land Environment from Hazardous Materials and Waste; protection of Air Environment From Pollution by Harmful Substances and Pollution from Sewage and Garbage.

4. Hypotheses

To ensure a statistically significant relationship between CSR and environmental protection from pollution in Egypt, the following hypotheses were formulated to test the assumed relationship between the search variables:

CSR affects the protection of the environment from pollution.

Adopting the concept of societal responsibility positively affects the protection of the environment from pollution.

The strength of the dimensions of societal responsibility positively affects the protection of the environment from pollution.

5. Methodology

5.1 questionnaire.

The questionnaires were administered to employees of petrochemical companies operating in Alexandria Governorate were managed in seven companies ((EPC) Egyptian Petrochemical Company, (SIDPEC) Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals Company, (ETHYDCO) The Egyptian Ethylene And Derivatives Company, Egyptian Linear Alkyl Benzene (ELAB) (2019) Company, Egyptian Styrenics (EStyrenics) (2019) Company, Alexandria National Refining and Petrochemicals Company (ANRPC) (2019) , Alexandria Specialty Petroleum Products (ASPPC) (2019) Company during the period from October 2017 to December 2018. All locations were repeated on different days of the week to be able to cover all employees. The respondents were contacted on location through a direct and personal interview with the researcher. Before the implementation of the questionnaire, the researcher tested it through a previous sample, to verify whether the questions were clearly understood and analyze the overall degree of answers variability. Before starting the interview, the interviewer presented herself, described the purpose of the study and asked if the respondent knew about the role of their company's corporate responsibility in protecting the environment from pollution. If that was the case, that questionnaire continued until end. A sample of workers produced 134 usable questionnaires.

The degree of adoption of the concept of societal responsibility (CSR) at your company comes through: (included seven phrases).

The strength of CSR programs in your company depends on: (included five phrases).

The company protects the environment from pollution when: (included seven phrases).

Furthermore, in this section the respondents expressed the extent of their agreement using a five-point Likert scale (1 – strongly disagree; 2 – disagree; 3 – neither agree nor disagree; 4 – agree; 5 – strongly agree). Full details can be found in Appendix .

5.2 Description of the sample

The study population consisted of 1,340 managers. A cluster random sample of 134 managers was selected. Depending on the type of problem under study, the main objective of the research is to test a specific imposition of the correlation between two variables: CSR (independent variable) and environmental protection (dependent variable) (Reverse) or reverse (reverse). A review of the previous literature and its findings has led to the formulation of the research hypothesis (CSR affects the protection of the environment from pollution).

On this basis, a questionnaire was used to collect data from the sample items to test the validity or incorrect relationship between the variables in question. The significance of the relationship between the change in societal responsibility and environmental protection was determined during the period (s) in which the research was conducted. Based on this analysis, it is possible to determine whether the hypothesis being tested is acceptable, The Bilateral Test.

The simple linear regression model: ( Y = β■ + β 1 x 1  + ϵ) was used to test the hypothesis.

5.3 Analytical descriptive approach

Qualitative: by describing the phenomenon and clarifying its characteristics; and

Quantitative: by giving a numerical description indicating the size or size of the phenomenon or the degree of association with the phenomenon or other phenomena.

Accordingly, the role of the petrochemical companies in Alexandria Governorate, and the social responsibility programs carried out within the governorate in terms of importance, growth and requirements, and the most important characteristics and constraints and components and methods of work and developments have been described. Thus, the researcher can analyze the relationship between CSR and environmental protection from pollution in Alexandria Governorate.

Time: The study period was set from October 2015 until September 2018.

Place: The study focuses on the petrochemical companies operating in Alexandria Governorate.

Human resource: The study focuses on the employees of the petrochemical companies operating in Alexandria Governorate.

The relationship between variables ( Figure 1 ).

(EPC) Egyptian Petrochemical Company;

(SIDPEC) Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals Company;

(ETHYDCO) The Egyptian Ethylene and Derivatives Company;

(ELAB) Egyptian Linear Alkyl Benzene Company;

(EStyrenics) Egyptian Styrenics Company;

(ANRPC) Alexandria National Refining & Petrochemicals Company; and

(ASPPC) Alexandria Specialty Petroleum Products Company.

Legal framework of the applied study:

According to petrochemical companies legal Department, “Legally”, The Egyptian Petrochemical Company (a public business company) is a member of the Egyptian Petroleum Sector and affiliated to the Egyptian petrochemical holding company (ECHEM), it has been established at 20/9/1981, and started production at September 1987, and the Egyptian Petrochemical Company is the first petrochemical company to produce PVC originating in the Arab Republic of Egypt.

The following companies are listed in the commercial registration (8) for the year 1997 and its amendments, which were canceled and replaced by Law (72) of 2017:

The shareholders of Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals Company are [Egyptian petrochemicals holding company (ECHEM) (20 per cent), Egyptian Petrochemicals Co. (7 per cent), Ahli Capital Holding (7 per cent), National Investment Bank (7 per cent), Government Sector Employees Trust Fund (19 per cent), Private Sector Employees Trust Fund (12 per cent), Misr Insurance Co. (3 per cent), Naser Social Bank (2 per cent) and General Public Offering (23 per cent)].

The shareholders of The Egyptian Ethylene and Derivatives Company are [Egyptian petrochemicals holding company (ECHEM) (20 per cent), SIDPEC (20 per cent), GASCO (11 per cent), Al Ahly Capital Holding (21 per cent) National Investment Bank (14 per cent), Banque Misr (10 per cent), Naser Social Bank (4 per cent)].

The shareholders of Egyptian Linear Alkyl Benzene Company [National Investment Bank (34.15 per cent), Royal Co (0.22 per cent), Ministry of Finance (13.11 per cent), EGPC (10.50 per cent), Egas (21 per cent), Egyptian petrochemicals holding company (ECHEM) (21.01 per cent)].

The shareholders of Egyptian Styrenics Company ( National Investment Bank, Egyptian petrochemicals holding company (ECHEM), Ministry of finance, Petrojet, Enppi).

The shareholders of Alexandria National Refining and Petrochemicals Company [Bank of Alexandria (7.75 per cent), National Bank of Egypt (18.25 per cent), Alexandria Petroleum Company (72.99 per cent), Misr Insurance Company (0.54 per cent), Misr Life Insurance (0.47 per cent)].

The shareholders of Alexandria Specialty Petroleum Products Company [Misr Petroleum Company (12.60 per cent), Alexandria Petroleum Company (20 per cent), CO_OP Company (12.60 per cent), National Bank of Egypt (10.40 per cent), Bank Misr (10.40 per cent), Naser Social Bank (4.20 per cent), Commercial International Investment Company (5.20 per cent), Al Watany Bank of Egypt (5.20 per cent), Misr Insurance Company (5.58 per cent), Misr Life Insurance Company (4.82 per cent), Social Insurance Fund For The Government Sector (4.50 per cent), Social Insurance Fund For Public And Private Sector (4.50 per cent)].

In Egypt, petrochemical companies do not have a separate CSR department so there is no hierarchical structure entailed. They are not familiar with the term of CSR or aware of the global CSR initiatives, even though there is annual Company Report that is published on their website portal (Company Report).

The practical frame mechanisms applied by companies to enhance the idea of societal responsibility and environment protection :

5.4 Societal responsibility

The petrochemical companies are committed to promoting a safe, stable, supportive and productive work environment through the foundations of work and ethical, cooperative and sustainable behavior. These include the vision of petrochemical companies to promote human rights and social values through the integration of societal responsibility within their activities and that codes of conduct have a positive impact on society, rules of international law and standards of conduct. This is to increase the production capacity of high-quality and value added petrochemical products.

Pavement and lighting of the main road leading from and to the companies and surrounding areas, and the paving and development of railway glider.

Contribution and permanent contribution in the field of health and medical treatment and purchase of medical devices, and contribute mainly to convoys of medical treatment and all medical supplies in public hospitals and universities.

Contribution and permanent contribution to charitable societies in areas surrounding petrochemical companies, and provide their needs to upgrade the infrastructure of these areas, and the participation of residents of the region in various events, and donate to government schools.

Rationalize the electricity consumption of some residential areas surrounding the companies, to save energy as part of a lower bill […] Better life. (websites of the seven petrochemical companies).

5.5 Environmental protection

Petrochemical companies are oil companies engaged in the production, processing, operation, treatment, sale, purchase, import and export of final and intermediate petrochemicals, production and sale of electrical power, maintenance, water treatment and industrial drainage and doing everything related to this purpose or helping to complete it. And is committed to ensuring that all its activities are carried out in such a way that the health and safety of all its employees and others are of absolute priority in a moral and professional sense, in the belief that it is of great importance. To maintain ecological balance at the end, it is committed to:

5.5.1 Occupational safety and health activities.

continuous growth while preserving the climate conducive to attraction and retention of qualified persons in the areas of work of the company;

support and continuous development of staff skills to ensure that the leading role in the production and supply of petrochemical materials is maintained;

employees are the driving force must be involved and maintain their safety;

identification of work hazards and the development of adequate means of control to ensure the safety of workers and environmental protection and efficiency of production processes;

training and awareness of all employees in the world's largest oil and petrochemical companies and specialized scientific and research bodies;

excellence with the interests of the surrounding society in mind and its member’s safe without any damage;

preserving the environment is a national duty and a primary objective that the senior management seeks to achieve;

adopting HSE principles as core values;

compliance with all local laws and regulations and international standards;

adherence to ethical and legal behavior;

use the best environmental techniques and practices available to reduce emissions and waste, and to meet the expectations and demands of customers and satisfy them;

application of occupational safety and health management systems OHSAS 18001 and environmental management ISO 14001;

to comply with the ISO 50001 Energy Management System for the purpose of optimizing energy use and preserving natural resources; and

documenting, distributing and monitoring all system management documents and documents to the concerned departments and communicating information related to this subject to all the employees of the company, while providing environmental data and information to the official stakeholders. (websites of the seven petrochemical companies)

5.1.2 Energy management systems.

5.1.2.1 energy..

The Alexandria petrochemical companies have chosen to apply one of the energy handling methods to ensure the improvement of sustainable energy efficiency and continuous improvement of performance, the “energy management system”, to obtain the technical support needed to prepare and implement the requirements of the energy management system in these companies and to obtain the ISO 50001 certificate. November 2011 to be certified to comply with the international standard of energy management system 50001: 2011 to be one of the first Egyptian companies to obtain this certificate and the first among the oil and gas companies and petrochemicals in Egypt, which obtains that certificate, The support of senior management, the formation of the energy team from all disciplines, increased communication with employees and the dissemination of achievements and success stories to motivate employees to participate in the energy efficiency of the company are key factors for SEDEPC's success in implementing the energy management system (Websites of the seven petrochemical companies).

5.1.2.2 Rehabilitation program for petrochemical companies to implement the energy management system.

After participating in the training program organized by the UNIDO in the framework of the project to improve industrial energy efficiency in Egypt and the success of SEDEPC in the implementation of the energy management system resulting in the ISO 50001 certificate, and it expand the exchange of knowledge and expertise acquired in the field of energy management and transfer to other companies.

UNIDO has agreed with the Egyptian Petrochemical Holding Company (ECHEM) to cooperate in the initiation of the project for the rehabilitation of companies within the petrochemical sector to implement the energy management system by supporting the national experts of SEDEPC to transfer their knowledge and expertise to the petrochemical sector in Egypt. Training and technical support were provided by SEEDBEC to 30 trainees representing six of the following petrochemical companies: EStyrenics, ELAB and ECHEM. The results of this training and technical support included 22 trainees with the “National Expert in Energy Management System from UNIDO” (Websites of Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals Company and Egyptian Petrochemical Holding Company).

5.1.2.3 Quality.

Petrochemical companies apply the concept of quality to all operations. EPC has obtained the OHSAS 18001-2007 certificate, ISO 14001-2015 certificate and the ISO 9001-2015 quality system certification certificate (Egyptian Petrochemical Company website).

While SIDPEC has been certified to comply with the requirements of ISO 9001-2015, the ISO 50001-2011 certification certificate, the 6 Sigma Black Belt certificate, the ISO 26000 compliance letter to demonstrate compliance with the requirements of ISO 26000 In the field of sustainability and societal responsibility, by receiving the National Award for Excellence from the National Institute of Quality of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry within the National Program of Excellence Awards for 2013 (Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals Company website).

ETHYDCO, in the first half of year 2018, obtained the following International Certificates: ISO 9001:2015 Certificate (Quality Management System), ISO 14001:2015 Certificate (Environmental Management System), OHSAS 18001:2007 Certificate (Occupational Safety and Health Management System), and ISO 50001:2011 Certificate (Energy Management System).

Moreover, total quality management systems general department in ETHYDCO is making great efforts to qualify the company to obtain: ISO 17025:2017 (General requirements for the efficiency of testing and calibration laboratories), and ISO 26000:2010 (Societal Responsibility). (The Egyptian Ethylene and Derivatives Company website).

ELAB entered an agreement with Energy and Environmental Studies Center, affiliate to Tebeen Institute for Metal Studies as an accredited third party to perform environmental measurements twice per year inside work environment according to Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, Law No. 4 ( (1994) and law no.9/2009. The periodical measurement procedures are performed by the company through environmental monitoring vehicle owned by the Petroleum Committee in Alexandria Region (Egyptian Linear Alkyl Benzene Company website).

Societal responsibility investment combines ESTYRENICS’s financial goals with our obligation and dedication to factors that ensure the well-being of society such as environmental friendly practices, economic growth and justice in society.

Corporate societal responsibility is no longer defined by how much money ESTYRENICS contributes to charity, but by its overall involvement in activities that improve the quality of people’s lives (Egyptian Styrenics Company website).

ANRPC has been accredited by Compliance Certificate for the occupational health, safety and environmental protection with honors degree, the renewal of the OHSAS18001: 2007 certification and ISO14001: 2004 certification through SGS International Company. ANRPC is committed to ongoing training systems to the safety, occupational health and environmental protection team to obtain international certifications such as: NEBOH certificate, certificates of various OSHA, Foam Training School Certificate, Fire Marshal certificate, NASP-OHSAS certificate 18001: 2007, ISO14001: 2004 (Alexandria National Refining and Petrochemicals Company website).

Environmental advantages of ANRPC and ASPPC products: cold applications, environmentally clean and solvent free products, safely handled and applied no harmful disposals during or after applications, energy conservation (Alexandria Specialty Petroleum Products Company website).

6. Results and discussion

6.1 study population.

The study population consists of managers in petrochemical companies operating in Alexandria Governorate. Emphasis was placed on the Governorate of Alexandria because it is the second largest city in Egypt, and it includes seven of petrochemical companies, it is the governorate in which the researcher lives, and no other governorates were selected due to the high costs.

The Governorate of Alexandria has a number of industrial zones, which number to about nine industrial zones and thus is considered an important industrial city in the Egyptian economy. These areas are (New Borg El Arab, Nahda Industrial Zone, Mansheya Al Jadida Industrial, Nasiriyah Industrial Zone, The Agamy Small Industries Complex, the industrial ship factory area in August).

The petrochemical industry is one of the main pillars of Egypt's future economy, which is based on value added as a principle in the exploitation of natural resources. The oil sector is considered one of the sectors that has a clear vision and a specific work program for the implementation of new projects, development of existing projects, and continuous attention to the maintenance process to achieve the increase in production and the provision of direct jobs and raw materials to establish many industries that rely on petrochemical products as inputs For the productive process, and the most important projects and companies operating in the city of Alexandria:

The production of (polyvinyl chloride) (PVC) by the Egyptian Petroleum Company (EPC) is headquartered in the industrial renaissance Elnahda zone in Ameria district in Alexandria city since its establishment in 1981 with a production capacity of 80,000 tons/year using ethylene as raw material.

The production of (polyethylene) by Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals Company (SIDPEC) is headquartered in the industrial renaissance Elnahda zone in Ameria district in Alexandria city since its establishment in November 1997, a company listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange since March 2005.

The production of (Road Emulsion, Compounded Waxes, Petroleum Jelly, Cutback and Industrial Emulsions) by Alexandria Specialty Petroleum Products Company (ASPPC) is headquartered in Wadi El-Kamar Road, Merghem, in Agami district in Alexandria city since its establishment in February 1998.

The production of (Reformate 560,000 ton/year its RONC 100, Hydrogen 33,000 t/year, Sweet LPG 12000 t/year) by (ANRPC) Alexandria National Refining and Petrochemicals Company is headquartered in Wadi El-Kamar Road, Merghem, in Agami district in Alexandria city since was established in 1999, and in September 2013, the Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) unit and the company's Naphtha Hydrogen Processing Unit were launched.

The production of ((LAB) Linear Alkyl Benzene, (HAB) Heavy Alkyl Benzene) by Egyptian Linear Alkyl Benzene Company (ELAB) is headquartered in Wadi El-Kamar Road, Merghem, in Agami district in Alexandria city since its establishment in November 2003.

(EStyrenics) Egyptian Styrenics Company was established in September 2005 and is headquartered in El Dekheila Port in Agami district, Alexandria city. It produces (polystyrene, styrene monomer) with a production capacity of 200 thousand tons/year from March 2009.

The production of (Linear Low and High Density Polyethylene, Polybutadiene) by the Egyptian Ethylene and Derivatives Company (ETHYDCO) is headquartered in the industrial renaissance Elnahda zone in Ameria district in Alexandria city since its establishment in January 2011.

Therefore the petrochemical industry is one of the most important strategic industries in Egypt. However, these companies are a source of environmental pollution, which has been monitored according to the reports of the Ministry of Environment in some industrial areas in Alexandria. The researcher seeks to show the role of societal responsibility and its application in the petrochemical companies to protect the environment from pollution in Alexandria.

6.2 Study sample

The study population consisted of 1,340 managers. A cluster random sample of 134 managers was selected. The sample size was determined using the equation ( Agresti and Finlay, 2002 , p. 148). This equation is as follows: n =   N   Z ∝ / 2 2   π   ( 1 - π ) β 2   N - 1 +   Z ∝ / 2 2   π   ( 1 - π )

N = size of the population;

n = sample size;

Z = Probability value for the confidence interval of Z table “normal distribution”where Z at 95 per cent confidence level = 1.96;

β = permissible error rate = 0.05 which is the maximum allowed statistically; and

π = the percentage of the sample of the society which is the maximum allowed statistically = 50 per cent ( Table I ).

6.3 The variables of the study

Table II shows the variables of the study in accordance with the recent studies and literature of the CSR criteria. They are the determinants of societal responsibility, the power of societal responsibility, the degree of awareness and commitment to societal responsibility as independent variables, and the societal responsibility and the protection of the environment from pollution as variables affiliate.

Despite the possibility of other elements to identify the criteria of societal responsibility adopted by industrial companies in general and petrochemical companies in Alexandria in particular, but the researcher was limited to the elements specified in the list of the survey as it includes the standards used in the previous studies that were reviewed in advance by the researcher and what prompted them to quote and guide them.

6.4 Sources of data acquisition

The applied study on data collection was based on primary sources through a survey list, which is the main measuring instrument and was designed to cover all the variables of the study.

6.5 Methods of data collection

The researcher relied on the use of the survey list in collecting the data needed to conduct the field study, in addition to conducting some personal interviews for the managers to verify the validity of the information contained in the questionnaires after collection and to obtain any other information that would be useful for the field of study. The researcher measured the variables of the study, which included (18) phrases for each of the variables that are performed in companies that adopt the concept of societal responsibility to protect the environment from pollution using the (Likert scale), which is one of the most widely used measurements Reviews for easy to understand and balance grades where individuals subject refers to test the extent of their approval of each of the statements that make up the proposed trend scale.

The responses were translated as follows:

adopting societal responsibility and expressed in (7) phrases;

the strength of societal responsibility and expressed in (5) phrases; and

protection of the environment from pollution and expressed in (6) phrases.

After the researcher formulated the paragraphs of the list in its initial form, the truth was verified through content validity.

The validity of the content was verified by arbitrating this form before it was distributed by the faculty members from the administrative and statistical departments to benefit from their knowledge and knowledge curve, which earned them an outstanding reputation in their specialties, which made the form more accurate and objective in the measurement. Arbitrators all the observations mentioned have been taken into consideration.

The reliability of the parameters used by the Cronbach alpha method has been verified. The Cronbach alpha method is based on the consistency of the individual performance from one paragraph to another, indicating the strength of the correlation between the scales of the scale and, in general, of the correct one as the degree of consistency and consistency increases.

The researcher also used the method of direct contact through personal interviews with the officials of the sectors and the main departments of the companies under study, and was handed over (120) form by hand to the surveyed groups, has been clarified and understood and explained the nature and objectives of the survey and was followed up again until it was completed Table III shows the number of distributed lists, the number of recovered and correct lists and the response rate.

It is clear from the previous table that the number of survey able inspection lists (100) at a response rate is 83 per cent of the total survey lists that have been distributed and this ratio is fairly high.

6.6 Methods of statistical analysis and hypothesis testing

To achieve the objectives of the study, the primary data collected through the survey tool using the computer was analyzed through the program of statistical packages for social sciences (SPSS), No. 23, to test the type and strength of the relationship between the variables and to verify the difference between the independent variables The researcher used the appropriate statistical methods to analyze the results of the survey. The analysis was done on three levels.

Verification of honesty; and

Cronbach’s alpha coefficient to confirm the degree of stability of the scale used to measure the variables of the study.

Using descriptive methods: The results of the study were calculated to determine the extent to which the sample variables supported the availability of the variables of the study and the standard deviation to identify the extent of variance in the responses of the sample items (the respondents), the percentages and the difference coefficients.

Using simple liner regression method: This method helps determine the relative importance of the independent variable in its effect on the dependent variable.

First, to test the validity and accuracy of the measurements used in measuring the variables of the study based on the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, this method calculates the mean correlation coefficients for all variables. The results of the study showed that all measurements were reasonably reasonable for stability, ( Sekaran, 2003 , P. 245). The results of the study showed that all measurements were fairly reasonable. Table IV presents the results of these tests.

All alpha coefficients for stability are greater than 0.60 indicating the high internal consistency of the scale and thus the stability of the scale.

The highest stability coefficient for the dimensions of the list is (0.91) related to the variable of environmental protection from pollution, while noting that the minimum value of stability was (0.82) of the variable dimensions of societal responsibility. Generally, the transactions show the stability of the results that can result from the survey list applied, previous analysis standards are true and consistent and this means the validity of standards and their validity to collect data.

6.7 Descriptive analysis

For data, the researcher used the arithmetical averages, standard deviations and variance coefficients as shown in Table V .

The above table shows that the variable of societal responsibility was the most influential in companies operating in the petrochemical sector with an average score of (3.90) and a standard deviation of (0.228) and a difference coefficient of (5.85 per cent) which shows the low dispersion in the responses of the sample of the study sample, (0.306) with a difference coefficient of (10.37 per cent). Finally, the variable environmental protection from pollution is calculated with a mean (3.34) and a standard deviation (0.825) with a difference coefficient of (24.70 per cent).

6.8 Test assignments

The researcher examined the main hypotheses of the study and focused on testing the acceptance or rejection of the study hypotheses through the use of simple regression model.

The researcher examined the main hypothesis of “CSR affects the protection of the environment from pollution”. And focus on testing the acceptance or rejection of the study hypotheses through the use of simple regression model and derived from the main hypothesis sub-assumptions:

The first sub-hypothesis: “The adoption of societal responsibility positively affects the protection of the environment from pollution”.

The first sub-hypothesis validity test: Table VI shows the results of the simple regression analysis test for the effect of societal responsibility on protecting the environment from pollution.

At the beginning, we evaluated and impact of adopting the concept of corporate societal responsibility to protect the environment from pollution. The aim of this procedure was to know whether environmental issues and environmental protection from pollution in petrochemical companies are related to the extent of adoption of the concept of societal responsibility.

For the statistical analysis, we set the hypothesis, “The adoption of societal responsibility positively affects the protection of the environment from pollution”. The analysis was carried out via discrimination of statistical hypothesis: There is no positive effect to adopt societal responsibility to protect the environment, or there is a positive impact to the adoption of societal responsibility to protect the environment.

The impact of the adoption of societal responsibility to protect the environment from pollution.

The results of the statistical analysis showed that there is a significant effect of societal responsibility on protecting the environment from pollution. The correlation coefficient reached 0.92 at a significant level of 1 per cent. This means that there is a significant positive correlation between the variable of societal responsibility and variable Protect the environment from pollution.

The coefficient of R 2 determination is (0.85), meaning that 0.85 of the changes in the environmental protection variable from pollution are due to the variable of societal responsibility and 15 per cent due to other factors. Therefore, this model is characterized by quality. The independent variable selected explains about 85 per cent of the changes Occur in the dependent variable (environmental protection from pollution).

In finding that the value of the effect of the coefficient of societal responsibility ( β ) is (0.763). This means that the increase in one degree in (x 2 ) leads to an increase in the environmental protection variable from pollution by (0.763).

The value of F is calculated at 545.36. The significance of this effect is the calculated value of F (545.36), which is significant at sig = 0.000.

Positive reference coefficient of independent variable regression Adopted societal responsibility (x 2 ) with the dependent variable environmental protection from pollution (y).

This means acceptance of this hypothesis, and the ability of this variable to contribute to the interpretation of the change in the protection of the environment from pollution, and therefore we reject the zero hypothesis and accept the alternative hypothesis.

clear vision on the impact of societal responsibility on financial performance;

the environmental awareness of senior leadership and employees;

managers should inform employees about the latest developments in societal responsibility programs;

the company's role towards societal responsibility supports the members of the community in the success of the objectives of the company;

transparency in the presentation of data by disclosing the company's societal responsibility programs as an annual report;

the company's management encourages employees to participate collectively in societal responsibility programs; and

managers respond to employees about their CSR proposals.

This will lead the petrochemical companies to respond to the requirements of its social environment, the rights of the community, and the interests of their stakeholders in making decisions. Petrochemical companies must take actions on the effects of the decisions on all stakeholders of society. Making balance between their interests and the interests of the beneficiaries, which is ultimately protects the environment from pollution. This finding is consistent with the study of Hawrysz and Foltys (2015) , Andrei et al. (2014) , Al-Tira (2012) , Bhagwat (2011) and Tiwari (2010) .

The second sub-assumption: “The dimensions of societal responsibility positively affect the protection of the environment from pollution”.

The Second sub-hypothesis validity test: Table VII shows the results of the simple regression analysis test of the impact of societal responsibility dimensions on environmental protection from pollution.

The researcher evaluated and impact of the dimensions of societal responsibility to protect the environment from pollution. The aim of this procedure was to know whether environmental protection from pollution in petrochemical companies are linked to the impact of societal responsibility dimensions, and the extent to which these dimensions influence them.

For the statistical analysis, we set the hypothesis, “The dimensions of societal responsibility positively affect the protection of the environment from pollution”. The analysis was carried out via discrimination of statistical hypothesis: There is no positive effect to the dimensions of societal responsibility to protect the environment, or: There is a positive impact to the dimensions of societal responsibility to protect the environment.

The results of the second sub-hypothesis test are shown from the figures in Table VII to the regression model estimates of the relationship between the variable of societal responsibility dimensions as an independent variable and the variable protection of the environment from pollution as a dependent variable.

The impact of the dimensions of societal responsibility on the protection of the environment from pollution.

The coefficient of R 2 determination is 0.72, meaning that 0.72 of the changes in the environmental protection variable from pollution are due to the variable of societal responsibility dimensions and 26 per cent are due to other factors. Therefore, this model is characterized by quality. The selected independent variable explains about 72 per cent which occur in the dependent variable (environmental protection from pollution).

In finding that the value of the degree of influence of the social liability dimension ( β ) is (0.638). This means that the increase in one degree in the dimensions of societal responsibility leads to an increase in the protection of the environment from pollution by 0.638.

The value of F is calculated at 267.99. The significance of this effect is the calculated value of F (267.99), which is significant at (sig = 0.000).

Positive reference coefficient of independent variable regression societal responsibility dimensions with dependent variable Environmental protection from pollution.

the strength of the economic dimension;

the strength of the cultural dimension;

the strength of the legal dimension;

the strength of moral dimension; and

the strength of the social dimension.

Our results confirm that strategic CSR is contingent to financial performance, befitting its role as the basic economic unit in a market economy; the first and foremost societal responsibility must be economic in nature. As a basic economic unit in society, the economic dimension of a corporation's social behavior extends to the production of goods and services demanded by society and available to them at reasonable and acceptable profit. The primacy of this dimension of CSR is based upon the fact that all other societal responsibilities borne or expected of a business are predicated on this fundamental obligation. This finding is consistent with the study of McWilliams and Siegel (2011) .

The second ranking of the impact of the strength of the dimensions of corporate societal responsibility on protect the environment from pollution in the petrochemical companies is the cultural dimension, societal responsibility is an organizational culture that must be disseminated among the employees of the company. It is to respect human rights, support cultural development, spread commitment to the laws and regulations of the society, promote national culture and cultural communication locally, regionally and globally and support cultural and civilizational activities ( Halkos and Skouloudis, 2016 ).

The third ranking of the impact of the strength of the dimensions of corporate societal responsibility on protect the environment from pollution in the petrochemical companies is the legal dimension, because businesses must operate within the legal framework in achieving their business objectives ( Mohammed and Rashid, 2018 ).

The fourth ranking of the impact of the strength of the dimensions of corporate societal responsibility on protect the environment from pollution in the petrochemical companies is the moral dimension, there are some elements of business behavior and activities cannot necessarily be codified into the regulatory frame, are unwritten and is an implicit social contract that businesses have with society and often acts as the source and base for extensions into the explicit social contracts embodied and codified in the formal legal framework, society has expectations of business to exhibit social behavior over and above the mandatory requirements imposed on them ( Trevino and Nelson, 1999 ).

The fifth ranking of the impact of the strength of the dimensions of corporate societal responsibility on protect the environment from pollution in the petrochemical companies is the social dimension, this dimension refers to relationship between all types of organizations and society in general ( Currás‐Pérez et al. , 2017 ).

This finding is consistent with the study of Stojanović et al. (2016) , Zanat (2016) , Mohamed Arfa (2015), Abu-Halaqan (2014) , Muller and Kolk (2012) , Elmore (2011) , Sajib et al. (2011) .

General results

There is paucity in the studies that dealt with the relationship between CSR and environmental protection against pollution in public organizations.

There is agreement among the sample on the importance and feasibility of adopting the concept of societal responsibility and placing it at the top of the top management concerns, especially in the field of petrochemical companies. With the need to take concrete implementation measures to support societal responsibility programs aimed at serving the community among all stakeholders.

The effective implementation of the mechanisms for the implementation of meaningful societal responsibility programs requires fundamental changes in management practices, existing organizational structures and the quality of personnel working in the relevant departments in general and the societal responsibility group in particular, which may be difficult for political and economic reasons.

Results of the applied study

increasing the participation of workers with healthy environmental contributions to the productive process;

increasing the capacity of companies to cope with disasters and environmental crises;

increased commitment of companies to implementing environmental public policies;

increasing the companies' economic and social activities towards protecting the environment from pollution;

increasing the capacity of companies to pay greater costs to preserve the environment;

increasing the awareness of green consumers with the products provided by companies;

development of continuous internal work environment companies; and

clearly defined strategy followed in societal responsibility programs.

The keenness of these organizations to analyze the variables of the ethical dimension of societal responsibility and their availability, which will lead the organizations to provide their services with the highest quality and sincerity. And that this analysis [(ethics of individuals) as training members of the societal responsibility team to solve problems using brainstorming and provide employees with official data related to improving work, (Ethics of leadership), such as the identification of business objectives through the participation of managers with subordinates, and the punishment of workers who exhibit immoral behaviors (ethics of productive processes) as a decision-making process to ethical standards regardless of the costs involved. When there is an immoral behavior and managers are responsible for implementing the changes needed to reach the targeted outcomes];

Promote partnerships with other relevant sectors for community service;

Align the mission and objectives of the organization with the goals and values of the community in which it operates;

Ensure compliance with legislation and laws that urge organizations to increase transparency and disclosure while providing incentives for the distinction of working organizations In the area of societal responsibility and environmental protection; and

To develop an integrated strategy for the culture of the organization on the societal responsibility programs to be provided by the organization by applying and practicing the work ethic to protect the environment from pollution on the other to motivate the workers to practice the best behavior towards work and to participate in training programs to disseminate the principles of work ethic and culture of societal responsibility among them, Giving them better opportunities to develop their skills and experience and enhance their motivation to work.

Petrochemical companies, especially public and private sector companies, produce goods and products in an environmentally friendly manner, taking into consideration waste recycling and wastewater treatment, continuous monitoring of any type of radiation or emission of harmful gases such as carbon dioxide. Such treatment should not be limited to guidance from before the EEAA or by the sovereign agencies of the state or under the pressure of laws, but must be paying attention to the development of the educational axis and support the educational aspect constantly.

Although all CSR programs within Egypt are philanthropic and humanitarian, there is still a difference between the nature of these programs offered by the public sector companies and the government sector for the private sector companies, especially in the field of environmental protection against pollution. Therefore, these efforts should be consolidated through the work of partnerships directed by the private sector towards the social imbalance that is required to be reformed.

Recommendations of the study

increase the participation of workers with healthy environmental contributions in the production process and increase the ability of companies to cope with disasters and environmental crises;

increase the commitment of companies to implement environmental public policies and guide their economic and social activities towards protecting the environment from pollution;

increase the capacity of companies to bear greater costs to preserve the environment and increase the awareness of the green consumer with the products provided by companies;

develop the internal work environment of companies with a clear definition of the strategy followed in societal responsibility programs;

the organizations' keenness to analyze the variables of the ethical dimension of societal responsibility and training the members of the team on societal responsibility to solve problems using brainstorming;

encourage other relevant companies to serve the community; and

develop an integrated strategy for the culture of the organization on the programs of societal responsibility to protect the environment from pollution and interest in involving staff in training programs to disseminate the principles of ethics.

Conclusion and future studies

The issue of societal responsibility and ethical aspects is of great importance at the present time due to the increasing influence of organizations and the increasing criticism directed at them in aspects related to the legitimacy of its work and mechanisms such as cases of corruption and unethical decisions affecting society and the environment. With the increasing role of business organizations in civil society and lobbying groups because of the spread of knowledge and the speed of communication, government organizations are obliged to enhance their social performance, especially petrochemical companies, to many community groups. All these issues have forced the management of governmental and private organizations to broaden the perspective through which they see their social role and their humanitarian performance toward different segments of society.

Finally, regarding future research lines, it would be very interesting to examine the proposed model by collecting data from a significantly large source and examining the hypothesized relationships, and it would also be very useful to analyze alternative channels of influence of legal form and environmental policy on the protection of the environment in oil and gas companies.

Distribution of study population and study sample for 2017

Study variables

Distributed and retrieved lists and response rate

The degree of stability of the measurements used to measure the variables studied

Order of the importance of study variables

Simple regression analysis results of the effect of societal responsibility on protecting the environment from pollution

The survey method

Please read each of the following statements carefully to determine the degree of your agreement or disagree of any of them by marking in a position that largely reflects your personal opinion of the term.

Abu-Halaqan , E.S. ( 2014 ), “ The impact of the organization on the concept of social responsibility on the degree of customer satisfaction – applied study ”, M. Thesis, Sadat academy for administrative sciences, Faculty of administrative sciences , Alexandria , p. 133 .

Agresti , A. and Finlay , B. ( 2002 ), Statistical Methods for Social Sciences , 2nd ed. , Palgrave Macmillan , New York, NY , p. 148 .

Al-Maazawy , A.F. ( 2004 ), “ The role of EEAA in solving administrative and legal problems in Egypt - an analytical study in managing environmental problems ”, M. thesis, Sadat Academy for Administrative Sciences , Alexandria , p. 8 .

Al-Tira , K. ( 2012 ), “ The impact of management and employees' awareness of the social responsibility of the organization on the competitive advantages of applied industry in libya ”, Ph. D. thesis, Ain Shams University, Faculty of Commerce .

Amaeshi , K. , Adegbite , E. and Rajwani , T. ( 2016 ), “ Corporate social responsibility in challenging and non-enabling institutional contexts: do institutional voids matter? ”, Journal of Business Ethics , Vol. 134 No. 1 , pp. 135 - 153 .

Andrei , J. , Panait , M. and Ene , C. ( 2014 ), “ Environmental protection between social responsibility, green investments and cultural values ”, Faculty of Economic Sciences , Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti, Romania, MPRA Paper No. 60189 , pp. 2 - 8 .

Arafa , A.M. ( 2015 ), “ Ethical responsibility and its role in empowering Employees – a field study on application to international industrial companies in 10th of ramadan city ”, Supplementary Research , Suez Canal University, Faculty of Commerce .

Alexandria ( 2019 ), National Refining and Petrochemicals Company (ANRPC) available at: www.anrpc.com

Alexandria Specialty Petroleum Products Company (ASPPC) available at: www.asppc.com.eg

Barrow , C.J. ( 2000 ), Developing the Environment: problems and Management , Longman Limited , New York, NY , p. 25 .

Berger-Walliser , G. and Scott , I. ( 2018 ), “ Redefining corporate social responsibility in an era of globalization and regulatory hardening ”, American Business Law Journal , Vol. 55 No. 1 , pp. 167 - 218 .

Bhagwat , P. ( 2011 ), “ Corporate social responsibility and sustainable development ”, Conference on Inclusive and Sustainable, Growth Role of Industry, Government and Society Conference Proceedings , pp. 1 - 13 .

Cameron , R. ( 2009 ), “ Community and government effect on CSR: Case studies of mining on bolivia's altiplano ”, M. thesis, Saint Mary's University , p. 1 .

Carroll , A.B. ( 1999 ), “ Corporate social responsibility: evolution of a definitional construct ”, Business and Society , Vol. 38 No. 3 , p. 70 .

Currás‐Pérez , R. , Dolz‐Dolz , C. , Miquel‐Romero , M.J. and Sánchez‐García , I. ( 2017 ), “ How social, environmental, and economic CSR affects consumer‐perceived value: does perceived consumer effectiveness make a difference ?”, Faculty of Economics, Department of Marketing, University of Valencia , Valencia , pp. 733 - 744 .

Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, Law No. 4 ( 1994 ), “ On the protection of the environment and its executive regulations, general provisions of the egyptian environmental law ”, p. 3 .

Egyptian Linear Alkyl Benzene (ELAB) ( 2019 ), available at: www.elab-eg.com

Elmore , T. ( 2011 ), “ Promoting ethical behavior among local government employees the role of ethical leadership, ethics code training and audits ”, PH. D thesis, KS City, MO , pp. 162 - 165 .

Environmental Protection Agency ( 2013 ), “ Environmental protection through research ”, An Ghníomhaireacht um Chaomhnú Comhshaoil , p. 11 .

Egyptian Petrochemical Company (EPC) ( 2019 ), available at: www.egy-petrochem.com

Egyptian Styrenics Company (EStyrenics) ( 2019 ), available at: http://estyrenics.com

The Egyptian Ethylene and Derivatives Company (ETHYDCO) >available at: www.ethydco-eg.com

Freeman , R.E. ( 1984 ), Strategic Management a Stakeholder Approach , Pitman , Boston .

Frynas , J.G. and Yamahaki , C. ( 2016 ), “ Corporate social responsibility: review and roadmap of theoretical perspectives ”, Business Ethics: A European Review , Vol. 25 No. 3 , pp. 258 - 285 .

Halkos , G. and Skouloudis , A. ( 2016 ), “ Cultural dimensions and corporate social responsibility: a cross-country analysis ”, Centre for Environmental Policy and Strategic Environmental Management, Department of Environment, University of the Aegean , MPRA Paper No. 69222 , pp. 7 - 15 .

Hamilton , C. and Bastianoni , S. ( 2019 ), “ Environmental protection and ecology ”, Encyclopedia of Ecology, Vol. 4 , 2nd ed. , pp. 319 - 326 .

Hawrysz , L. and Foltys , J. ( 2015 ), Environmental Aspects of Social Responsibility of Public Sector Organizations , Department of Organization and Management, Faculty of Economy and Management, Opole University of Technology , Opole , pp. 1 - 8 .

ISO 26000 ( 2007 ), “ Working group on social responsibility: working definition ”, Sydney , available at: www.afnor.org (accessed 1 October 2015 ).

Jamali , D. , Lund-Thomsen , P. and Jeppesen , S. ( 2017 ), “ SMEs and CSR in developing countries ”, Business and Society , Vol. 56 No. 1 , pp. 11 - 22 .

Jammulamadaka , N. ( 2018 ), “ Reading institutional logics of CSR in India from a post-colonial location ”, Journal of Business Ethics , pp. 1 - 19 .

Jensen , M.C. and Meckling , W.H. ( 1976 ), “ Theory of the firm: managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure ”, Journal of Financial Economics , Vol. 3 No. 4 , pp. 305 - 360 .

Kolk , A. and Lenfant , F. ( 2010 ), “ MNC reporting on CSR and conflict in Central Africa ”, Journal of Business Ethics , Vol. 93 No. S2 , pp. 241 - 255 .

Letmathe , P. and El-Bassiouny , D. ( 2019 ), “ Political instability and corporate social responsibility: the case of Egypt ”, Social Responsibility Journal , pp. 6 - 14 .

Lockett , A. and Thompson , S. ( 2004 ), “ Edith penrose’s contributions to the resource-based view: an alternative perspective ”, Journal of Management Studies , Vol. 41 No. 1 , pp. 193 - 203 .

McWilliams , A. and Siegel , D. ( 2011 ), “ Creating and capturing value: strategic corporate social responsibility: resource-based theory, and sustainable competitive advantage ”, Journal of Management , Vol. 37 No. 5 , pp. 1480 - 1495 .

Marquis , C. and Raynard , M. ( 2015 ), “ Institutional strategies in emerging markets ”, Academy of Management Annals , Vol. 9 No. 1 , pp. 291 - 335 .

Mohammed , A. and Rashid , B. ( 2018 ), “ A conceptual model of corporate social responsibility dimensions, brand image, and customer satisfaction in Malaysian hotel industry ”, Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences , Vol. 39 , pp. 358 - 364 .

Muller , A. and Kolk , A. ( 2012 ), “ Responsible tax as corporate social responsibility: the case of multinational enterprises and effective tax in India ”, Business and Society , pp. 21 - 23 .

Mustafa , M.A. ( 2013 ), “ Social responsibility and its impact on corporate financial performance ”, M. Thesis, Cairo University, Faculty of Economics and Political Science , p. 120 .

Othman , A.I. ( 1999 ), “ Disclosure of social responsibility information for economic Unity ”, Journal of the Faculty of Commerce for Scientific Research , Vol. 36 No. 2 , pp. 9 .

Pfeffer , J. and Salancik , G.R. ( 1978 ), The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective , Harper and Row , New York, NY .

Platonova , E. , Asutay , M. , Dixon , R. and Mohammad , S. ( 2018 ), “ The impact of corporate social responsibility disclosure on financial performance: evidence from the GCC Islamic banking sector ”, Journal of Business Ethics , Vol. 151 No. 2 , pp. 451 - 471 .

Reverte , C. ( 2009 ), “ Determinants of corporate social responsibility disclosure ratings by Spanish listed firms ”, Journal of Business Ethics , Vol. 88 No. 2 , pp. 351 - 366 .

Rugman , A.M. and Verbeke , A. ( 2002 ), “ Edith Penrose’s contribution to the resource-based view of strategic management ”, Strategic Management Journal , Vol. 23 No. 8 , pp. 769 - 780 .

Sajib , Q.U. , Rajib , S.U. and Alam , S. ( 2011 ), An Assessment on the Adaptation of ISO 14000 in the Fertilizer Industry of Bangladesh for the Sustainable Development , Wuhan University of Technology, School of Management , pp. 2480 - 2488 .

Sekaran , U. ( 2003 ), Research Methods for Business: A Skill-Building Approach , 4th ed. , John Wiley and Sons, Macmillan , New York, NY , p. 245 .

Scott , R.W. ( 2001 ), Institutional and Organizations , 2nd ed ., Sage Publications , Thousand Oaks .

Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals Company (SIDPEC) ( 2019 ), available at: ar.sidpec.com

Stojanović , A. , Mihajlović , I. and Schulte , P. ( 2016 ), “ Corporate social responsibility: Environmental aspects ”, International May Conference on Strategic Management , Bor , PP. 1 - 14 .

Suchman , M.C. ( 1995 ), “ Managing legitimacy: strategic and institutional approaches ”, The Academy of Management Review , Vol. 20 No. 3 , pp. 571 - 610 .

The Egyptian Environmental Protection Law ( 2009 ), available at: www.eeaa.gov.eg

The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) ( 2005 ), “ Material ”, p. 301 . published by Company Secretaries of India .

Tiwari , N. ( 2010 ), Environment Protection and Corporate Social Responsibility: A Critique from Legal Perspective , Faculty of Law, Banaras Hindu University , Varanasi , PP. 1 - 7 .

Trevino , L. and Nelson , K. ( 1999 ), Managing Business Ethics, Straight Talk about How to Do It Right , 2nd ed. , John Wiley and Sons , New York, NY .

Wagner , T.P. ( 1994 ), A Guide to Understanding Pollution and Its Effect , Thomson Publishing Inc ., Canada , P. 20 .

Zanat , S. ( 2016 ), “ The role of environmental taxes and fees in guiding the environmental behavior of the economic institution in Algeria ”, M. Thesis, University of Mohamed Boudeif Bamsila, Faculty of economic and commercial sciences and management sciences .

Zhang , J. , Cheng , M. , Wei , X. , Gong , X. and Zhang , S. ( 2019 ), “ Internet use and the satisfaction with government environmental protection: evidence from China ”, Journal of Cleaner Production , Vol. 212 , pp. 1025 - 1035 . Volume P.

Further reading

Daibis , M.Y. ( 1997 ), “ Environmental pollution and the challenges of survival: an anthropological perspective ”, Series of Anthropology and Community Issues , Alexandria , p. 15 .

World Bank Group ( 2015 ), “ Egypt, Arab rep ”, available at: http://data.worldbank.org

Corresponding author

Related articles, we’re listening — tell us what you think, something didn’t work….

Report bugs here

All feedback is valuable

Please share your general feedback

Join us on our journey

Platform update page.

Visit emeraldpublishing.com/platformupdate to discover the latest news and updates

Questions & More Information

Answers to the most commonly asked questions here

Presentations made painless

• Get Premium

118 Social Responsibility Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Social responsibility is a crucial aspect of our society that involves individuals and organizations taking actions that benefit society at large. It involves being conscious of the impact of one's actions on the environment, society, and the economy. Writing an essay on social responsibility can help raise awareness about important issues and inspire others to take action. To help you get started, here are 118 social responsibility essay topic ideas and examples:

• The importance of corporate social responsibility in today's business world
• How companies can promote social responsibility through sustainable practices
• The impact of social responsibility on consumer behavior
• The role of government in promoting social responsibility
• The ethical implications of social responsibility
• The benefits of social responsibility for businesses and society
• The relationship between social responsibility and environmental sustainability
• How social responsibility can help address social inequality
• The role of social responsibility in promoting diversity and inclusion
• The impact of social responsibility on employee morale and productivity
• How social responsibility can help businesses build trust with consumers
• The challenges of implementing social responsibility initiatives
• The role of social responsibility in shaping public policy
• The impact of social responsibility on brand reputation
• The role of social responsibility in disaster relief efforts
• The benefits of social responsibility for small businesses
• The role of social responsibility in promoting ethical leadership
• The impact of social responsibility on employee retention
• The relationship between social responsibility and corporate governance
• The role of social responsibility in promoting economic development
• The challenges of measuring the impact of social responsibility initiatives
• The role of social responsibility in addressing climate change
• The impact of social responsibility on shareholder value
• The benefits of social responsibility for nonprofit organizations
• The relationship between social responsibility and social entrepreneurship
• The role of social responsibility in promoting community development
• The impact of social responsibility on organizational culture
• The challenges of balancing social responsibility with profitability
• The role of social responsibility in promoting ethical supply chain practices
• The benefits of social responsibility for employees and their families
• The relationship between social responsibility and government regulation
• The impact of social responsibility on employee engagement
• The role of social responsibility in promoting social justice
• The challenges of integrating social responsibility into business operations
• The benefits of social responsibility for investors and shareholders
• The relationship between social responsibility and corporate social responsibility reporting
• The impact of social responsibility on brand loyalty
• The role of social responsibility in promoting employee wellness programs
• The benefits of social responsibility for local communities
• The relationship between social responsibility and social media
• The impact of social responsibility on organizational performance
• The role of social responsibility in promoting ethical marketing practices
• The challenges of implementing social responsibility initiatives in developing countries
• The relationship between social responsibility and business ethics
• The impact of social responsibility on employee satisfaction
• The role of social responsibility in promoting sustainable development
• The benefits of social responsibility for customers and consumers
• The relationship between social responsibility and corporate philanthropy
• The impact of social responsibility on organizational reputation
• The role of social responsibility in promoting environmental conservation

These social responsibility essay topic ideas and examples can help you brainstorm ideas for your essay and explore different aspects of social responsibility. Whether you are writing about the role of businesses in promoting social responsibility or the impact of social responsibility on society, there are plenty of interesting topics to choose from. Remember to conduct thorough research and provide examples to support your arguments. By writing about social responsibility, you can raise awareness about important issues and inspire others to take action for the betterment of society.

Want to create a presentation now?

Instantly Create A Deck

Let PitchGrade do this for me

Hassle Free

We will create your text and designs for you. Sit back and relax while we do the work.

Explore More Content

• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service

© 2023 Pitchgrade

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• J Med Ethics
• v.33(8); 2007 Aug

Responsibility for health: personal, social, and environmental

Short abstract.

Most of the discussion in bioethics and health policy concerning social responsibility for health has focused on society's obligation to provide access to healthcare. While ensuring access to healthcare is an important social responsibility, societies can promote health in many other ways, such as through sanitation, pollution control, food and drug safety, health education, disease surveillance, urban planning and occupational health. Greater attention should be paid to strategies for health promotion other than access to healthcare, such as environmental and public health and health research.

Lifestyle plays a major role in most of the illnesses in industrialised nations. 1 Six of the 10 leading factors contributing to the global burden of disease are lifestyle related: unsafe sex, high blood pressure, tobacco use, alcohol use, high cholesterol and obesity. 2 Lifestyle‐related illnesses also contribute to the rising costs of healthcare. Spending on healthcare accounts for about 16% of the gross domestic product in the USA, or US$1.9 trillion. 3 Although smoking has declined steadily there since the 1960s, smoking‐related medical expenses are still about US$75.5 billion per year. 4 Obesity, which has been climbing in the past two decades, accounts for about US$75 billion in healthcare costs there each year. 5 Alcoholism and drug addiction in the USA account for annual healthcare costs of about US$22.5 billion and US$12 billion, respectively. 6 , 7 Federal government spending on healthcare relating to HIV/AIDS is over US$13 billion per year. 8

Given the well‐documented relationship between lifestyle, disease burden and healthcare costs, it makes economic and medical sense to hold individuals morally responsible for their health‐related choices. While this view has a great deal of intuitive appeal, it also faces numerous objections. 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 First, holding individuals entirely responsible for their own health conflicts with medicine's obligation to treat the sick and society's obligation to take care of vulnerable people. 9 Second, it is unfair to hold individuals responsible for their own health if they cannot make sound health‐related choices because of ignorance, mental incompetence, addictive behaviors or cultural pressures. 10 Third, it would be exceedingly difficult to implement a system that holds individuals responsible for their own health, since diseases and disabilities result from a complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors. 11 Although individuals should play an important role in maintaining their own health, they should not be held entirely responsible for it. Assuming that responsibility for health rests either with individuals or with society, it follows that society should also help to promote health and prevent disease. 9 , 10

Assuming that society is partly responsible for the health of its members, however, does not settle the question of how it should fulfil this responsibility. Most of the discussion in bioethics and health policy has focused on society's obligation to provide access to healthcare. 13 Undoubtedly, ensuring access is an important social responsibility, but there are many other ways in which societies can promote health, such as through sanitation, pollution control, food and drug safety, health education, disease surveillance, urban planning and occupational health. Greater attention should be paid to strategies of promoting health other than access to healthcare, such as environmental and public health and health research.

In recent years, some scholars and professionals have begun to draw attention to a variety of other methods that societies can use to promote health. 14 , 15 , 16 These other methods address strategies for preventing disease through public or environmental health, or through health research. (For a partial list of strategies for health promotion, see Table 1 ​ 1 .)

Since there are many different methods that a society can use to take responsibility for health, and resources are scarce, questions about priority‐setting naturally arise. Where should society invest its resources? Which areas need the most money? Access to healthcare usually draws the lion's share of society's resources.

In 2006, the US federal government budgeted more than US$530 billion (20% of the federal budget) for Medicare and Medicaid, health programs for the poor and for senior citizens, respectively. 17 By comparison, in the same year it budgeted US$28.4 billion for the National Institutes of Health, which funds biomedical research and education; US$7.9 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency, which protects the air, soil and water from pollution; US$5.98 billion for the Centers for Disease Control, which help to promote public health at national level; US$1.48 billion for the Food and Drug Administration, which helps to ensure the safety of foods, drugs, cosmetics and medical devices; and 0.47 billion for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which sets workplace safety standards—for a total of US$44.23 billion, or less than 10% of the amount allocated to government healthcare programs. 17

Although promoting access to healthcare is a very important function of the government, society should consider placing a greater emphasis on other strategies for health promotion. There are several arguments for focusing more on these and less on access to healthcare.

(1) Many of the other strategies are highly cost‐effective. Many of them focus on ways of managing the social and physical environment to prevent illnesses. Food and drug regulation, health education, pollution control, occupational health, pesticide/chemical regulation, and disease surveillance/epidemiology deal with disease prevention. Prevention is generally more cost‐effective and medically efficacious than treatment, and it avoids unnecessary pain and suffering. 18 It is far better—economically, medically and ethically—to prevent obesity than to try to treat it once it occurs. In addition, many of the other strategies help potentially all people, not just those who happen to be sick. Everyone can benefit from clean air and water, sanitation, safe food, control of infection and pests, urban planning and disaster preparedness. Cost‐effectiveness is always an important consideration in social policy but becomes paramount when resources are extremely scarce. If a village must choose between building a reservoir for potable water and building a health clinic, the water may take precedence over the clinic, because more lives can be saved by ensuring access to clean water than by ensuring access to the health clinic.

(2) Many of the other strategies address problems that are beyond the ability of individuals to deal with. While individuals often have the ability to take care of their own health, they lack the ability to promote health at the population or environmental level. Government action is required to monitor diseases, control infections, engage in urban planning, guarantee the safety of food and drugs, minimize pollution and sponsor basic biomedical research. Even people who emphasize personal responsibility would admit that society should promote environmental health and public health, and even those who believe in a minimal government would admit that public health institutions are necessary to prevent sick people from harming healthy people.

3. Many of the other strategies are compatible with and may even encourage individual responsibility for health. One of the problems with emphasizing social responsibility for health is that this may encourage individuals to take less responsibility. Making society responsible for the health of individuals can further add to the passivity and dependence that happen when one becomes sick. 19 , 20 Even though modern medical ethics emphasizes patients' autonomy, many people seek medical care to receive a pill or some other intervention that will make them well. Many of the other strategies for health promotion can empower individuals to take responsibility for their own health. Education in safe sex, for example, provides individuals with information about how to avoid sexually transmitted diseases. Urban planning can give individuals the ability to make healthy choices concerning transportation, work and recreation by allowing them to choose walking or other forms of exercise. 21 People may still choose to drive a car to work or engage in unsafe sex, but they at least have the option of making a healthy choice.

Responsibility for health should be a collaborative effort among individuals and the societies in which they live. Individuals should care for their own health and help to pay for their own healthcare, and societies should promote health and help to finance the costs of healthcare. Though access to care tends to dominate discussions of social responsibility for health and often receives the largest portion of society's resources, one should not forget the importance of environmental health, public health and health research.

These other strategies can be highly cost‐effective and may even encourage personal responsibility, by creating social and physical environments that enable individuals to maintain health and avoid disease. Recognizing the importance of these other methods still leaves important ethical and political questions unanswered, such as how to decide the appropriate level of government funding for access to care, public health, environmental health and health research. I encourage others to address these issues.

Acknowledgements

This research is supported by the intramural program of the National Institute of Environmental Health Science, National Institutes of Health. It does not represent the views of those organisations.

Competing interests: none declared.

Why having a clean and healthy environment is a human right

It's a human right to live in a healthy, clean and sustainable environment. Image:  UNSPLASHAngela Benito

.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo{-webkit-transition:all 0.15s ease-out;transition:all 0.15s ease-out;cursor:pointer;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;outline:none;color:inherit;}.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo:hover,.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo[data-hover]{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;}.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo:focus,.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo[data-focus]{box-shadow:0 0 0 3px rgba(168,203,251,0.5);} Ty Greene

David sangokoya.

Listen to the article

• The WHO forecasts that climate change is expected to cause around 250,000 deaths per year between 2030 and 2050.
• After being first debated in the 1990s, the UN Human Rights Council declared that having a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is a human right.
• Leading civil society voices told us why this is so crucial to ensure a healthy environment for all.

On 8 October 2021, the UN Human Rights Council declared that having a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is a human right , with 43 votes in favor and 4 abstentions. The measure was first debated during the 1990s, and the new resolution follows decades of advocacy from various civil society groups.

The WHO forecasts that climate change is expected to cause around 250,000 deaths per year between 2030 and 2050, from factors such as malnutrition, malaria and heat stress, and that the direct costs will be between USD 2-4 billion per year by 2030. More than a quarter of the planet’s population rely on forests for their livelihood, while 1.2 billion people in tropical countries rely on nature for their basic needs.

Have you read?

Why local action is key in the fight against climate change, climate change: how wildfires are causing tree species to relocate.

Following the declaration, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said: “Bold action is now required to ensure this resolution on the right to a healthy environment serves as a springboard to push for transformative economic, social and environmental policies that will protect people and nature.”

We asked leading civil society voices what they think is needed from government, business and civil society to take action and mobilize efforts around ensuring and protecting a clean environment for all. Here’s what they said:

We need to reframe our relationship to nature

Gopal Patel, Co-Founder & Director, Bhumi Global

A reframing of our relationship with the natural world is needed in order to ensure we can provide everyone with a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. For too long we have artificially separated ourselves from nature. We’ve placed an artificial divide between ourselves and the natural world. Our politics, economic models and modern lifestyles reflect this.

This is not natural, and as we are seeing, not healthy or sustainable for the planet or for humanity. The human species is inextricably interconnected with nature. Throughout history, and in all parts of the world, nature is a common denominator. It is the basis of our civilizations, cultures and ways of life. A return to this way of thinking needs to be the basis of any meaningful action to restore the environment, address the climate crisis, and put nature on the path to recovery.

A social dialogue is needed

Kitso Phiri, Executive Secretary, Botswana Mine Workers Union

Realization of the right to a clean and hazardous free environment requires commitment to social dialogue by tripartite partners in reconciling economic and social interests. Although the laws generally make it mandatory for businesses to remedy environmental impacts caused by their economic activities, weak government regulatory mechanism makes enforcement an onerous exercise. These challenges are even more pronounced in the case of multinational enterprises. An equally weak civil society is disabled from monitoring the level of compliance with environmental obligations and provide meaningful contributions to environmental policy formulation and management.

Therefore, states should strengthen their environmental management policies and regulations; they should build capacities of civil society and government entities; provide additional funding for training and education of social partners; establish a tripartite social dialogue forums on environmental protection, inclusive of civil society.

A game-changer for people and the planet

Monica Iyer, Human Rights Officer, Environment and Climate Change Team, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

The Human Rights Council’s recognition that a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is a human right can be a game-changer for people and the planet.

But there is much more needed to make this right a reality for all. States must advance efforts to implement the right working hand-in-hand with civil society, businesses and other stakeholders. They must take urgent environmental action, backed by adequate finance, and support a just transition to a sustainable, human rights-based economy. Businesses should integrate environmental considerations in human rights due diligence processes, fully accounting for how the environmental effects of their activities can also affect human rights.

Those with power and access in fora where environmental policy is being developed, like COP26, should elevate the voices and leadership of affected individuals and communities, who are frequently excluded despite often having the most at stake and the best understanding of effective solutions. They should also promote and accept accountability for the harms caused by environmental damage.

The lives of women and vulnerable communities depend on clean air and clean water for all

Kahea Pacheco, Co-Director, Women’s Earth Alliance

An estimated 240 acres of natural habitat is destroyed every hour. Women and girls bear the brunt of this environmental degradation. While ~30% of humanity does not have access to safe drinking water, UNICEF acknowledges the 200 million hours that women and girls spend collecting water daily as a “colossal waste of their valuable time.” Evidence shows women's participation and decision making in management of local forests significantly improves forest conditions and conservation. And, leadership by Indigenous women, who have sustainably stewarded our natural world for generations, is crucial to preserving life without perpetuating the undue burden on already vulnerable communities.

Economic recovery and environmental action can go hand in hand

Jennifer Morris, Chief Executive Officer, The Nature Conservancy

The connection between human wellbeing and nature is indisputable. Governments, businesses and civil society must collaborate on every level to protect the ‘best’ of what is left on Earth and at sea, and improve areas of food production, energy siting, fishing and infrastructure planning. There is a clear path to funding this transformation by reducing ineffective subsidies and supply chain practices, producing new sources of funding and investing in a manner that pays dividends for nature.

In fact, we can close nearly half the biodiversity funding gap with no new funding, by reducing the flow of capital to harmful behaviors and shifting it toward activities that benefit nature. If done thoughtfully, economic recovery and environmental action can go hand in hand, leading to healthier, more prosperous lives.

This is a clarion call for public engagement and accountability

Amali Tower, Founder & Executive Director, Climate Refugees

The pandemic has made clear how shared our environment truly is, and also how unequal. Rich, high emitting countries that have benefited from the forces that created climate change are insulating themselves from those effects, in similar ways to the pandemic. This is a moral issue, but also one of justice. The most urgent changes needed are from these governments – crucially, the G20 countries – to reduce their emissions, which accounts for a staggering 80% of global emissions, and to fully transition to green economies. These countries need to grant, not loan, urgent climate adaptation finance that developing countries have long awaited so as to develop sustainably and build resiliency to the disproportionate impacts of climate change on their populations, many of whom are on the move. They also require parallel loss and damage climate finance to avert and minimize effects, and as compensation for the irreversible damage, forced migration and displacement.

Governments must also ratify and update their laws to uphold the right to a healthy environment to its full extent, including holding businesses, particularly extractive industries compliant. Environmental pollution and climate change have shown to be effective issues in empowering people to action, and climate related litigation has proven effective in Germany and the Netherlands , and in individual rights, where in France, pollution was a factor in determining a migrant’s residency rights . Civil society must seize this opportunity as a clarion call to mobilize public engagement and hold governments to account, where the greatest hope is in the resilient Global South and youth, pointing the way forward.

The right to a healthy environment offers hope to those most impacted

Katharina Rall, Senior Researcher, Environment & Human Rights, Human Rights Watch

The adoption of the resolution recognizing the right to a healthy environment could offer some hope to many communities around the world already hard-hit by environmental degradation and climate change. To make the enjoyment of the right a reality for those most impacted, governments should recognize the right at the national level and develop strong environmental protection laws and policies to safeguard the rights of at risk populations. This includes requiring businesses to comply with environmental and human rights standards, for example through mandatory climate change due diligence regulations, and ensuring broad participation in environmental decision making by civil society groups and impacted populations – including protecting environmental defenders under threat or attack.

Businesses should comply with existing laws and ensure that their operations, including their global value chains , do not negatively affect the environment or violate the rights of nearby communities, including through rigorous environmental and human rights due diligence. They should stop efforts to silence environmental advocates, for example through baseless nuisance lawsuits—known as strategic lawsuits against public participation , or SLAPPs—and align their business models with international environmental and human rights standards.

Sustainable Practices and Environmental Responsibility Essay

The WEF states that sustainability means not compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Can you think of any specific examples when a specific country made a decision that did not support this? What were the gains and sacrifices involved with not promoting sustainable practices?

Sustainability can be discussed as a high level of balance in solving the current environmental, social, and economic problems with references to the role of governance. Today the governments of the definite countries in North Africa are inclined not to follow the principles of sustainability with their intentions to achieve rapid economic growth by any means. In Egypt, the rapid urbanization, the development of industries, and not regular meeting the environmental requirements are affected by the necessity to gain direct economic benefits and shift the country to the new level.

Nevertheless, the overuse of the natural resources which is typical for the country and caused by the lack of the necessary supplies and the incorrect usage of these resources result in negative effects for the environment and, in combination with the aroused social problems, provokes the emergence of the problematic issues associated with the population’s welfare, employment, and health.

What do you think it would take for you to actively seek out sustainable products and services exclusively? Similarly, what types of programs, incentives, or policies would influence consumers, in general, to make the switch to only using sustainable goods and services?

To be sure that the item is worth buying, it is necessary to pay attention to the realization of the combination of such aspects as the quality of the item, its reasonable cost, and sustainability. In this case, sustainability can mean the production of the item according to the environmental protection requirements and its possible further successful recycling or utilization. Thus, the choice of sustainable products or eco-products can be considered as a contribution to the global policy of preserving natural resources and environmental protection.

Moreover, sustainable products can be discussed as more beneficial not only for social needs but also as more useful for people’s health. However, it is important not to force the public to seek out sustainable products, but to provide the necessary information about their usefulness as a means of the program and policy’s realization. It is necessary to focus on all the benefits and advantages of sustainable products such as the saving of energy and other possible resources.

The WEF cites survey data reflecting 86% of participants felt transparency in production for goods they were purchasing was important or very important to their decision. Given such a high response, do you feel the current economy is reflective of this survey response in consumer choices of goods and services? Please explain why or why not.

It is possible to state that those consumers who are interested in purchasing sustainable products or eco-products can also be interested in the peculiarities of the production of these goods which should address definite requirements of sustainability. Nevertheless, today the percentage of those people who choose mostly sustainable products with focusing on the details of their production is rather low in comparison with the amount of those people who prefer to satisfy their needs without references to the problem of different aspects of sustainability.

There is no developed and widely spread tendency to pay attention to the transparency in the production of the goods that is why the number which is presented in the survey can reflect the consumers’ intentions provided in their answers, but not the real situation in the market.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2021, January 27). Sustainable Practices and Environmental Responsibility. https://ivypanda.com/essays/sustainable-practices-and-environmental-responsibility/

"Sustainable Practices and Environmental Responsibility." IvyPanda , 27 Jan. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/sustainable-practices-and-environmental-responsibility/.

IvyPanda . (2021) 'Sustainable Practices and Environmental Responsibility'. 27 January.

IvyPanda . 2021. "Sustainable Practices and Environmental Responsibility." January 27, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/sustainable-practices-and-environmental-responsibility/.

1. IvyPanda . "Sustainable Practices and Environmental Responsibility." January 27, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/sustainable-practices-and-environmental-responsibility/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Sustainable Practices and Environmental Responsibility." January 27, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/sustainable-practices-and-environmental-responsibility/.

• Shaping the Future of Trade and Economic Interdependence
• Water, Energy and Food Sustainability in Middle East
• The Swedish World Economic Forum Elements
• Eco-Tourism and Eco-Cities
• Market for eco-friendly hotels
• Sustainability Measures in Eco-Homes
• Eco Tourism and Hospitality Industry
• Emirates: Eco Friendly Construction
• Eco-Labels: Environmental Issues in Business
• Social and Eco-Entrepreneurship for Environment
• The Implementation Deficit in the Niger Delta
• The Sustainability of Lifestyle
• The National Ganga River Basin Project
• Environmental Damage vs. Better Living Standards
• Strategic Environmental Sustainability

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• My Account Login
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts
• Review Article
• Open access
• Published: 13 July 2023

Integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria: their impacts on corporate sustainability performance

• Anrafel de Souza Barbosa   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3178-4149 1 ,
• Maria Cristina Basilio Crispim da Silva 1 ,
• Luiz Bueno da Silva 1 ,
• Sandra Naomi Morioka 1 &
• Vinícius Fernandes de Souza 2  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  10 , Article number:  410 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

19k Accesses

16 Citations

Metrics details

• Business and management
• Development studies
• Environmental studies

In a corporate sustainability context, scholars have been studying internal and external relations provided by Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria, mostly from the organizational perspective. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to map and analyze the literature on the impacts of integrating ESG criteria on corporate sustainability performance from different points of view. The methodology used followed the Preferred Report Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) guidelines, corroborated by a critical analysis. The results indicate that the integration of ESG criteria, observed from different perspectives, strengthens corporate sustainability performance. They also revealed narrowing gaps in the literature regarding methodological analysis. Most of the papers in the analyzed sample use company-level data and employ regression analysis in their analysis. The present study concludes that companies, regardless of nationality, follow the guidelines of ESG criteria integration and such procedure brings several benefits. It points to the lack of more confirmatory research approaches from a workers’ perspective, as the interest remains in the economic-environmental realm from the organizations’ point of view. The absence of such evidence points to a gap in the literature that suggests the need for new study initiatives.

Similar content being viewed by others

Toward a new understanding of environmental and financial performance through corporate social responsibility, green innovation, and sustainable development

Muddassar Sarfraz, Ilhan Ozturk, … Heesup Han

Who’s in and who’s out? Reading stakeholders and priority issues from sustainability reports in Turkey

Sibel Hoştut, Seçil Deren van het Hof, … Gülten Adalı

Assessments of the environmental performance of global companies need to account for company size

Rossana Mastrandrea, Rob ter Burg, … Franco Ruzzenenti

Introduction

The discussion surrounding the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria and corporate sustainability has gained significant momentum in recent years, primarily driven by the evolving societal expectations regarding new models of production and consumption (Nishitani et al., 2021 ). Until the mid-1990s, according to Clarkson ( 1995 ), the focus of companies’ success was primarily centered on satisfying the needs of a single stakeholder, namely the shareholder. However, as time passed and the panorama shifted, particularly influenced by public policy changes, this perspective has undergone transformations. Gradually, other stakeholders have exerted pressure on companies, resulting in the integration of corporate sustainability into the strategic management of organizations, leading them to practice the ESG criteria (Wang et al., 2018 ).

Corporate sustainability performance refers to a company’s ability to operate in a manner that upholds ecological integrity, social well-being, and sound governance principles, while simultaneously generating value for its shareholders (Ahmad et al., 2023 ; Luque-Vílchez et al., 2023 ). It encompasses the effective management of environmental resources, fostering positive social relationships, and maintaining high standards of ethical conduct (Bellandi, 2023 ). The assessment of corporate sustainability performance requires the evaluation of both qualitative and quantitative indicators, examining various dimensions such as environmental stewardship, social responsibility, and corporate governance (Sandberg et al., 2022 ).

ESG criteria are used to assess corporate sustainability and ethical performance of companies and investments (Arora and Sharma, 2022 ). They are adopted by corporations to monitor and control the impacts of business activities on internal and external environments (Viranda et al., 2020 ). They mainly include: (i) collecting information; (ii) developing solutions; (iii) dealing with ESG issues in compliance with standards; (iv) conducting training; and (v) providing good communication (Boiral, 2002 ; Montabon et al., 2007 ; Merli and Preziosi, 2018 ). ESG criteria include prevention and preservation performance indicators (Gond et al., 2012 ). Besides, it requires coordination between the environmental department and other departments within companies, and balance between sustainable development goals and other corporate goals.

ESG criteria incorporates environmental, social, and governance factors into investment and business decision-making processes, and involves conditions relevant to traditional financial metrics when analyzing investments or valuing companies (Madden, 2022 ). These conditions can include metrics such as carbon emissions, water usage, employee diversity, labor practices, board diversity, executive compensation, etc. Thus, ESG criteria provide quantitative and qualitative information about a company’s sustainability practices and their potential impact on various stakeholders (Khalil et al., 2022 ; Uyar et al., 2023 ).

ESG integration involves incorporating environmental, social and governance indicators into investment and business decision-making processes. Instead of considering ESG criteria as separate from financial analysis, integration recognizes their materiality and incorporates them alongside traditional financial analysis. This integration can happen at various stages of the investment process, including portfolio construction, risk assessment, due diligence, and ongoing monitoring. Integration aims to identify and manage risks and opportunities related to ESG criteria, ultimately seeking to enhance long-term investment performance and sustainability (Gebhardt et al., 2022 ; Harasheh and Provasi, 2023 ).

ESG criteria provide the data and metrics to assess a company’s sustainability and ethical performance, while the integration involves incorporating these criteria into investment and business decision-making processes to better understand and manage the potential impacts on financial performance and corporate sustainability (Alda, 2021 ; Sahoo and Kumar, 2022 ).

In this sense, the integration of the ESG criteria has become an instrument responsible for defining, planning, operationalizing and executing the actions of corporations directed at environmental prevention and preservation, in addition to social responsibility and the quality performance of their activities (Barbosa et al., 2021 ).

Both from the standpoint of Sustainable Development Goals and the company response to shifting consumer preferences, interest in corporate sustainability has been increasing importance (Boulhaga et al., 2022 ). When looking for the relationship between the implementation of the ESG criteria and the corporate sustainability, the literature presents a heterogeneous scenario. Some researchers advocate a positive relationship (Harymawan et al., 2022 ; Kim et al., 2022 ), and others have confirmed a negative relationship (Rajesh and Rajendran, 2020 ).

As is the case with research by Lee and Isa ( 2022 ), they find a positive relationship between the implementation of ESG criteria and financial performance, suggesting that ESG criteria can increase company value. In addition, the authors also find evidence that the disclosure of ESG criteria can improve the relationship with corporate sustainability performance. Already in the study by Xu et al. ( 2022 ), the heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that the negative relationship between ESG disclosure and the risk of falling stock prices is more significant in state-owned companies, companies with higher agency costs and in companies in the development phase.

Although the results are ambiguous, there are several positive examples of the relationship between the ESG criteria and the corporate sustainability, which influences the reasons why research on sustainable business models has been carried out and why organizations are changing their business model in the direction of sustainability. Additionally, there is a lot of pressure to consider ESG factors when making decisions, particularly from capital investors and financial institutions (Jonsdottir et al., 2022 ; Park and Oh, 2022 ).

Organizations responding to the pressure to implement ESG criteria must manage environmental, social, and economic risks (Triple Bottom Line) and understand their short, medium, and long-term impacts (Bravi et al., 2020 ). To this end, many companies adopt management systems related to ESG criteria to integrate elements of the Triple Bottom Line, address stakeholder needs, and mitigate risks (Esquer-Peralta et al., 2008 ).

Thus, the ESG criteria cannot be seen only as a cost, since they can bring benefits to the company and be a competitive advantage over competitors (Barbosa et al., 2023 ; Zhang et al., 2021 ).

That said, the need for an innovative and coherent research field focused on ESG issues increases as environmental, social, and governance problems intensifies (Vanderley, 2020 ).

The literature has already discussed the research situation, qualitatively and quantitatively, regarding ESG criteria through the prism of corporations, usually in the context of trying to improve the field’s problem-solving ability in relation to companies’ concerns and practices. Baumgartner and Rauter’s ( 2017 ) research addresses the strategic perspectives of corporate sustainability management to develop sustainable organizations and promote the integration of ESG criteria into business activities and techniques.

This narrow interpretation is criticized by several scholars as being insufficiently analytical, as well as lacking a rigorous appreciation of the historical basis of human-environment interaction, highlighting worker perception (Bryant and Wilson, 1998 ; Herghiligiu et al., 2019 ).

Existing research on ESG criteria primarily focuses on the corporate perspective (Bourcet, 2020 ; Khanchel et al., 2023 ; Tsang et al., 2023 ). However, this literature review did not identify any references that support the worker’s perspective or address their involvement in organizational management, as highlighted by Ouni et al. ( 2020 ).

Therefore, this study aims to map and analyze the literature on the impacts of integrating ESG criteria on corporate sustainability performance through different points of view. The research will employ both qualitative and quantitative analysis and consider the viewpoints of both employers and employees. This study aims to fill the existing gap in the literature, as no significant research has yet converged in this direction.

As is the case with the research of Huang ( 2021 ), who conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) to examine the link between ESG activities and organizational financial performance, focusing on the institutional aspect. Similarly, Taliento et al. ( 2019 ), who investigated the impact of ESG factors on economic performance, emphasizing the corporate sustainability advantage and business understanding.

This research holds significance due to the growing global efforts to establish ESG criteria and mitigate environmental, social, and economic risks (Triple Bottom Line) for sustainable development. It aims to comprehend how these risks can affect sustainable development in the short, medium, and long-term, considering both organizational and collaborative perspectives (workers) (Bravi et al., 2020 ).

In this sense, the main objective of this paper is to map and analyze the literature on the impacts of integrating ESG criteria on corporate sustainability performance through different points of view. To achieve the proposed objective, the investigation addressed the following research questions:

What are the main features of the literature on ESG criteria?

What are the main methodological approaches used to study ESG criteria impact on corporate sustainability?

What are the main impacts of integrating ESG criteria on corporate sustainability performance observed in the literature?

This paper is divided into six sections, including this introduction (section 1). Section “Theoretical backgrounds: Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria” refers to the theoretical foundation on the ESG criteria and the construction of the research hypotheses. Subsequently, in section “Methodological procedures”, the methodological procedures of the research are discussed. In section “Results”, the results are developed. Then, in section “Discussion”, a discussion is carried out. And, finally, in section “Conclusion”, the research conclusions are highlighted.

Theoretical backgrounds: Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria

The ESG criteria are about the set of organizational practices that considers in its context environmental, social, and governance factors, with a view to achieving long-term sustainability (Sultana et al., 2018 ). The proportionality of these three aspects in business management has the purpose of analyzing the operations in a holistic way, not limited merely to the economic and financial aspects (Cek and Eyupoglu, 2020 ). In this sense, the economic, transparency and ethical precepts are articulated, seeking to ensure the competitiveness and the perdurability of a company. (Oncioiu et al., 2020 ).

The environmental dimension involves assessing the corporation’s carbon footprint, natural resource usage (energy consumption and efficiency), recycling policies, waste management, and efforts to minimize environmental impacts (Rajesh, 2020 ). The social dimension encompasses the company’s relationships with employees, suppliers, partners, clients, and communities. It includes promoting diversity, non-discrimination, gender pay equality, equal opportunities, employee education, and community protection (Li and Wu, 2020 ). The governance dimension focuses on leadership, internal controls, executive compensation, audits, shareholder rights, anti-corruption policies, and transparency and accountability practices (Cek and Eyupoglu, 2020 ).

ESG criteria, also known as sustainable or socially responsible investments, assist investors in assessing companies’ initiatives and commitment to environmental, social, and governance issues. These criteria can be applied internally or externally in a company’s management (Du Rietz, 2018 ).

That said, compliance with ESG policies and practices is increasingly important to investors, employees, and customers, shaping company perception and performance evaluation beyond financial measures (Beretta et al., 2019 ).

While ESG indicators may vary by region, market, and industry, there are emerging best practices in the corporate world (Khalid et al., 2021 ). Thus, an example of ESG practices can be observed through the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), created by initiative of investors in partnership with the United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) and the UN Global Compact, with the aim of guiding the market in the pursuit of responsible development (Bauckloh et al., 2021 ; Naffa and Fain, 2020 ).

Therefore, one way to find out whether a particular organization is sustainable is to evaluate its performance by ESG indexes. However, these indexes have limitations as they may not capture the multidimensional aspects of ESG criteria comprehensively. Consequently, a broader focus on ESG criteria is needed, considering corporate sustainability performance.

Methodological procedures

There are distinct alternatives that can be appreciated in the deployment of a SLR, comprising a bibliometric approach, meta-analysis (Hunter et al., 1986 ) and content analysis approaches. (White and McCain, 1998 ). These three techniques were applied in the present study. The scope of this study provides qualitative and quantitative analysis of publications, in the synthesis and assimilation of the most explored academic research and authors with the support of citation analysis, as well as in the critical analysis of the sample of articles collected.

To address the research aims, which is to map and analyze the literature on the impacts on corporate sustainability performance provided by the integration of ESG criteria, this study relied on two procedures. The first procedure was a consistent and robust SLR materialized according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) methodology, which blends reference analysis, network analysis, and content analysis. The second method was a critical in-depth analysis of a specific sample of articles collected through the PRISMA structured procedure, which integrated and supported the initial technique, as already used in the sustainability literature (Bolis et al., 2014 ).

Primary procedure: PRISMA methodology

The PRISMA methodology is a directive that aims to provide scholars to improve the peculiarity of the externalization of research information, as well as to guide in the critical conjecture of a review of articles already published (Page et al., 2021 ).

Eligibility and ineligibility criteria

The documents eligible for the sample of this research were those published in the last 5 years (period from 2017 to March 2022); belonging to the study domain of environmental, social and governance areas (research area); considered exclusively as research articles (document type); disseminated only in scientific journals (journals ); written only in English language (language); and intrinsic to the topic of this research. The ineligible studies were those without a well-defined scientific structure, those without relevant data implicated in the theme of this research, those without access to the text ( in press ), and those that did not propose quantitative analysis (as this is a relevant point for future research).

Selection of the scientific databases

As a basis for this SLR and starting to answer the questions listed to achieve the objective of this study, the initial sample of articles followed systematic strategies that were adopted to consult the bibliometric databases until March 2022. Three scientific knowledge bases, Scopus , Web of Science ( WoS ), and Science Direct ( SD ) were used in to identify studies related to the ESG criteria.

The level of quality, the number of publications, the area of knowledge, and the set of metadata essential for the analysis of the references (including titles, abstracts, keywords, year of publication, number of citations, list of authors, countries, among others) were the criteria of choice for these 3 scientific databases. Scopus is one of the largest scientific knowledge bases of peer-reviewed literature (Morioka and de Carvalho, 2016 ). WoS can cover all indexed journals with an impact factor calculated in JCR ( Journal Citation Report ) (Carvalho et al., 2013 ). And SD combines reliable full-text publications in the scientific, technical and health fields (Direct, 2020 ). Another factor also considered was that all 3 databases provide metadata compatible with Mendeley reference analysis software (Carvalho et al., 2013 ).

Sampling procedure

The sampling procedure used to screen the articles was search by search terms, which were adapted for each defined bibliographic database. This was performed in March 2022. The keyword terms for the investigation were applied as follows: ("Environmental, Social, and Governance") AND (Impact* OR Effect* OR Performanc* OR Integrat*) AND (Sustainab*).

The initial searches are shown in Table 1 .

The first triage was applied as " Article title, Abstract, Keywords " in Scopus , as " Topic " in WoS and as " Title, abstract or author-specified keywords " in SD resulting in 5,760 collected documents ("Initial Sample"). Then, the primary parameter for refining the references was run as " Publication Years ", reducing the number of records by 1,152 documents. The secondary elimination criterion was applied as " Topic Area ", synthesizing the sample into 580 searches.

Continuing with the exclusion process, the third suppression factor was submitted as " Document Type ", summarizing the records into 486 studies. Subsequently, "Source Type" was used as the fourth parameter of reference reduction, reducing the records by 3 documents. Subsequently, the penultimate refinement requirement was performed as " Language ", subtracting 9 more references. Finally, the reading of the titles and abstracts of the articles was used as the sixth ground for the refinement of the sample as " Off Topic ", restricting to 3,172 documents that did not directly address the topic of this study. Thus, the quantity of rejected documents was 5,402 references, resulting in a sample of 358 research articles selected from the 3 scientific databases.

The references were then entered into Mendeley software to verify the intersections of studies between the databases. The triage identified 229 duplicate documents, which were excluded, reducing the sample to 129 articles. Subsequently, an isolated analysis of each of the 129 selected publications was performed to assess compatibility with the eligibility and ineligibility criteria focusing on the adequacy to the research premises and quality parameters related to the methodological peculiarity of the publications. This analysis resulted in an exclusion of 82 studies. The "Remaining Sample" became 47 research articles.

After rejecting studies that did not satisfy the "Initial Sample" pre-selection process, that were in duplicate, and that did not have the eligibility criteria, the snowball method was applied (Yin et al., 2020 ). The references were expanded to incorporate other studies that were cited in the 47 articles in the "Remaining Sample". The total number of records selected through the snowball technique was 2 studies ("Additional Sample"). The inclusion of the additional articles followed the same eligibility (except for the year of publication) and ineligibility criteria cited in section “Eligibility and ineligibility criteria”. Thus, the "Final Sample" for the conduct of this SLR was 49 research articles.

Reference analysis

Data tabulation and grouping strategies directed the stratification of information and a narrative synopsis. A spreadsheet ( Microsoft Excel 2021) and Mendeley software were used to manage the selected articles to transcribe predominant methodological minutiae of each research study comprising the assessment instrument used, the setting, participants, and substantive findings in terms of validity and credibility. The number of publications summarized by year and journal was the initial parameter of the reference analysis process. This resource made it possible to see how the records succeeded over the years and to discriminate the journals that repeatedly dealt with the theme of this research.

Network analysis

In this step, with the assistance of the VOSviewer software , the network analysis was performed, considering the compatibility of keywords and authors were analyzed through clustering diagrams. The first citation network developed was that of most relevant keywords. The second network developed was that of co-citations, which shows the degree of equivalence between the references presenting the articles mentioned together. The analysis of this network can help assimilate the intellectual character of a field and map the thematic similarities of scholars and the aspect of how groups of researchers relate to each other (Pilkington and Liston-Heyes, 1999 ).

Another analysis performed was on the methodological approaches applied among the studies. For this diagnosis, a deductive multivariate approach was applied based on the theoretical foundation and knowledge from the references. This analysis used insights extracted from the keywords and the analysis of important topics.

Content analysis

Each article included in the final sample was specifically cataloged using Mendeley software that comprised the metadata generated by scientific databases. For the content analysis, the articles were classified in order to consider the tools applied, the scope of application, the relevant industries, the research objectives, and the advantages and limitations of the process required to obtain the research results.

Secondary procedure: critical (interpretative) analysis

Critical analysis is a research skill outlined to contribute to the interpretation of complex issues to understand specific conjunctures (Gil-Guirado et al., 2021 ). Critical analysis involves multiple iterative cycles of interpreting and perceiving the content of parts of the phenomena of interest, and this assimilation of the parts entails a better understanding of the contexts as a whole (Valor et al., 2018 ).

To deepen the assimilation of the contexts, each researcher involved forms an understanding of their perspective in continuous cycles until a "cognitive fusion" is achieved resulting in a better conception of the phenomena. This approach does not aim to construct a theory, but rather to infer a better understanding of the contexts (Bolis et al., 2014 ). Thus, to complement the answers to the questions of this research, critical analysis was applied, which involved dialectical reasoning cycles to identify the understanding (systematization of applicable processes to determine the meaning and scope of methodologies) of researchers on the impacts of integrating ESG criteria on corporate sustainability performance with the aim of finding the "cognitive fusion".

The initial cycle demanded a series of reviews, syntheses, and interpretations of the sample of articles collected in the structured procedure (PRISMA). In the next cycle, the collaborative critical process was adhered to, resulting in the refinement of the main methodological characteristics fragmented by each ESG criterion. Later, in the final interpretive cycle, the procedures of the first two cycles were analyzed, which provided additional perspectives and insights that complemented the previous interpretations.

Risk of bias

To assess the methodological quality of the included articles, the Prediction Study Trend Risk Assessment Tool (PROBAST) was used. (Wolff et al., 2019 ). This tool includes 20 questions divided into four domains (participants, predictors, outcome, and analysis). The risk of bias for each domain was rated as low risk, high risk, or very unclear to judgment (Wolff et al., 2019 ). Two researchers of the present study independently assessed the risk of bias of the included articles and performed an evaluation by qualitative analysis. Disagreements were resolved by consensus with a third reviewer.

The document collection strategy yielded 129 records, and after screening titles and abstracts and applying eligibility and ineligibility criteria, 49 articles were selected for this systematic literature review (SLR). Please refer to Fig. 1 for the SLR flow diagram.

Source: Adapted from Page et al. ( 2021 ).

Consistent with Nishitani et al.’s ( 2021 ) assertion, Fig. 2 demonstrates the contemporary nature of discussions on ESG criteria and corporate sustainability, indicating their recent consolidation. In this specific context, the eligibility and ineligibility criteria of the articles were disregarded, and only a keyword search for "Environmental, Social, and Governance" was conducted across three databases. This was solely done to quantify the research related to the theme.

Source: Scopus , WoS , and SD .

It is evident that there has been an increasing number of studies focused on ESG criteria over the years, with a peak of 649 research articles in 2021 (an average of 54 articles per month). This trend aligns with the growing interest of organizations in implementing ESG criteria (Qureshi et al., 2021 ).

Literature overview

Starting to answer the first research question ( What are the main characteristics of the literature on ESG criteria? ), an overview of the literature was conducted based on descriptive statistics of the sample of 49 selected articles. Table 2 presents the most influential studies. It lists the publications with 20 or more citations in the Scopus database.

The study that stood out the most was that of Xie et al. ( 2019 ), which investigates whether environmental, social, and governance activities improve corporate financial performance, with 115 citations over 3 years, an average of 38 citations/year; followed by the respective research of Garcia et al. ( 2017 ), which highlights the sensitive emerging market sectors in relation to improved ESG performance, published in the year 2017 and has 104 citations; and by Qureshi et al. ( 2020 ), which analyzes the moderating role of the impact of sustainability disclosure and board diversity on firm value, with 41 citations in 2 year, both averaging approximately 21 citations per year.

The articles of the core sample were designated from the network analysis of keywords, a quantitative technique practiced to identify the repercussion and expressiveness of an author or an article (Garfield and Morman, 1981 ). Nevertheless, this methodology should also take into account the relevance of the journal, besides computing the average annual citation (Carvalho et al., 2013 ), as shown in Table 2 .

That said, Fig. 3 shows, through the network analysis of the VOSviewer software , the relationship between the keywords and the articles in the designated sample, with recurrences of at least 2 times (this implies that terms that appear only once were not displayed). Other points to be observed are that the more consistent (full-bodied) the meshes the stronger the connections and the larger the points (nodes) of connections the more relevance they have.

Source: Scopus, WoS , and SD .

Network analysis enables a better explanation of the consonance between the terms discovered, as well as simplifying the differentiation between the groupings literally associated with its operating principles.

There were 4 sets of keywords identified. Of the 4 sets of the keyword network analysis, 3 contain the term " ESG " and its variations. In the case of the terms " sustainability and performance ", all 4 clusters register their presence. This demonstrates that the search terms adopted were assertive, since it can be seen that they adhere to the proposed theme.

The research by Zhang et al. ( 2020 ), which discusses how ESG initiatives affect innovation performance for corporate sustainability; and the research of Xu et al. ( 2021 ), which examines the impacts of research and development (R&D) investment and ESG performance on green innovation performance; ratify the cited adherence.

Research topics: the main methodologies

The predominant impacts addressed in the sample of 49 scientific studies collected, classified by level of analysis and methodological interpellation, are evidenced in Table 3 , which already awakens the dissolution to the second research question ( What are the main methodological approaches used to study ESG criteria impact on corporate sustainability? ).

A content analysis of the full texts of the articles selected for this SLR was performed and it was found that approximately 87.75% of the studies (43 references) were conducted using information from companies through databases. Analyzes were quantitative, 46 studies, approximately 93.87%, applied regression analysis. Of these, 6 investigations, approximately 13.04%, implemented structural equation modeling. These results, corroborate the conjuncture that there is no evidence in the literature regarding research allusive to a mapping and quantitative analysis of the impacts of the integration of ESG criteria on corporate sustainability performance, from an employee’s perspective.

By Fig. 4 , it can be distinguished that the organizations’ commitment does not focus exclusively on financial performance (12 studies), but also prioritizes corporate sustainability (12 studies).

Financial performance and corporate sustainability were investigated in approximately 49% of the research (24 records), proving corporate concern for both sustainable development and economic performance. Landi et al. ( 2022 ), highlight this awareness in their investigation of the incorporation of sustainability into risk management and the impacts on financial performance. Taken together, these practices have the potential to minimize cost and risk, enhance the company’s reputation and legitimacy, intensify innovation, and solidify growth paths and trajectories, all of which are vitally important to stakeholder value creation. (Ting et al., 2020 ).

The corporate sustainability performance disclosed through the ESG criteria was investigated in an attempt to demonstrate the quality of an organization, because through environmental, social, and governance analysis, it is possible to determine how the company positions itself in relation to society and the planet, in addition to offering more transparency to the investor (Mohammad and Wasiuzzaman, 2021 ).

Figure 5 displays a broad view of the amount of research performed around the world according to the sample of articles selected for this SLR.

It can be seen that Europe stands out in the evolution of ESG criteria with approximately 32.65% of research, with the highest visibility for Italy and Spain. The research by Conca et al. ( 2021 ), on the impacts of ESG reports in European agri-food companies; and (Baraibar-Diez and Odriozola, 2019 ), related to the effects of ESG parameters on the social responsibility committees of European corporations, highlight the aforementioned evolutionary prominence.

Figure 6 displays the most often consulted databases to collect information about the ESG criteria of the listed companies for their corporate sustainability performance.

Source: Table 3 .

Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg databases stand out because they are providers of reliable answers that help organizations make confident decisions and better manage business (Alsayegh et al., 2020 ). This reinforces the fact that most studies use publicly available data to measure ESG, whether than collect the ESG criteria for the companies under investigation.

Critical analysis

Critical analysis is a method of study for understanding difficult and complex situations, especially when interpretations of the same articulation are possible and competing. It is a form of text analysis and has been handled to discover their original meanings and how they are interpreted (Shephard et al., 2019 ).

Thus, complementing the results of the primary approach (PRISMA method), a critical analysis was implemented based on the selection of 49 articles considered for discussion. The aim was to answer the third question of this research ( What are the main impacts of integrating ESG criteria on corporate sustainability performance observed in the literature? ). Table 4 shows the main perceptions of the fragmented research according to each of the ESG criteria.

The cycles of the critical analysis involved a series of reviews, syntheses, and interpretations of ESG criteria affecting corporate sustainability performance identified in the 49 selected articles corroborating the structured process of this SLR. The results are shown in Tables 3 and 4 , which summarize the focus of the research, the methodologies applied, and the main gaps, contributions, and limitations of the studies.

In this SLR, the need for future empirical studies was also identified. There are still several research questions that need to be answered in depth. Some propositions for future investigations and possible research questions are outlined in Table 5 .

Analyzing the risk of bias in scientific research is of paramount importance as it can significantly impact the validity and reliability of research findings. It helps ensure that research outcomes accurately reflect reality and can be trusted by other researchers, policymakers, and the public (McGuinness and Higgins, 2021 ). Reproducibility is a fundamental principle of scientific research and transparently analyzing bias allows researchers to identify potential pitfalls and enhance the reproducibility of their work. Ethical considerations are also important as biased research can lead to harm, perpetuate discrimination, or favor specific individuals or groups unjustly (Marshall et al., 2015 ). Analyzing bias helps to improve the quality of evidence available for decision-making processes and ensures that the scientific literature remains reliable, allowing researchers to build upon a solid foundation of unbiased evidence. By carefully evaluating and addressing bias, researchers can enhance the quality and impact of their work (Reveiz et al., 2015 ; Wang et al., 2022 ).

In accordance with Table 6 (PROBAST diagnostics), most (93.9%) of the included research evidenced a minimal risk of bias and a low concern for applicability. The participants were the companies selected in each study; the predictors were the variables measured; the results were verified by the mathematical models; and the analysis, encompass the techniques used. The quality of the studies included in this study was rated from satisfactory to excellent.

Drawing upon rigorous research, this paper elucidates the prominent features that have appeared from the examination of ESG criteria. Table 2 and Fig. 3 show the repercussion, expressiveness and relevance of studies, authors, and journals.

The content analysis highlighted in Table 3 found that the literature on ESG criteria were carried out with information from companies through databases and applied regression analysis. These findings support the idea that there is no evidence in the study literature that maps or quantifies the effects of incorporating ESG criteria on corporate sustainability performance from the viewpoint of employees.

Ouni et al. ( 2020 ), in their study on the mediating role of ESG strands in relation to executive board gender diversity and corporate financial performance, highlighted the need for future research that focuses not only on organizational understanding, but especially on the perception of women (workers) themselves, as board members, of their role and their contribution to financial performance, which strengthens the gap characterized in this SLR.

Researchers employ various methodologies to study ESG criteria, allowing for nuanced insights and robust analysis (see Table 3 ). Quantitative studies utilize large-scale data sets, statistical models, and financial indicators to explore the relationship between ESG criteria and financial performance, risk management, and firm valuation (Alkaraan et al., 2022 ; Mavlutova et al., 2022 ). Qualitative research methods employ interviews, case studies, and content analysis to investigate the organizational processes, stakeholder perceptions, and contextual factors that influence ESG practices and outcomes (Petavratzi et al., 2022 ). Some studies adopt an integrated approach by combining quantitative and qualitative methods to gain a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted nature of ESG criteria. These integrated approaches contribute to a holistic understanding of ESG-related phenomena (Aldowaish et al., 2022 ; Rehman et al., 2021 ).

Recognizing the strengths and limitations of methodologies, researchers have increasingly adopted mixed-methods approaches to investigate the impact of ESG criteria on corporate sustainability, integrating data collection and analysis processes to provide a comprehensive understanding of the research problem (Gebhardt et al., 2022 ). This approach allows researchers to triangulate findings, validate results, and gain a more nuanced perspective on the relationship between ESG criteria and corporate sustainability (Harasheh and Provasi, 2023 ). By leveraging the strengths of methodologies, research offers a more holistic and robust approach to studying complex phenomena.

The positive relationship of voluntary disclosure of corporate sustainability through the ESG criteria of organizations found in this study (see Table 4 ) provides evidence that the implementation of environmental and social strategies within an efficient system of corporate governance in the company strengthens the performance of corporate sustainability. The results also show that environmental performance and social performance are significantly positively related to sustainable economic performance, indicating that the corporation’s economic value and the creation of value for society are interdependent.

A similar fact was also found in the investigation of Zhang et al. ( 2020 ), on environmental, social and governance initiatives that affect innovative performance for corporate sustainability, which revealed that corporate governance initiatives play a moderating role in the relationship between environmental initiatives and performance innovation and the relationship between social initiatives and innovative performance.

Shaikh ( 2021 ), in his study on ESG practices and solid performance, explains the importance of voluntary reporting of non-financial indicators and a company’s responsibility towards stakeholders, reflected in the corporation’s accounting performance.

Integrating ESG criteria into business practices can have potential negative impacts, although specific effects may vary depending on context and implementation. As shown by the investigations of Wasiuzzaman et al. ( 2022 ), which verifies the extent to which culture can affect the relationship between ESG disclosure and company performance, evidencing the negative impact on the profitability of energy companies; and of Suttipun and Yordudom ( 2022 ), which analyzes the extent, level and trend of ESG disclosure in companies in Thailand, to test the different levels between high and low profile industries, which found a negative impact of governance disclosure on market reaction . Another example is the research of Yu et al. ( 2020 ), about Greenwashing in ESG disclosures, which identified organizations’ manipulations of ESG disclosures to increase market value.

While these concerns exist, effectively integrating ESG criteria can drive long-term value creation, risk management and stakeholder confidence. Implementing robust ESG practices requires careful consideration, transparency, and ongoing evaluation to mitigate potential negative impacts and ensure sustainable results.

The main objective of this article is to map and analyze the literature concerning the impacts of the integration of ESG criteria on corporate sustainability performance. To this end, an SLR was performed using the PRISMA methodology, with the intention of selecting the most relevant articles.

Figure 2 revealed an increase in the number of publications on ESG criteria. In 2017, there were only 97 published papers. Already in 2021, this number expanded to 649 manuscripts, an evolution of approximately 570%.

The references were systematically appraised using a hybrid approach that combined literature review methodologies, including structured and objective techniques such as bibliometric analysis, network analysis, and content analysis, to identify key highlights and gaps in the literature related to the theme of this investigation; as well as subjective text interpretation technique (critical analysis), to robust the structured analysis.

This study assisted in diagnosing the methodologies addressed and narrowing the gaps in the literature in four ways. Initially, the article presents a bibliometric analysis with a perspective on ESG criteria and sustainability performance based on the sampling of 49 research studies outlining the main papers and journals (according to Table 2 ). Subsequently, with the aid of network analysis the main keywords were highlighted (see Fig. 3 ).

Next, based on an in-depth content analysis, the article presents the main study highlights, the focus of the research, and the stratification of methods (Table 3 ). Finally, the critical analysis is juxtaposed to consolidate the initial structured analysis (Table 4 ).

Several authors have discussed the topic addressed by this SLR, such as Lokuwaduge and Heenetigala ( 2017 ), who made an interpellation of the integration of ESG precepts for an organizational sustainable development. Another reference is the paper by Bouslah et al. ( 2013 ), which analyzed the ESG dimensions and corporate risks.

But there is no evidence, to the knowledge of the authors of this paper, in the sample selected for this SLR, of research on a mapping and quantitative analysis of the impacts of integrating of ESG criteria on corporate sustainability performance as a result of workers’ perceptions. The study points out the lack of more confirmatory research approaches applying a multidimensional perspective of workers, as the interest remains in the economic-environmental perspective from the organizations’ point of view. It was also found that none of the studies listed made use of other types of diagnostic instruments diverging from the databases.

That said, the absence of such evidence highlights a gap in the literature that suggests the need for new study initiatives to fill it.

In addition to the opportunities for future studies proposed in Table 5 , future researches could explore the developing standardized metrics, common metrics that are relevant across different sectors and geographies; the relationship between ESG and financial performance, mechanisms behind this relationship, such as the impacts of ESG criteria on customer loyalty or employee satisfaction; the impacts of ESG criteria on non-financial stakeholders, such as employees, customers, and communities; the role of technology in ESG, such as artificial intelligence and blockchain in ESG reporting and decision-making; and on emerging ESG issues, such as the impact of climate change on supply chains or the ethical considerations of artificial intelligence.

Therefore, it would be important to establish standards and parameters that allow companies to understand and evaluate ESG criteria. In this sense, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) could develop a global standardization on ESG that defines parameters, guidelines, and criteria with quality indicators, in line with the ISO 9001 standard already recognized worldwide.

This exploratory work highlights as a contribution the aspect of guiding corporations in understanding how the integration of ESG criteria can positively impact corporate sustainability performance, providing investment optimization and better business planning.

Furthermore, some important conclusions related to the ESG criteria can be obtained. It was observed that companies, regardless of nationality, follow the guidelines of ESG criteria integration and such procedure brings many benefits, such as: improving the organization’s image with stakeholders; increasing the corporation’s competitiveness; promoting corporate sustainability; improving the conjuncture in relation to gender diversity; improving intellectual opportunities; among others.

This research has limitations related to the use of keyword search engines and the filters of the selected databases. The keyword groups are asked to be elaborated in diverse ways, so the combinatorial analysis of the groupings may bring different answers. The filters of the scientific databases have disparate search characteristics, which may cause divergences in the answers. Another limitation was the critical analysis that may have generated an interpretation bias. Nevertheless, the PROBAST method and the systematic multi-method approach applied (bibliometric, network analysis, and content analysis) helped to mitigate this limitation.

Data availability

Data sharing is not applicable to this research as no data were generated or analyzed.

Aboud A, Diab A (2019) The financial and market consequences of environmental, social and governance ratings: the implications of recent political volatility in Egypt. Sustain Account Manag Policy J 10:498–520. https://doi.org/10.1108/SAMPJ-06-2018-0167

Article   Google Scholar  

Ahmad H, Yaqub M, Lee SH (2023) Environmental-, social-, and governance-related factors for business investment and sustainability: a scientometric review of global trends. Environ Dev Sustain https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-023-02921-x

Alda M (2021) The environmental, social, and governance (ESG) dimension of firms in which social responsible investment (SRI) and conventional pension funds invest: The mainstream SRI and the ESG inclusion. J Clean Prod 298:126812. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126812

Aldowaish A, Kokuryo J, Almazyad O, Goi HC (2022) Environmental, social, and governance integration into the business model: literature review and research agenda. Sustain. 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14052959

Alkaraan F, Albitar K, Hussainey K, Venkatesh VG (2022) Corporate transformation toward Industry 4.0 and financial performance: the influence of environmental, social, and governance (ESG). Technol Forecast Soc Change 175:121423. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121423

Alsayegh MF, Rahman RA, Homayoun S (2020) Corporate economic, environmental, and social sustainability performance transformation through ESG disclosure. Sustain 12. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12093910

Arayssi M, Jizi M, Tabaja HH (2020) The impact of board composition on the level of ESG disclosures in GCC countries. Sustain Account Manag Policy J 11:137–161. https://doi.org/10.1108/SAMPJ-05-2018-0136

Arif M, Sajjad A, Farooq S, Abrar M, Joyo AS (2020) The impact of audit committee attributes on the quality and quantity of environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosures. Corp Gov 21:497–514. https://doi.org/10.1108/CG-06-2020-0243

Arora A, Sharma D (2022) Do Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Performance Scores Reduce the Cost of Debt? Evidence from Indian firms. Australas Account Bus Financ J 16:4–18. https://doi.org/10.14453/aabfj.v16i5.02

Atan R, Alam MM, Said J, Zamri M (2018) The impacts of environmental, social, and governance factors on firm Performance: panel study of Malaysian companies. Manag Environ Qual An Int J https://doi.org/10.1108/MEQ-03-2017-0033

Baraibar-Diez E, Odriozola MD (2019) CSR committees and their effect on ESG performance in UK, France, Germany, and Spain. Sustain. 11. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11185077

Baraibar-Diez E, Odriozola MD, Fernández Sánchez JL (2019) Sustainable compensation policies and its effect on environmental, social, and governance scores. Corp Soc Responsib Environ Manag 26:1457–1472. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1760

Barbosa A de S, Bueno da Silva L, de Souza VF, Morioka SN(2021) Integrated management systems: their organizational impacts Total Qual Manag Bus Excell 33:794–817. https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2021.1893685

Barbosa A de S, Bueno da Silva L, Morioka SN, da Silva JMN, de Souza VF (2023). Integrated management systems and organizational performance: a multidimensional perspective. Total Qual Manag Bus Excell 1–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2023.2181153

Bauckloh T, Schaltegger S, Utz S, Zeile S, Zwergel B (2021) Active first movers vs. late free-riders? An empirical analysis of UN PRI signatories’ commitment, J Bus Ethics https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-021-04992-0

Baumgartner RJ, Rauter R (2017) Strategic perspectives of corporate sustainability management to develop a sustainable organization. J Clean Prod 140:81–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.04.146

Bellandi F (2023) Equilibrating financially sustainable growth and environmental, social, and governance sustainable growth. Eur Manag Rev 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12554

Beretta V, Demartini C, Trucco S (2019) Does environmental, social and governance performance influence intellectual capital disclosure tone in integrated reporting. ? J Intellect Cap 20:100–124. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-02-2018-0049

Birindelli G, Dell’Atti S, Iannuzzi AP, Savioli M (2018) Composition and activity of the board of directors: Impact on ESG performance in the banking system. Sustain 10:1–20. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10124699

Bodhanwala S, Bodhanwala R (2018) Does corporate sustainability impact firm profitability? Evidence from India. Manag Decis 56:1734–1747. https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-04-2017-0381

Boiral O (2002) Tacit knowledge and environmental management. Long Range Plann 35:291–317. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0024-6301(02)00047-X

Bolis I, Morioka SN, Sznelwar LI (2014) When sustainable development risks losing its meaning. Delimiting the concept with a comprehensive literature review and a conceptual model. J Clean Prod 83:7–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.06.041

Boulhaga M, Bouri A, Elamer AA, Ibrahim BA (2022) Environmental, social and governance ratings and firm performance: the moderating role of internal control quality. Corp Soc Responsib Environ Manag 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.2343

Bourcet C (2020) Empirical determinants of renewable energy deployment: a systematic literature review. Energy Econ 85:104563. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2019.104563

Bouslah K, Kryzanowski L, M’Zali B (2013) The impact of the dimensions of social performance on firm risk. J Bank Financ 37:1258–1273. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2012.12.004

Bravi L, Santos G, Pagano A, Murmura F (2020) Environmental management system according to ISO 14001:2015 as a driver to sustainable development. Corp Soc Responsib Environ Manag 27:2599–2614. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1985

Bravo F, Reguera-Alvarado N (2019) Sustainable development disclosure: environmental, social, and governance reporting and gender diversity in the audit committee. Bus Strateg Environ 28:418–429. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2258

Bryant RL, Wilson GA (1998) Rethinking environmental management. Prog Hum Geogr 22:321–343. https://doi.org/10.1191/030913298672031592

Carvalho MM, Fleury A, Lopes AP (2013) An overview of the literature on technology roadmapping (TRM): Contributions and trends. Technol Forecast Soc Change 80:1418–1437. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2012.11.008

Cek K, Eyupoglu S (2020) Does environmental, social and governance performance influence economic performance? J Bus Econ Manag 21:1165–1184. https://doi.org/10.3846/jbem.2020.12725

Clarkson ME (1995) A Stakeholder framework for analyzing and evaluating corporate social performance. Acad Manag Rev 20:92–117. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1995.9503271994

Conca L, Manta F, Morrone D, Toma P (2021) The impact of direct environmental, social, and governance reporting: empirical evidence in European-listed companies in the agri-food sector. Bus Strateg Environ 30:1080–1093. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2672

De Masi S, Słomka-Gołębiowska A, Becagli C, Paci A (2021) Toward sustainable corporate behavior: the effect of the critical mass of female directors on environmental, social, and governance disclosure. Bus Strateg Environ 30:1865–1878. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2721

Direct S (2020) Science direct advertisement. Clin Microbiol News 42:201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinmicnews.2020.12.002

Du Rietz S (2018) Information vs knowledge: corporate accountability in environmental, social, and governance issues. Account Audit Account J 31:586–607. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-01-2013-1198

Esquer-Peralta J, Velazquez L, Munguia N (2008) Perceptions of core elements for sustainability management systems (SMS). Manag Decis 46:1027–1038. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251740810890195

Gangi F, Daniele LM, Varrone N, Vicentini F, Coscia M (2021) Equity mutual funds’ interest in the environmental, social and governance policies of target firms: does gender diversity in management teams matter? Corp Soc Responsib Environ Manag. 28:1018–1031. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.2102

Garcia AS, Mendes-Da-Silva W, Orsato R (2017) Sensitive industries produce better ESG performance: evidence from emerging markets. J Clean Prod 150:135–147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.02.180

Garcia AS, Orsato RJ (2020) Testing the institutional difference hypothesis: a study about environmental, social, governance, and financial performance. Bus Strateg Environ 29:3261–3272. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2570

Garfield E, Morman ET (1981) Citation indexing: its theory and application in science, technology, and humanities. Isis. https://doi.org/10.1086/352799

Gebhardt M, Thun TW, Seefloth M, Zülch H (2022) Managing sustainability—does the integration of environmental, social and governance key performance indicators in the internal management systems contribute to companies’ environmental, social and governance performance? Bus Strateg Environ 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.3242

Gil-Guirado S, Cantos JO, Pérez-Morales A, Barriendos M (2021) The risk is in the detail: Historical cartography and a hermeneutic analysis of historical floods in the city of murcia. Geogr Res Lett 47:183–219. https://doi.org/10.18172/cig.4863

Gond JP, Grubnic S, Herzig C, Moon J (2012) Configuring management control systems: theorizing the integration of strategy and sustainability. Manag Account Res 23:205–223. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mar.2012.06.003

Harasheh M, Provasi R (2023) A need for assurance: do internal control systems integrate environmental, social, and governance factors? Corp Soc Responsib Environ Manag 30:384–401. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.2361

Harymawan I, Nasih M, Agustia D, Putra FKG, Djajadikerta HG (2022) Investment efficiency and environmental, social, and governance reporting: Perspective from corporate integration management. Corp Soc Responsib Environ Manag 29:1186–1202. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.2263

He R, Chen X, Chen C, Zhai J, Cui L (2021) Environmental, social, and governance incidents and bank loan contracts. Sustain 13:1–19. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041885

Herghiligiu IV, Robu IB, Pislaru M, Vilcu A, Asandului AL, Avasilcai S, Balan C (2019) Sustainable environmental management system integration and business performance: a balance assessment approach using fuzzy logic. Sustain. 11. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11195311

Huang DZX (2021) Environmental, social and governance (ESG) activity and firm performance: a review and consolidation. Account Financ 61:335–360. https://doi.org/10.1111/acfi.12569

Hunter JE, Schmidt FL, Jackson GB (1986) Meta-analysis: cumulating research findings across studies. Educ Res 15:20–21. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X015008020

Jonsdottir B, Sigurjonsson TO, Johannsdottir L, Wendt S (2022) Barriers to using ESG data for investment decisions. Sustain 14:1–14. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14095157

Khalid F, Sun J, Huang G, Su CY (2021) Environmental, social and governance performance of chinese multinationals: a comparison of state-and non-state-owned enterprises. Sustain. 13. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13074020

Khalil MA, Khalil R, Khalil MK (2022) Environmental, social and governance (ESG)—augmented investments in innovation and firms’ value: a fixed-effects panel regression of Asian economies. China Financ Rev Int https://doi.org/10.1108/CFRI-05-2022-0067

Khanchel I, Lassoued N, Baccar I (2023) Sustainability and firm performance: the role of environmental, social and governance disclosure and green innovation. Manag Decis https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-09-2021-1252

Kim J, Cho E, Okafor CE, Choi D (2022) Does environmental, social, and governance drive the sustainability of multinational corporation’s subsidiaries? Evidence from Korea. Front Psychol 13:1–13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.899936

Koroleva E, Baggieri M, Nalwanga S (2020) Company performance: are environmental, social, and governance factors important? Int J Technol 11:1468–1477. https://doi.org/10.14716/ijtech.v11i8.4527

Kuo TC, Chen HM, Meng HM (2021) Do corporate social responsibility practices improve financial performance? A case study of airline companies. J. Clean. Prod. 310:127380. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.127380

Landi GC, Iandolo F, Renzi A, Rey A (2022) Embedding sustainability in risk management: The impact of environmental, social, and governance ratings on corporate financial risk. Corp Soc Responsib Environ Manag https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.2256

Lee S-P, Isa M (2022) Environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices and financial performance of Shariah-compliant companies in Malaysia. J Islam Account Bus Res https://doi.org/10.1108/JIABR-06-2020-0183

Li J, Wu D (2020) Do corporate social responsibility engagements lead to real environmental, social, and governance impact? Manage Sci 66:2564–2588. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2019.3324

Lokuwaduge CSDS, Heenetigala K (2017) Integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure for a sustainable development: an Australian study. Bus Strateg Environ 26:438–450. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.1927

López-Toro A, Sánchez-Teba EM, Benítez-Márquez MD, Rodríguez-Fernández M (2021) Influence of ESGC indicators on financial performance of listed pharmaceutical companies alberto. Int J Environ Res Public Health 18. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094556

Luque-Vílchez M, Gómez-Limón JA, Guerrero-Baena MD, Rodríguez-Gutiérrez P (2023) Deconstructing corporate environmental, social, and governance performance: heterogeneous stakeholder preferences in the food industry. Sustain Dev 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2488

Madden BJ (2022) Bet on innovation, not environmental, social and governance metrics, to lead the Net Zero transition. Syst Res Behav Sci 417–428. https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.2915

Marshall IJ, Kuiper J, Wallace BC (2015) Automating risk of bias assessment for clinical trials. IEEE J Biomed Heal Informatics 19:1406–1412. https://doi.org/10.1109/JBHI.2015.2431314

Mavlutova I, Fomins A, Spilbergs A, Atstaja D, Brizga J (2022) Opportunities to increase financial well-being by investing in environmental, social and governance with respect to improving financial literacy under covid-19: the case of Latvia. Sustain. 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14010339

McGuinness LA, Higgins JPT (2021) Risk-of-bias VISualization (robvis): an R package and Shiny web app for visualizing risk-of-bias assessments. Res Synth Methods 12:55–61. https://doi.org/10.1002/jrsm.1411

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Merli R, Preziosi M (2018) The EMAS impasse: factors influencing Italian organizations to withdraw or renew the registration. J Clean Prod 172:4532–4543. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.11.031

Minutolo MC, Kristjanpoller WD, Stakeley J (2019) Exploring environmental, social, and governance disclosure effects on the S&P 500 financial performance. Bus Strateg Environ 28:1083–1095. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2303

Miralles-Quirós MM, Miralles-Quirós JL, Redondo-Hernández J (2019) The impact of environmental, social, and governance performance on stock prices: evidence from the banking industry. Corp Soc Responsib Environ Manag 26:1446–1456. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1759

Mohammad WMW, Wasiuzzaman S (2021) Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) disclosure, competitive advantage and performance of firms in Malaysia. Clean Environ Syst 2:100015. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cesys.2021.100015

Moneva JM, Bonilla-Priego MJ, Ortas E (2020) Corporate social responsibility and organisational performance in the tourism sector. J Sustain Tour 28:853–872. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2019.1707838

Montabon F, Sroufe R, Narasimhan R (2007) An examination of corporate reporting, environmental management practices and firm performance. J Oper Manag 25:998–1014. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jom.2006.10.003

Morioka SN, de Carvalho MM (2016) A systematic literature review towards a conceptual framework for integrating sustainability performance into business. J Clean Prod 136:134–146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.01.104

Naffa H, Fain M (2020) Performance measurement of ESG-themed megatrend investments in global equity markets using pure factor portfolios methodology, PLoS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244225

Ng TH, Lye CT, Chan KH, Lim YZ, Lim YS (2020) Sustainability in Asia: the roles of financial development in environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. Soc Indic Res 150:17–44. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-020-02288-w

Nishitani K, Nguyen TBH, Trinh TQ, Wu Q, Kokubu K (2021) Are corporate environmental activities to meet sustainable development goals (SDGs) simply greenwashing? An empirical study of environmental management control systems in Vietnamese companies from the stakeholder management perspective. J Environ Manage 296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113364

Nitescu DC, Cristea MA (2020) Environmental, social and governance risks-New challenges for the banking business sustainability. Amfiteatru Econ 22:692–706. https://doi.org/10.24818/EA/2020/55/692

Oncioiu I, Popescu DM, Aviana AE, Şerban A, Rotaru F, Petrescu M, Marin-Pantelescu A (2020) The role of environmental, social, and governance disclosure in financial transparency. Sustain 12:1–16. https://doi.org/10.3390/SU12176757

Ortas E, Gallego-Álvarez I, Álvarez I (2019) National institutions, stakeholder engagement, and firms’ environmental, social, and governance performance. Corp Soc Responsib Environ Manag 26:598–611. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1706

Ouni Z, Mansour JB, Arfaoui S (2020) Board/executive gender diversity and firm financial performance in Canada: the mediating role of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) orientation. Sustain 12:1–17. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12208386

Page MJ, McKenzie JE, Bossuyt PM, Boutron I, Hoffmann TC, Mulrow CD, Shamseer L, Tetzlaff JM, Akl EA, Brennan SE, Chou R, Glanville J, Grimshaw JM, Hróbjartsson A, Lalu MM, Li T, Loder EW, Mayo-Wilson E, McDonald S, McGuinness LA, Stewart LA, Thomas J, Tricco AC, Welch VA, Whiting P, Moher D (2021) The PRISMA 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. BMJ 372. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n71

Park SR, Oh KS (2022) Integration of ESG information into individual investors’ corporate investment decisions: utilizing the UTAUT framework. Front Psychol 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.899480

Peng LS, Isa M (2020) Environmental, social and governance (Esg) practices and performance in shariah firms: agency or stakeholder theory? Asian Acad Manag J Account Financ 16:1–34. https://doi.org/10.21315/aamjaf2020.16.1.1

Petavratzi E, Sanchez-Lopez D, Hughes A, Stacey J, Ford J, Butcher A (2022) The impacts of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in achieving sustainable lithium supply in the Lithium Triangle. Miner Econ 35:673–699. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13563-022-00332-4

Pilkington A, Liston-Heyes C (1999) Is production and operations management a discipline? A citation/co-citation study. Int J Oper Prod Manag 19:7–20. https://doi.org/10.1108/01443579910244188

Pirtea MG, Noja GG, Cristea M, Panait M (2021) Interplay between environmental, social and governance coordinates and the financial performance of agricultural companies. Agric Econ (Czech Republic) 67:479–490. https://doi.org/10.17221/286/2021-AGRICECON

Qureshi MA, Akbar M, Akbar A, Poulova P (2021) Do ESG endeavors assist firms in achieving superior financial performance? A case of 100 best corporate citizens. SAGE Open 11. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440211021598

Qureshi MA, Kirkerud S, Theresa K, Ahsan T (2020) The impact of sustainability (environmental, social, and governance) disclosure and board diversity on firm value: the moderating role of industry sensitivity. Bus Strateg Environ 29:1199–1214. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2427

Rajesh R (2020) Exploring the sustainability performances of firms using environmental, social, and governance scores. J Clean Prod 247:119600. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119600

Rajesh R, Rajendran C (2020) Relating environmental, social, and governance scores and sustainability performances of firms: an empirical analysis. Bus Strateg Environ 29:1247–1267. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2429

Reboredo JC, Sowaity SMA (2022) Environmental, social, and governance information disclosure and intellectual capital efficiency in jordanian listed firms. Sustain. 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14010115

Rehman RU, Abidin MZU, Ali R, Nor SM, Naseem MA, Hasan M, Ahmad MI (2021) The integration of conventional equity indices with environmental, social, and governance indices: Evidence from emerging economies. Sustain 13:1–27. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020676

Reveiz L, Chapman E, Asial S, Munoz S, Bonfill X, Alonso-Coello P (2015) Risk of bias of randomized trials over time. J Clin Epidemiol 68:1036–1045. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2014.06.001

Romano M, Cirillo A, Favino C, Netti A (2020) ESG (Environmental, social and governance) performance and board gender diversity: the moderating role of CEO duality. Sustain 12:1–16. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12219298

Sachin N, Rajesh R (2021) An empirical study of supply chain sustainability with financial performances of Indian firms. Environ Dev Sustain https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-021-01717-1

Sahoo S, Kumar S (2022) Integration and volatility spillover among environmental, social and governance indices: evidence from BRICS countries. Glob Bus Rev 23:1280–1298. https://doi.org/10.1177/09721509221114699

Sandberg H, Alnoor A, Tiberius V (2022) Environmental, social, and governance ratings and financial performance: evidence from the European food industry. Bus Strateg Environ 2471–2489. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.3259

Shahzad F, Baig MH, Rehman IU, Saeed A, Asim GA (2021) Does intellectual capital efficiency explain corporate social responsibility engagement-firm performance relationship? Evidence from environmental, social and governance performance of US listed firms. Borsa Istanbul Rev. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bir.2021.05.003

Shaikh I (2021) Environmental, social, and governance (Esg) practice and firm performance: an international evidence. J Bus Econ Manag 23:218–237. https://doi.org/10.3846/jbem.2022.16202

Shakil MH (2021) Environmental, social and governance performance and financial risk: moderating role of ESG controversies and board gender diversity. Resour Policy 72:102144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2021.102144

Shephard K, Rieckmann M, Barth M (2019) Seeking sustainability competence and capability in the ESD and HESD literature: an international philosophical hermeneutic analysis. Environ Educ Res 25:532–547. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2018.1490947

Sul W, Lee Y (2020) Effects of corporate social responsibility for environmental, social, and governance sectors on firm value: a comparison between consumer and industrial goods companies. Eur J Int Manag 14:866–890. https://doi.org/10.1504/EJIM.2020.109817

Sultana S, Zulkifli N, Zainal D (2018) Environmental, social and governance (ESG) and investment decision in Bangladesh. Sustain 10:1–19. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10061831

Suttipun M, Yordudom T (2022) Impact of environmental, social and governance disclosures on market reaction: an evidence of Top50 companies listed from Thailand. J Financ Report Account 20:753–767. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFRA-12-2020-0377

Taliento M, Favino C, Netti A (2019) Impact of environmental, social, and governance information on economic performance: evidence of a corporate “sustainability advantage” from Europe. Sustain. 11. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11061738

Terzani S, Turzo T (2021) Religious social norms and corporate sustainability: The effect of religiosity on environmental, social, and governance disclosure. Corp Soc Responsib Environ Manag 28:485–496. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.2063

Ting IWK, Azizan NA, Bhaskaran RK, Sukumaran SK (2020) Corporate social performance and firm performance: comparative study among developed and emerging market firms. Sustain. 12. https://doi.org/10.3390/SU12010026

Tsang YP, Fan Y, Feng ZP (2023) Bridging the gap: building environmental, social and governance capabilities in small and medium logistics companies. J Environ Manag 338:117758. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.117758

Article   CAS   Google Scholar  

Uyar A, Kuzey C, Karaman AS (2023) Does aggressive environmental, social, and governance engagement trigger firm risk? The moderating role of executive compensation. J Clean Prod 398:136542. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.136542

Valor C, Antonetti P, Carrero I (2018) Stressful sustainability: a hermeneutic analysis. Eur J Mark 52:550–574. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-12-2016-0712

Vanderley LB (2020) Conscientização ambiental na implantação de um sistema de gestão ambiental: um estudo de caso em uma empresa do Polo Industrial de Manaus. Sist Gestão 14:335–347. https://doi.org/10.20985/1980-5160.2019.v14n4.1474

Viranda DF, Sari AD, Suryoputro MR, Setiawan N (2020) 5 S Implementation of SME Readiness in Meeting Environmental Management System Standards based on ISO 14001:2015 (Study Case: PT. ABC). IOP Conf Ser Mater Sci Eng 722. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/722/1/012072

Wang S, Li J, Zhao D (2018) Institutional pressures and environmental management practices: the moderating effects of environmental commitment and resource availability. Bus Strateg Environ 27:52–69. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.1983

Wang Y, Ghadimi M, Wang Q, Hou L, Zeraatkar D, Iqbal A, Ho C, Yao L, Hu M, Ye Z, Couban R, Armijo-Olivo S, Bassler D, Briel M, Gluud LL, Glasziou P, Jackson R, Keitz SA, Letelier LM, Ravaud P, Schulz KF, Siemieniuk RAC, Brignardello-Petersen R, Guyatt GH (2022) Instruments assessing risk of bias of randomized trials frequently included items that are not addressing risk of bias issues. J Clin Epidemiol 152:218–225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.10.018

Wasiuzzaman S, Ibrahim SA, Kawi F (2022) Environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure and firm performance: does national culture matter? Meditari Account Res https://doi.org/10.1108/MEDAR-06-2021-1356

White HD, McCain KW (1998) Visualizing a discipline: an author co-citation analysis of information science, 1972–1995. J Am Soc Inf Sci 49:327–355

Google Scholar  

Wolff RF, Moons KGM, Riley RD, Whiting PF, Westwood M, Collins GS, Reitsma JB, Kleijnen J, Mallett S (2019) PROBAST: a tool to assess the risk of bias and applicability of prediction model studies. Ann Intern Med 170:51–58. https://doi.org/10.7326/M18-1376

Xie J, Nozawa W, Yagi M, Fujii H, Managi S (2019) Do environmental, social, and governance activities improve corporate financial performance? Bus Strateg Environ 28:286–300. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2224

Xu J, Liu F, Shang Y (2021) R&D investment, ESG performance and green innovation performance: evidence from China. Kybernetes 50:737–756. https://doi.org/10.1108/K-12-2019-0793

Xu N, Liu J, Dou H (2022) Environmental, social, and governance information disclosure and stock price crash risk: evidence from Chinese listed companies. Front Psychol 13:1–15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.977369

Yin YN, Wang Y, Jiang NJ, Long DR (2020) Can case management improve cancer patients quality of life?: a systematic review following PRISMA. Medicine (Baltimore) 99:e22448. https://doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000022448

Yu EPY, Van Luu B, Chen CH (2020) Greenwashing in environmental, social and governance disclosures. Res Int Bus Financ 52:101192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ribaf.2020.101192

Zhang Q, Loh L, Wu W (2020) How do environmental, social and governance initiatives affect innovative performance for corporate sustainability? Sustain 12. https://doi.org/10.3390/SU12083380

Zhang Y, Ruan H, Tang G, Tong L (2021) Power of sustainable development: does environmental management system certification affect a firm’s access to finance? Bus Strateg Environ 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2839

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the support received from the Federal University of Paraíba and the Federal Institute of Paraíba.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Federal University of Paraíba, João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil

Anrafel de Souza Barbosa, Maria Cristina Basilio Crispim da Silva, Luiz Bueno da Silva & Sandra Naomi Morioka

University of Brasília, Brasília, Brazil

Vinícius Fernandes de Souza

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

For greater transparency, the individual contributions of the authors are as follows: AdSB: contributed to conceptualization, methodology, validation, investigation, data curation, writing—original draft, visualization, and project administration; MCBCdS and LBdS: contributed to validation, writing—review and editing, and supervision; SNM: contributed to validation, methodology, and writing—review and editing; and VFdS: contributed to validation and writing—review and editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anrafel de Souza Barbosa .

Ethics declarations

Competing interests.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

Informed consent

Additional information.

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

de Souza Barbosa, A., da Silva, M.C.B.C., da Silva, L.B. et al. Integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria: their impacts on corporate sustainability performance. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 10 , 410 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01919-0

Download citation

Received : 13 November 2022

Accepted : 05 July 2023

Published : 13 July 2023

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01919-0

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

This article is cited by

Exploring the impact of esg ratings on enterprises' green technology innovation.

• Mingtao Zhao
• Abdelmohsen A. Nassani

Environment, Development and Sustainability (2024)

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

• Get involved

Accountability

Social and environmental sustainability in undp.

UNDP is committed to ensuring that our programming and operations are socially and environmentally sustainable.

Sustainable Programme and project management

UNDP recognizes that social and environmental sustainability are fundamental to the achievement of sustainable development outcomes, and therefore must be fully integrated into our Programmes and Projects.  To ensure this we have the following key policies, procedures and accountability mechanisms in place to underpin our support to countries:

• Social and Environmental Standards  for UNDP Programmes and Projects  
• Project-level Social and Environmental Screening Procedure  
• Accountability Mechanism with two key functions: 1.  A Stakeholder Response Mechanism that ensures individuals, peoples, and communities affected by UNDP projects have access to appropriate procedures for hearing and addressing project-related grievances. 2.  A Compliance Review process to respond to claims that UNDP is not in compliance with UNDP’s social and environmental policies.

Environmentally sustainable operations

As a global leader in the fight against climate change, UNDP is committed to being green, sustainable, and just. UNDP has been climate neutral in its global operations since 2015 and has made an ambitious commitment to reduce its carbon footprint by 50% by 2050 through the Greening UNDP Moonshot. Read more ...

Sustainable procurement

To help countries achieve the simultaneous eradication of poverty and significant reduction of inequalities and exclusion, while at the same time address the issues of climate change, UNDP makes a shift to more sustainable production and consumption practices. Sustainable procurement means making sure that the products and services UNDP buys are as sustainable as possible, with the lowest environmental impact and most positive social results. Procurement, therefore, plays a key role in contributing to sustainable development.

Please find more information on the UNDP Procurement Website .

Related resources

• Framework for Advancing Environmental and Social Sustainability in the UN System
• UN Greening the Blue

Explore more

Undp social and environmental standards.

The revised Social and Environmental Standards (SES) came into effect on 1 January 2021 . The SES underpin UNDP's commitment to mainstream social and environmental sustainability in our Programmes and Projects to support sustainable development.

The SES are an integral component of UNDP’s quality assurance and risk management approach to programming. This includes our  Social and Environmental Screening Procedure .

Key Elements of the UNDP's Social and Environmental Standards include: 

Part A: Programming Principles: 

• Leave No One Behind 
• Human Rights 
• Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment 
• Sustainability and Resilience 
• Accountability 

Part B: Project-Level Standards:

• Standard 1: Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Natural Resource Management
• Standard 2: Climate Change and Disaster Risks 
• Standard 3: Community Health, Safety and Security 
• Standard 4: Cultural Heritage 
• Standard 5: Displacement and Resettlement 
• Standard 6: Indigenous Peoples
• Standard 7: Labour and Working Conditions
• Standard 8: Pollution Prevention and Resource Efficiency 

Part C: Social and Environmental Management System Requirements:

• Quality Assurance and Risk Management 
• Screening and Categorization 
• Assessment and Management 
• Stakeholder Engagement and Response Mechanism 
• Access to Information 
• Monitoring, Reporting and Compliance 

UNDP's Social and Environmental Screening Procedure (SESP)

Screening and categorization of projects is one of the key requirements of the Social and Environmental Standards (SES) . 

In this regard, the objectives of UNDP's Social and Environmental Screening Procedure (SESP) are to:

• Integrate the SES Programming Principles in order to maximize social and environmental opportunities and benefits and strengthen social and environmental sustainability; 
• Identify potential social and environmental risks and their significance; 
• Determine the project's risk category (Low, Moderate, Substantial, High); and, 
• Determine the level of social and environmental assessment and management required to address potential risks and impacts.

• Original article
• Open access
• Published: 05 July 2016

Corporate social responsibility research: the importance of context

• Carol A. Tilt 1  

International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility volume  1 , Article number:  2 ( 2016 ) Cite this article

103k Accesses

49 Citations

2 Altmetric

Metrics details

There has, in recent times, been an increasing interest in understanding corporate social (and environmental) responsibility (CSR) and, in particular, CSR reporting in developing countries. However, many of these studies fail to investigate fully the contextual factors that influence CSR and reporting in those countries, preferring to rely on theories and hypotheses developed from studies undertaken in the West, particularly the US, UK and Australasia.

It may be argued that this is appropriate as many emerging economies are experiencing growth and moving towards having a more market-based orientation. Notwithstanding this, a large number of these countries have an entirely different socio-political environment, with different political regimes, legal systems and cultural influences. These factors have a significant effect on the applicability of theories such as stakeholder theory, legitimacy theory and accountability theory, which are commonly used to explain the phenomenon of reporting.

In State Capitalist countries, such as China, an important influence on companies is the political ideology that underpins the nation’s government. The nature and impact of ideology and hegemony in China has been under-studied and, therefore, investigating how the ideology, and competing forces that may mitigate its influence, manifest themselves in Chinese reporting are essential. In the Middle East, countries such as Saudi Arabia have no free press, are ruled by a royal family, have a market dominated by the oil industry, and potential religious influences. Such socio-cultural differences mean societies develop different understandings of concepts such as sustainability and social responsibility. Finally, countries such as Sri Lanka have some similarities to other developing countries, but their economy is set against a background of a recent civil war – operating in a post-conflict economy is a factor rarely considered in social and environmental disclosure, yet has important influence on policy in these areas.

This paper discusses three contextual issues that warrant more and improved consideration in CSR research, with particular emphasis on CSR reporting research.

More and more corporations worldwide are involved in corporate social responsibility activities, and as a result are providing more social and environmental information to the public. Following from this, CSR disclosure, or reporting, has become one of the major fields of investigation by accounting scholars (Deegan 2009 ; Mathews 1997 ; Tilt 2001 ). Research that considers both CSR activity and CSR reporting has traditionally focused on companies in more developed economies, predominantly the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand (Burritt and Schaltegger 2010 ; Frost et al. 2005 ; Gray 2006 ; Gurvitsh and Sidorova 2012 ; Othman and Ameer 2009 ; Patten 2002 ; Sahay 2004 ), but recently there has been increasing interest in understanding the phenomenon in developing countries particularly as they experience growth and move towards a more capitalist orientation (Sumiani et al. 2007 ). Of the research that does exist, a number of papers suggest that ‘country’ is a determinant for CSR involvement and for the level of disclosure, but do not go much further.

Many of the studies of developing countries however, choose a framework for their investigation based on those shown to be meaningful for explaining disclosure in developed, capitalist economies. That is, they fail to investigate fully the contextual factors that influence firms and their reporting in those countries that have a different social, political, legal and/or cultural context.

It may be argued that this is appropriate as many emerging economies are experiencing growth and moving towards having a more market-based orientation. However, this is rarely acknowledged or questioned in these papers. Yet, it is reasonable to suggest that these factors have a significant effect on the applicability of theories such as stakeholder theory, legitimacy theory and accountability theory, which are commonly used to explain the phenomenon of reporting.

The majority of the world’s population lives in developing countries and each country experiences its own unique social, political and environmental issues (United Nations 2013 ). These countries are in the process of industrialisation and are often characterised by unstable governments, higher levels of unemployment, limited technological capacity, unequal distribution of income, unreliable water supplies and underutilised factors of production. As a result of rapid industrial development, policies are pursued that aim to attract greater foreign investment, and the investors are often keen to start benefitting from fiscal incentives and cheap labour. While these strategies make economic sense, they have adverse social and environmental effects, including the use of child labour, low or unpaid wages, unequal career opportunities, occupational health and safety concerns, and increased pollution.

In a review of the literature on determinants of CSR reporting (Morhardt 2010 ), reports that research on the impact of different variables in different regions is inconclusive due to the lack of enough studies. Factors that may influence CSR disclosure practices fall broadly into internal and external (Fifka 2013 ; Morhardt 2010 ), but are commonly classified further as (Adams 2002 : p224):

Corporate characteristics, such as size, industry group, financial/economic performance and share trading volume, price and risk;

General contextual factors, such as country of origin, time, specific events, media pressure, stakeholders and social, political, cultural and economic context; and

Internal contextual factors, including different aspects of corporate governance.

While CSR reporting has been studied by a large number of scholars, only a few fall into the second of the categories above, and consider context in detail. This is particularly relevant when considering developing countries. A few papers have specifically reviewed studies on developing countries. For example, (Belal and Momin 2009 ) categorise the work on developing countries into three groups: studies of the volume or extent of reporting; studies of the perceptions of CSR reporting by managers; and studies of the perception of CSR reporting by stakeholders. In all the studies reviewed there is little discussion of the context, other than a description of the country, and no real thought about the theoretical assumptions being made.

This paper presents a discussion of the different contextual issues or factors that show some evidence or potential to influence CSR and reporting in developing countries. It focusses on three specific issues and provides a research agenda for future consideration of the influence of context in CSR reporting research. The paper is structured as follows. The next section introduces some broad contextual factors that warrant consideration in the literature on CSR reporting. Next, three specific contextual issues are examined: the role of political ideology and hegemony; the influence of cultural understandings; and the impact of historical economic context. Finally, by way of conclusion, some recommended areas for further research are suggested.

Contextual considerations

Adams ( 2002 ) talks about the social, political, cultural and economic context, so some consideration of what this might mean is needed as each of these concepts themselves cover a variety of aspects, and indeed overlap. While papers may talk about the ‘social context’ in which the companies being examined operate, this is not well defined and little consideration is given to what this means. Some things that could be more explicitly considered include, inter alia : the role of the press; the status of women; the legal/justice system; the level of corruption; the level of government control, cultural understandings; and so on. This paper chooses to highlight three of these areas, and these are discussed briefly below in broad terms, followed by a discussion of some specific aspects of each identified as providing fertile grounds for future research.

Political system

Assumptions are often made about capitalist systems, whether explicit or implicit, as the vast majority of work on CSR reporting has been done in the Western context. However, there is little research looking at CSR reporting in socialist or communist countries. Some work has been undertaken on China (Dong et al. 2014 ; Gao 2011 ; Situ and Tilt 2012 ), but this work often applies the same conceptual frameworks as Western studies. What about the influence of ideology, and hegemony?

Sociocultural environment

Human beings have “distinctive cultural (learned) characteristics, histories and responses to their environment” and the term ‘sociocultural’ is commonly used in anthropological research to describe these and the “interactions and processes” that this involves (Garbarino 1983 : p1). Some general studies of culture and CSR using Hofstede exist (Silvia and Belen 2013 ), but an in-depth analysis of different understandings and conceptions of terms such as CSR as a result of sociocultural influences is lacking. The work that does examine specific factors often suggests that the Western concept of CSR does not fit these contexts (Wang and Juslin 2009 ).

The majority of work that considers sociocultural factors has looked mainly at religious aspects of CSR, most commonly by reviewing reporting by Islamic organisation, such as Islamic banks (Maali et al. 2006 ; Siwar and Hossain 2009 ; Sudarma et al. 2010 ). The teachings of many religions focus on social responsibility, the relationship with the natural environment, treatment of others, fairness, justice, etc., so there is a natural expectation that religion-based organisations may be more likely to engage in CSR and CSR reporting. A more nuanced consideration of how this manifests itself in different societies would improve understanding of the drivers and motivations of these activities. Similarly, other sociocultural factors, such as national identity, values, social organisation and language, could be incorporated.

Stage of development

The emerging literature on CSR reporting outside the Western world examines countries that are ‘developing’ (Belal and Momin 2009 ; Momin and Parker 2013 ), but little depth is included about where they are in their development journey and how the potential conflict between economic and social goals impacts CSR or CSR reporting. Rostow’s ( 1962 ) Stages of Economic Growth model suggests there are five stages (traditional society, preconditions for take-off, take-off, drive to maturity, and age of high or mass consumption), yet most literature on CSR classifies countries only into developed or developing. The ‘developing’ classification potentially includes countries that are in Rostow’s first, second or third stage which may have an impact on their response to CSR issues. In addition to economic variables however, the United Nations also produces a Human Development Index (HDI) which considers life expectancy, education and income to measure how social, as well as economic, development (UNDP 2015 ). Both these concepts are important for consideration of CSR.

Importantly, consideration of just one or two aspects of these three broader contextual issues may result in misinterpretation of the results. Often these things interact, for example, social issues often cross over with cultural and religious impacts, or even with political influence where the regime is more hegemonic. It is thus important to consider, or at least acknowledge, the holistic nature of the context of the phenomenon being examined.

It is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss all of the issues raised here although this would be an important part of a larger research program. Therefore, three particular contextual issues, and three specific contexts, are the focus of this paper: the role of political ideology and hegemony (China); the influence of cultural understandings (Middle East); and the impact of historical economic context (Sri Lanka).

Politics, ideology and state control

Ideology is a set of common beliefs that are shared by a group of people, and is “the fundamental social beliefs that organize and control the social representations of groups and their members” (Van Dijk 2009 : p78). Countries such as China provide a fertile research setting to examine the influence of ideology, and hegemonic approaches of influencing CSR, which have been missing from most CSR research in the region.

The Chinese political model has some unique characteristics. Among these is the dominance of ‘the party state’, which exercises control in different forms over most aspects of the economy that is unmatched when compared to other state capitalist economies. Political leaders use a variety of tools (Bremmer 2010 ) and it is the combination of three particular tools that sets apart the Chinese system: the exercise of control as a dominant shareholder, the ability to appoint key positions in major firms, and the means to influence decision-making via ideology. First, the party exerts shareholder power over state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Chinese SOEs play an instrumental role in society (Du and Wang 2013 ) and make up around 80 % of the stock market (Economist T 2012 ). As protecting the environment is a major part of the guiding ideology and the nation’s policy, SOEs are likely to be keen to provide CER. Second, the party exercises power over the appointment of the senior leadership in SOEs (Landry 2008 ). This has resulted in control as they are “cadres first and company men second. They care more about pleasing their party bosses than about the global market” (Economist T 2012 : p6). Third, party control is exercised through ideology. The party has cells in most larger firms, whether private or state-owned, which influence business decisions made at board meetings. Given that China considers the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist ideology as crucial this distinguishes it most significantly from other varieties of state capitalism that have a more liberal-democratic flavour.

There is some evidence that the first form of party control has been declining in recent times with the number of SOEs under the SASAC’s control halving over the last decade (Mattlin 2009 ). Similarly, since 1999, the share of SOEs in the economy has declined from 37 % to less than 5 %. This results in greater use of regulation and ideological hegemony to achieve its aims, yet most CSR research still uses state-ownership as a proxy for all types of state control.

Even after economic reform, ideology in China was still pervasive (Lieber 2013 ). Lieber ( 2013 ) argues that ideology is widely used to signal loyalty and the government is good at using ideology to “control and direct key vocabularies… (and) vague ideological language can create a climate of uncertainty thus increasing the range of a control regime” (Lieber 2013 : p346). However, the prevailing ideological themes in China are dynamic. In particular, most recently, new ideological themes have developed to respond to the changes in society. When economic reform began, “building up a socialist market economy with specific Chinese characteristics” was the guiding ideology (Zhang 2012 : p25). As such, economic growth was the country’s priority, but in 2005, “building up a harmonious society became the prevailing ideology” (and CSR is a key element of this resolution).

Ideology is used by the Chinese government to exert control over businesses. Traditionally, the government has “been considered a source of moral authority, official legitimacy and political stability…and …political language has been vested with an intrinsic instrumental value: its control represents the most suitable and effective way first to codify, and then widely convey, the orthodox state ideology” (Marinellin 2012 : p26). The language “developed and used by party officials … consists of ‘correct’ formulation, aims to teach the ‘enlarged masses’ how to speak and, how to think” (Marinellin 2012 : p26). The idea of the importance of a ‘Harmonious Society’ is the “re-contextualized discourse in response to the emergent issues in the changing social stratification order” (Zhang 2012 : p33). As a result, Chinese companies have been noticeably adopting the language of social concern and environmental protection.

It may therefore be suggested that CSR reporting in China is directly a response to the government’s ideological hegemony. However, the story is not as straightforward as it may first appear, for two reasons. First, despite a great deal of commitment to social and environmental regulation in China, implementation of these regulations has been limited. Second, as China enters a phase of continued economic development, Western influences may begin to have a moderating effect on the strength of the ideology.

The Chinese economy has grown rapidly in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) (World Bank 2016 ). The economic reforms that took place over the past decades were motivated substantially by the Chinese central government, and recent scholars have noted the positive role that ideology played in driving those reforms, notwithstanding that economists historically view ideology as “distorting… knowledge, judgment and decision making” (Lieber 2013 : p344).

With economic reform however, has come substantial environmental degradation which in turn has led to poor health outcomes for much of society generally. This led to a high level of commitment to environmental regulation in particular from as early as the 1990, followed by the release of even more rigorous regulations on environmental protection in the 2000s. However, despite the high commitment made by the Chinese central government, implementation of these policies is quite poor (Bina 2010 ). In terms of environmental regulation, for example, the implementation problems stem from a number of areas, including: the position of environmental protection agencies in the political framework; conflict between central and local governments; and supervision issues. The system of supervision of local environmental departments is a key problem (Bina 2010 ). When an environmental department is set up in the central government, corresponding environmental departments are set up in local governments. Ideally, these local departments should be agencies of the central department, deliver the central environmental department’s strategies, and supervise local environmental protection implementation. In reality, the local environmental departments are subservient to the local rather than central governments. All their financial support and staff appointments come from local governments. Therefore, rather than supervising local environmental protection implementation, the local environmental departments become “rubber stamps” for local governments (Zheng 2010 ). Therefore, it is unlikely that there will be efficient enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies at the local level (Bina 2010 ; Zheng 2010 ).

Finally, as China heads towards a market economy, government intervention becomes a policy choice, and markets function as a tool of national interest (Zhao 2011 ). However, as Chinese firms become more involved with foreign trading partners and markets, their reporting activity is also influenced by foreign and global organisations, leading to potential tension between demonstrating commitment to state ideological goals and meeting the requirements of global stakeholders.

Given the complexity of the context, research into CSR reporting in China needs to take into account the specific aspects of Chinese politics and culture in order to provide a nuanced understanding, and ultimately an improvement, of CSR reporting activities. However, a review done of the literature on CSR in by Chinese showed that it is very descriptive with little depth and much of the CSR literature is conceptual, descriptive, or argumentative in nature (Guan and Noronha 2013 ). The authors noted proper research methodologies are not systematically applied in some studies, and supporting theories are lacking. In the non-Chinese studies on China, there is also a predominance of papers on determinants and volume of reporting (Situ and Tilt 2012 ), with very few considering broader contextual factors, other than a few that look at specific cultural attributes (e.g., Rowe & Guthrie 2009 ).

Sociocultural understandings

Notwithstanding a move towards a market orientation of many developing countries, such as in China as outlined above, conceptions of CSR by management of companies in these countries may be quite different to those in the West (Wang and Juslin 2009 ). These differing conceptions may be a result of differing values and attitudes, language, religion or identity. Even specific elements of CSR are conceived of differently, for example in China, the main understanding of sustainability is in terms of environmental protection (Situ et al. 2013 , 2015 ). These socioculturally derived understandings are inevitably reflected in their reporting.

In another example, in the Middle East, the predominant perception of CSR is that it simply means philanthropic donations. In this region, the issue of social responsibility is relatively new, and as such the number of studies of CSR and CSR reporting in the Gulf region is growing (Al-Khatar and Naser 2003 ; AlNaimi et al. 2012 ; Emtairah et al. 2009 ; Mandurah et al. 2012 ; Marios and Tor 2007 ; Minnee et al. 2013 ; Nalband and Al-Amri 2013 ; Naser et al. 2006 ; Naser and Hassan 2013 ; Qasim et al. 2011 ; Sangeetha and Pria 2012 ). Many of these studies do not consider the cultural context to a very great extent as the research is emerging and focusses on perceptions. For example, Mandurah et al. ( 2012 ) and Emtairah et al. ( 2009 ) explored managerial perceptions of the concept of CSR in Saudi Arabia and found that managers are aware of the concept, but there is little connection between the managerial level perceptions and firms’ workforce. The authors describe CSR as being in its infancy phase, which limits the understanding of the concept to the view that CSR simply means being philanthropic. This indicates a different, and perhaps less developed, understanding of the concept in the region compared with the West, but the reasons for this, and the consequences for CSR reporting, are under-explored. Some authors suggest the narrow use of the term is because of the religious obligations towards society, (Visser 2008 ). There is only minimal evidence of any CSR practices other than philanthropy-based or any strategic approaches to CSR for long-term benefits (Visser 2008 ), but the trend is increasing and the forms that philanthropy takes is expanding.

It has also been argued that politics plays a significant role in increasing the awareness of CSR in the Arab world. Avina ( 2013 ) suggests that the perception of CSR in the Middle East changed after the Arab spring event, for both local and international firms. The term CSR more than a decade ago had little meaning to the public (Visser 2008 ) but since the Arab spring, the sense of social responsibility among civil society and the corporate sector has increased Avina 2013 ). Firms realised that they play a role in social responsibility, not just governments, and recognised that CSR should go beyond just donations to charitable causes (Avina 2013 ). Ronnegard ( 2013 ), however, predicts that CSR in the Middle East will not mimic the Western concept because of the strong influence of culture and religion in the region. Moreover, the influence of stakeholders in the Middle East is considered to be limited due to there being a lack of free press, few lobby groups and the different cultural attributes of employees and consumers. Some studies in Gulf countries have however, suggested that stakeholders, such as government and charitable organisations, may have an impact on firms’ behaviour (Emtairah et al. 2009 ; Naser et al. 2006 ). Others suggest that CSR may have developed as a concept due to the increase of foreign direct investment into Arab countries, the trend of shifting family and government owned firms into the public domain, and the globalisation of the region’s large national firms.

From the limited studies that have been undertaken, there is evidence of CSR reporting by Gulf country companies, with human resources and community involvement being the dominant themes in may reports Abu-Baker and Naser 2000 ). Thus, understanding of motivations for CSR reporting is not yet well developed and few existing studies consider the different level of stakeholder pressure in the region. This suggests that more research is needed on the formation of notions of CSR within specific contexts. This region is of particular interest because, according to the Human Development Report (HDI 2013 ), countries in the region are classified as high, or very high, in human development. That is, they are not only trying to develop and improve their economy, but are also trying to improve the quality of life of their citizens (Ramady 2010 ). The overall outlook of these countries indicates that they are performing well, however, Fadaak ( 2010 ) notes that identifying poverty lines is a challenge because of a lack of a clear definition of poverty in the region. There are no official reports considering poverty or other social problems and no GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries were found in the list of the World Bank Database in relation to the poverty rate.

Similarly, in other developing countries the importance of local economic, cultural, and religious factors that shape the business environment, and understandings of charity and philanthropy, need to be taken into account. Empirical work in this area is lacking (Lund-Thomsen et al. 2016 ). In Sri Lanka, for example, “the most common arguments used to ‘sell’ the business case for CSR and CP [Corporate Philanthropy], for example an improved brand image, increased market or customer share, employee retention, mitigated regulatory risks, and reduced tax burden, are considered mostly irrelevant” (Global Insights 2013 : p1). Business leaders engage in CSR for a range of business, humanitarian, social, religious, and political reasons. Key amongst them is a belief that ‘giving back’ to society discharges religious obligations to the poor, and an awareness that being seen to contribute to national development goals is important (Global Insights 2013 ). Hence, the conception of CSR in this region is culturally determined, but also shaped by the economic environment.

• Economic development

As well as government control, culture and political factors, the stage of economic development a country is in is also an important contextual factor that may impact CSR reporting. In China, as discussed above, the drive for economic reform led directly to environmental impacts which needed to be addressed. A number of other developing countries have been examined for their reporting on CSR issues, particularly from the Asian region (Andrew et al. 1989 ; Elijido-Ten et al. 2010 ), India (Mishra and Suar 2010 ; Raman 2006 ; Sahay 2004 ), and Bangladesh (Belal and Owen 2007 ; Belal and Roberts 2010 ; Khan 2010 ; Muttakin et al. 2015 ).

While these countries are classified as developing (IMF 2015 ), Bangladesh and India score only medium for human development. Another country in the region, Sri Lanka, has a high rating on the HDI, and has been exhibiting extensive growth since the end of a 30-year war (WPR 2015 ). Thus, exhibiting both economic and social growth aspects makes it an interesting case for studying CSR.

Sri Lanka has a population of over 20 million and foreign companies have increased their investments with one billion US dollars in direct foreign investments in 2013 alone ( BOI ). Classified as a middle income developing country, the challenge for Sri Lanka is to achieve high economic growth without causing irreversible damage to the environment and while continuing to eliminating social issues such as poverty, malnutrition and poor workplace ethics (Goger 2013 ). In addition, Sri Lanka also has a long history of corporate philanthropy, largely led by individuals whose values and actions stem from religious and cultural views (Beddewela and Herzig 2013 ) but has recently seen an increase in private firms offering development-related initiatives. Public infrastructure projects have been the main element of post-war economic planning, but there still remains rural poverty in the country. Thus, the primary motivation for CSR and philanthropy in Sri Lanka is poverty reduction, particularly for children and youth, social welfare organisations like orphanages and elderly homes, hospitals and health services, and veterans’ charities (Global Insights 2013 ). Thus, the economic, cultural, and political context means that these poverty rates have fallen (data indicates that the rate went from approximately 20 % in 2000 to under 9 % in 2013) and that inflation has slowed (Wijesinha 2014 ), so opportunities for private businesses to contribute to infrastructure abound. However, these private, development-orientated, CSR initiatives have often failed to deliver their aims and there is considered to be a danger that they may in fact perpetuate the causes of poverty and ethnic and religious conflict given their ties to particular ethnic groups (Global Insights 2013 ).

Notwithstanding this environment, the topic of CSR reporting in Sri Lanka has received relatively little research attention compared to other parts of the world (see Belal and Momin 2009 , for a review). In terms of motivations for CSR, there is some evidence that firms in which senior management have a positive outlook towards social and environmental practices tend to disclose more on these aspects, as compared to other firms (Fernando and Pandey 2012 ). However, reporting on CSR initiatives is not mandatory thus it is likely that any voluntary reporting by Sri Lankan firms will vary significantly. One study of reporting was conducted by Senaratne and Liyanagedara ( 2012 ) who examined the level of compliance with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines in the disclosures of publicly listed companies, selected from seven business sectors. The authors conclude that the level of compliance with the GRI is low and that disclosures vary significantly amongst the companies, potentially reflecting varying commitment to CSR. Similarly, a longitudinal study across five years (2005–2010) was carried out by Wijesinghe ( 2012 ) to identify trends in CSR reporting in Sri Lanka and the study identified an increasingly positive trend, predicting similar levels of disclosures provided by companies in developed countries. The few studies that have been conducted examining the predominance of reporting in Sri Lanka, mostly examining multinational companies, conclude that CSR reporting is gaining momentum in Sri Lanka but is still emerging as the concept of CSR itself emerges (Beddewela and Herzig 2012 ; Hunter and Van Wassenhove 2011 ).

Conclusion and a future research agenda

As more and more research on CSR in developing countries emerges in the academic literature, it is important to ensure that appropriate consideration is given to the context in which the research takes place. Examination of CSR and CSR reporting practices without contextualisation could perpetuate flawed understandings that are based on evidence from research in the developed world. Different political, social, cultural and economic environments impact on the both the development of, and reporting of, CSR activities and consequently impact on the value of these activities to benefit society and the natural environment.

A suggested agenda for future research, that considers context in more depth, includes:

Consideration of ideological and hegemonic regimes and their attitude towards CSR. This research would consider potential positive and negative impacts of the political and governance system. In China, for example, the potential for Communist Party ideology to increase environmental protection and improve social conditions is vast, and is starting to be seen to have a strong impact on firm behaviour. Examination of this over time will provide an important contribution to understanding the role of government beyond the more common analysis of environmental protection regulation.

Greater examination of sociocultural variables in different countries, beyond analysis of religious influence, and beyond the use of Hofstede. Understandings of concepts such as CSR in countries in Asia, the Middle East and the Asian sub-continent, are known to differ from those in the West, so understanding their potential to lead to better (worse) CSR outcomes is important. The variety of variables that could be included is vast, but some clearly important issues include: language, secularism, freedom of the press, access to information, homogeneity of values and attitudes, and the existence of a national figurehead or identity.

Longitudinal examination of the process of economic development. Countries where the economy is developing rapidly, such as China and the Middle East; and countries where the historical economic context differs dramatically, such as in Sri Lanka where the need for development is borne out of conflict, provide rich backgrounds to consider how CSR is developing alongside economic developments.

A comprehensive framework for examining these, and other, potential factors that influence CSR and CSR reporting in developing countries does not exist, but Table  1 attempts to provide a preliminary outline of some factors that could comprise such a framework, and be used to guide future research. As mentioned earlier, it is important to note, however, that these variables are not discreet and are likely to interact with each other. This is noted in the table as a reminder that the classifications are somewhat artificial and that acknowledgement of a more holistic consideration is important.

These are clearly only a selection of opportunities for CSR research on developing nations and emerging economies. Calls for more work on these factors have continued since Adams’ ( 2002 ) original call, but there is still vast scope to improve our understanding of CSR practice throughout the world (Fifka 2013 ), where much of the social and environmental damage is taking place.

Importantly, research of this kind must be transdisciplinary as perspectives from areas such as political science, philosophy and economics are essential. Only with in-depth, contextualised understandings can improvements to the nature of CSR activity be implemented.

Abu-Baker, N., & Naser, K. (2000). Empirical evidence on corporate social disclosure (CSD) practices in Jordan. International Journal of Commerce and Management, 10 (3/4), 18–34.

Article   Google Scholar  

Adams, C. (2002). Internal organisational factors influencing corporate social and ethical reporting: beyond current theorising. Accounting Auditing Account Journal, 15 (2), 223–50.

Al-Khatar, K., & Naser, K. (2003). User’s perceptions of corporate social responsibility and accountability: evidence from an emerging economy. Managerial Auditing Journal, 18 (6/7), 538–48.

AlNaimi, H. A., Mohammed, H., & Momin, M. A. (2012). Corporate social responsibility reporting in Qatar: a descriptive analysis. Social Responsibility Journal, 8 (4), 511–26.

Andrew, B. H., Gul, F. A., Guthrie, J., & Teoh, H. Y. (1989). A note of corporate social disclosure practices in developing countries: the case of Malaysia and Singapore. The British Accounting Review, 21 (01), 371–76.

Avina, J. (2013). The evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the Arab Spring. The Middle East Journal, 67 (1), 77–92.

Beddewela, E., Herzig, C. (2012). Corporate social reporting by mncs’ subsidiaries in Sri Lanka. Paper presented at Accounting Forum.

Beddewela, E., & Herzig, C. (2013). Corporate social reporting by MNCs’ subsidiaries in Sri Lanka. Accounting Forum, 37 (2), 135–49.

Belal, A., & Momin, M. (2009). Corporate social reporting in emerging economies: a review and future direction. Research in Accounting in Emerging Economies, 9 , 119–45.

Google Scholar  

Belal, A. R., & Owen, D. L. (2007). The views of corporate managers on the current state of, and future prospects for, social reporting in Bangladesh: an engagement-based study. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 20 (3), 472–94.

Belal, A. R., & Roberts, R. W. (2010). ‘Stakeholders’ perceptions of corporate social reporting in Bangladesh. Journal of Business Ethics, 97 (2), 311–11-24.

Bina, O. (2010). Environmental governance in China: weakness and potential from an environmental policy integration perspective*. The China Review, 10 (1), 207–40.

BOI. Why Sri Lanka Now?. http://www.investsrilanka.com/ : Board of investment of Sri Lanka. nd. Accessed 1 Feb 2016.

Bremmer, I. (2010). The end of the free market: who wins the war between states and corporations. European View, 9 (2), 249–52.

Burritt, R. L., & Schaltegger, S. (2010). Sustainability accounting and reporting: fad or trend? Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 23 (7), 829–46.

Deegan, C. (2009). Extended systems of accounting - the incorporation of social and environmental factors within external reporting. In Financial accounting theory (pp. 378–425). Sydney: McGraw-Hill.

Dong, S., Burritt, R., & Qian, W. (2014). Salient stakeholders in corporate social responsibility reporting by Chinese mining and minerals companies. Journal of Cleaner Production, 84 , 59–69.

Du, J., Wang, Y. (2013). Reforming SOEs under China’s State Capitalism, Unfinished Reforms in the Chinese Economy . p. 1–38.

Economist, T. (2012). State capitalism , The economist . p. 1–14.

Elijido-Ten, E., Kloot, L., & Clarkson, P. (2010). Extending the application of stakeholder influence strategies to environmental disclosures: An exploratory study from a developing country. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 23 (8), 1032–59.

Emtairah, T., Al-Ashaikh, A., & Al-Badr, A. (2009). Contexts and corporate social responsibility: the case of Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Sustainable Society, 1 (4), 325–46.

Fadaak, T. (2010). Poverty in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: an exploratory study of poverty and female-headed households in Jeddah City. Social Policy and Administration, 44 (6), 689–707.

Fernando, A., & Pandey, I. (2012). Corporate social responsibility reporting: a survey of listed Sri Lankan companies. Journal for International Business and Entrepreneurship Development, 6 (2), 172–87.

Fifka, M. S. (2013). Corporate responsibility reporting and its determinants in comparative perspective – a review of the empirical literature and a meta-analysis. Business Strategy and the Environment, 22 (1), 1–35.

Frost, G., Jones, S., Loftus, J., & Van Der Laan, S. (2005). A survey of sustainability reporting practices of Australian reporting entities. Australian Accounting Review, 15 (1), 89–96.

Gao, Y. (2011). CSR in an emerging country: a content analysis of CSR reports of listed companies. Baltic Journal of Management, 6 (2), 263–91.

Garbarino, M. S. (1983). Sociocultural theory in anthropology. A short history . Long Grove: Waveland Press Inc.

Global Insights. Corporate responsibility, philanthropy and development, Policy Brief 08, 2016:13 January. 2013. [online at https://www.sussex.ac.uk/webteam/gateway/file.php?name=corporate-responsibility-and-development-global-insights-08-web.pdf&site=11 ].

Goger, A. (2013). The making of a ‘business case’ for environmental upgrading: Sri Lanka’s eco-factories. Geoforum, 47 , 73–83.

Gray, R. (2006). Does sustainability reporting improve corporate behaviour?: Wrong question? Right time? Accounting and Business Research, 36 (sup1), 65–88.

Guan, J., & Noronha, C. (2013). Corporate social responsibility reporting research in the Chinese academia: a critical review. Social Responsibility Journal, 9 (1), 35–55.

Gurvitsh, N., & Sidorova, I. (2012). Environmental and social accounting disclosures as a vital component of sustainability reporting integrated into annual reports of the Baltic companies for the Years 2007–2011: Based on companies listed on NASDAQ OMX Baltic Main List as of June 2012. GSTF Business Review (GBR), 2 (1), 38–44.

HDI. Human Development Report 2013. United Nations Development Programm; 2013. Available at: http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2013_EN_complete.pdf

Hunter, M. L., & Van Wassenhove, L. N. (2011). Hayleys PLC: corporate responsibility as stakeholder relations. The Journal of Management Development, 30 (10), 968–84.

IMF. (2015). World economic outlook, April 2015 . Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund.

Khan, M. H. U. Z. (2010). The effect of corporate governance elements on corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting: Empirical evidence from private commercial banks of Bangladesh. International Journal of Law and Management, 52 (2), 82–109.

Landry, P. F. (2008). Decentralized authoritarianism in China . New York: Cambridge University Press.

Book   Google Scholar  

Lieber, A. (2013). The Chinese ideology: reconciling the politics with the economics of contemporary reform. Journal of Chinese Political Science, 18 (4), 335–53.

Lund-Thomsen, P., Lindgreen, A., & Vanhamme, J. (2016). Industrial clusters and corporate social responsibility in developing countries: what we know, what we do not know, and what we need to know. Journal of Business Ethics, 133 (1), 9–24.

Maali, B., Casson, P., & Napier, C. (2006). Social reporting by islamic banks. Abacus, 42 (2), 266–89.

Mandurah, S., Khatib, J., & Al-Sabaan, S. (2012). Corporate social responsibility among Saudi Arabian Firms: an empirical investigation. Journal of Applied Business Research, 28 (5), 1049–57.

Marinellin, M. (2012). Disembodied Words: The Ritualistic quality of political discourse in the era of Jiang Zemin. In P. Chilton, H. Tian, & R. Wodak (Eds.), Discourse and Socio-political Transformations in Contemporary China . Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co.

Marios, I. K., & Tor, B. (2007). Corporate social responsibility: an exploratory study in the United Arab Emirates. SAM Advanced Management Journal, 72 (4), 9–20,2.

Mathews, M. R. (1997). Twenty-five years of social and environmental accounting research - Is there a silver jubilee to celebrate? Accounting Auditing and Accountability Journal, 10 (4), 481–531.

Mattlin, M. (2009). Chinese Strategic state-owned enterprises and ownership control. BICCS Asia Paper, 4 (6), 1–28.

Minnee, F., Shanka, T., Taylor, R., & Handley, B. (2013). Exploring corporate responsibility in Oman – social expectations and practice. Social Responsibility Journal, 9 (2), 326–39.

Mishra, S., & Suar, D. (2010). Does corporate social responsibility influence firm performance of Indian companies? Journal of Business Ethics, 95 (4), 571–601.

Momin, M. A., & Parker, L. D. (2013). Motivations for corporate social responsibility reporting by MNC subsidiaries in an emerging country: The case of Bangladesh. The British Accounting Review, 45 (3), 215–28.

Morhardt, J. E. (2010). Corporate social responsibility and sustainability reporting on the internet. Business Strategy and the Environment, 19 , 436–52.

Muttakin, M. B., Khan, A., & Subramaniam, N. (2015). Firm characteristics, board diversity and corporate social responsibility: evidence from Bangladesh. Pacific Accounting Review, 27 (3), 353–72.

Nalband, N. A., & Al-Amri, M. S. (2013). Corporate social responsibility–perception, practices and performance of listed companies of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. International Business Journal incorporating Journal of Global Competitiveness, 23 (3), 5–5.

Naser, K., Al-Hussaini, A., Al-Kwari, D., & Nuseibeh, R. (2006). Determinants of corporate social disclosure in developing countries: the case of Qatar. Advances in International Accounting, 19 (6), 1–23.

Naser, K., & Hassan, Y. (2013). Determinants of corporate social responsibility reporting: evidence from an emerging economy. Journal of Contemporary Issues in Business Research, 3 (2), 56–74.

Othman, R., & Ameer, R. (2009). Corporate social and environmental reporting: Where are we heading? A survey of the literature. International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, 6 (4), 298–320.

Patten, D. M. (2002). The relation between environmental performance and environmental disclosure: a research note. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 27 (8), 763–73.

Qasim, Z., Muralidharan, P., Ramaswamy, G. 2011. Corporate social responsibility and impact of CSR Practices in the United Arab Emirates. Paper presented at International Conference on Technology and Business Management March.

Ramady, M. A. (2010). The Saudi Arabian economy: policies, achievements and challenges . New York: Springer.

Raman, S. R. (2006). Corporate social reporting in India—a view from the top. Global Business Review, 7 (2), 313–24.

Ronnegard, D. (2013). CSR in Saudi Arabia: Far behind or another path? Fountainebleau: INSEAD.

Rostow, W. W. (1962). The stages of economic growth . London: Cambridge University Press.

Rowe, A. L., & Guthrie, J. (2009). 'Institutional Cultural Norms of Chinese Corporate Environmental Reporting.' Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Accounting Conference . Austria: University Innsbruck.

Sahay, A. (2004). Environmental reporting by Indian corporations. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 11 (1), 12–22.

Sangeetha, K., & Pria, S. (2012). Resources affecting banks’ CSR in sultanate of Oman: a stakeholders’ perspective. Journal of Business Ethics and Organization Studies, 17 (1), 31–40.

Senaratne, S., Liyanagedara, K. (2012). Corporate sustainability reporting in Sri Lanka . Paper presented at International Conference on Business Management.

Silvia, R., & Belen, F.-F. (2013). Effect of Hofstede’s cultural differences in corporate social responsibility disclosure. International Journal of Information Systems and Social Change (IJISSC), 4 (1), 68–84.

Situ, H., & Tilt, C. A. (2012). Chinese government as a determinant of corporate environmental reporting: a study of large Chinese listed companies. Journal of the Asia Pacific Centre for Environmental Accountability, 18 (4), 251–86.

Situ, H., Tilt, C. A., Seet, P. S., & Max, S. (2013). Understanding the impact of Chinese government and other stakeholders on Corporate Environmental Reporting in China . Kobe, Japan: 7th Asia Pacific Interdisciplinary Research in Accounting Conference (APIRA). Available at: http://www.apira2013.org/proceedings/ .

Situ, H., Tilt, CA., Seet, PS. (2015). Corporate Environmental Reporting (CER) in China: A Stakeholder Perspective . Paper presented at Australasian Conference on Social and Environmental Accounting Research.

Siwar, C., & Hossain, M. (2009). An analysis of Islamic CSR concept and the opinions of Malaysian managers. Management of Environmental Quality, 20 (3), 290–98.

Sudarma, M., Triyuwono, I., Ludigdo, U., Meutia, I. (2010). Qualitative approach to build the concept of social responsibility disclosures based on Shari’ah Enterprise Theory.

Sumiani, Y., Haslinda, Y., & Lehman, G. (2007). Environmental reporting in a developing country: a case study on status and implementation in Malaysia. Journal of Cleaner Production, 15 (10), 895–901.

Tilt, C. A. (2001). The content and disclosure of Australian corporate environmental policies. Accounting Auditing and Accountability Journal, 14 (2), 190–212.

UNDP. Human Development Report (DHR). 2015. [online at http://hdr.undp.org/en ]. Accessed 1 Feb 2016.

United Nations, D. o. E. a. S. A. Population Trends. 2013. http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/theme/trends/index.shtml : United Nations: Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Accessed 12 Feb 2016.

Van Dijk, T. A. (2009). Critical Discourse Analysis: A Sociocognitive Approach. In Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis (2nd ed., pp. 62–86). Los Angeles: SAGE Publication Ltd.

Visser, W. (2008). Corporate social responsibility in developing countries . The Oxford handbook of corporate social responsibility. p. 473–79

Wang, L., & Juslin, H. (2009). The impact of Chinese culture on corporate social responsibility: the harmony approach. Journal of Business Ethics, 88 , 433–51.

Wijesinghe, KN. (2012). Current context of disclosure of corporate social responsibility in Sri Lanka.

World Bank. Macroeconomics & Economic Growth in South Asia. nd. http://go.worldbank.org/6GS5XVH1O0 . Accessed 5 Feb 2016.

Wijesinha A. 'Can Sri Lanka build a prosperous post-war future?', 2014; [online at http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2014/06/10/can-sri-lanka-build-a-prosperous-post-warfuture/ ]. Accessed 12 Feb 2016.

WPR 2015. Sri Lanka Population 2015. http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/sri-lanka-population/ : World Population Review. Accessed 20 Jan 2016.

Zhang, Q. (2012). The discursive construction of the social stratification order in reforming China. In P. Chilton, H. Tian, & R. Wodak (Eds.), Discourse and socio-political transformations in Contemporary China (pp. 19–37). Amesterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co.

Chapter   Google Scholar  

Zhao J. Funding energy industry: International Finance Corporation invest in Chinese Green Energy (为能源业提供融资动力:国际金融公司投资中国绿色能源), China WTO Tribune. 2011. p. 10.

Zheng, Y. (2010). China model: experience and dilemma (中国模式:经验与困局) . Zhengzhou, China: Zhengzhou People Publishing House.

Download references

Acknowledgements

It is important to acknowledge that this paper provides an overview of a larger research program currently being undertaken by a team of doctoral students at Flinders University and the University of South Australia. Credit must be given to Ms Hui Situ (Flinders University) who is researching environmental reporting in China, Mr Abdullah Silawi (Flinders University) who is researching social responsibility reporting in the Gulf region, and Ms Dinithi Dissanayake (University of SA), who is researching environmental disclosure in Sri Lanka.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

School of Commerce, University of South Australia Business School, GPO Box 2471, Adelaide, 5001, South Australia

Carol A. Tilt

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carol A. Tilt .

Additional information

Competing interests.

The author declares that she has no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Tilt, C.A. Corporate social responsibility research: the importance of context. Int J Corporate Soc Responsibility 1 , 2 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40991-016-0003-7

Download citation

Received : 14 March 2016

Accepted : 18 May 2016

Published : 05 July 2016

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s40991-016-0003-7

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Corporate social responsibility
• Corporate environmental reporting
• State capitalism
• Developing countries
• Middle East

Essays on Social Responsibility

The importance of sociological theories.

Social responsibility is a modern philosophy that states that all individuals and organizations are obligated to help the community at large. This is typically an active effort involving acting against a social issue or prevention of committing harmful acts to the environment. Many companies and individuals engage in social responsibility because of its benefits on their immediate community as well as their business and profitability. It is an ongoing topic in society with many questions available for discussion.

Argumentative Essay

Social responsibility is an ideal topic for debate; there have been mixed results for companies and individuals who have pursued social responsibility. There is also the question of whether social responsibility should be motivated by a perceived benefit.This type of essay is based on philosophical theories on the necessity of social responsibility backed up with facts about previous social responsibility efforts. For example, an essay could be about how giving support to disaster victims can significantly boost an entity's professional image.

Analytical Essay

Social responsibility is a broad field of study; there are numerous factors to analyze in determining which mix of factors will have the highest chance of a successful social responsibility effort. For example, an author can look into the different types of philanthropy that address a social injustice, including: giving monetary gifts, hosting social awareness events and starting a sub-organization which addresses the issue at hand. Each type of social effort may have varying levels of effectiveness depending on the people’s acceptance and the complexity of the issue itself.

There are an abundant number of social responsibility campaigns enacted by different companies and individuals. Authors choose a particular entity and write a case study about that entity’s social responsibility efforts. This includes researching the motivation behind the effort, analyzing the program execution and judging the overall social impact of the campaign. Moreover, the essay can also highlight how the social responsibility effort directly affected the entity itself. Some common methods include doing a profitability comparison before and after the social responsibility campaign and conducting a qualitative study of how the campaign improves the entity’s image and reputation.

Future Application

Social responsibility is a highly evolving topic. Given the reported indirect benefits of social responsibility, there is a growing argument of how it should become a new form of business. Based on the original philosophy of social responsibility, this type of essay discusses the outlook on the integration of social responsibility in the work force. Some topics include the feasibility of a pure social responsibility company, ways for a single company to efficiently help macro audiences such as third world countries, or the possibility of legally enforcing social responsibility efforts from all companies.

Related Articles

How to Determine the Tone of an Essay

Common methods used in social science research.

How to Write Research Papers From Start to Finish

MBA Thesis Topics in Strategic Management

MBA Research Paper Topics

How to Set Up a Rhetorical Analysis

How to write a rebuttal speech.

Goal Displacement in Sociology

• "Essays on Efficiency Measurement and Corporate Social Responsibility"; Constantin Belu; 2009
• "Professional Ethics and Social Responsibility"; Daniel E. Wueste; 1994
• "Corporate Social Responsibility"; Philip Kotler; 2005

Raleigh Kung has been a social-media specialist and copywriter since 2010. He has worked with various companies on their online marketing campaigns and keeps a blog about social-media platforms. Now, he mainly writes about online media and education for various websites. Kung holds a master's degree in management and entrepreneurship from the University of San Francisco.

Essay on Social Responsibility

Social responsibility is a term that has been used in different contexts, including the economy, education, politics , and religion. Social responsibility is challenging because it encompasses so many aspects, and there is no single definition of social responsibility. In simple words, social responsibility is the responsibility of an individual to act in a way that promotes social well-being. This means that a person has a sense of obligation to society and sacrifices for the good of others. BYJU’S essay on social responsibility explains the importance of being a socially responsible citizen.

A society’s responsibility to the individuals in that society can be seen through the various social programmes and laws. Governments try to create a better world for their citizens, so they implement various social programmes like welfare, tax assistance, and unemployment benefits. Laws are also crucial to a society because they enforce practical actions by its citizens and punish harmful actions. Now, let us understand the significance of social responsibility by reading a short essay on social responsibility.

Importance of Social Responsibility

BYJU’S essay on social responsibility highlights the importance of doing good deeds for society. The short essay lists different ways people can contribute to social responsibility, such as donating time and money to charities and giving back by visiting places like hospitals or schools. This essay discusses how companies can support specific causes and how people can be actively involved in volunteering and organisations to help humanitarian efforts.

Social responsibility is essential in many aspects of life. It helps to bring people together and also promotes respect for others. Social responsibility can be seen in how you treat other people, behave outside of work, and contribute to the world around you. In addition, there are many ways to be responsible for the protection of the environment, and recycling is one way. It is crucial to recycle materials to conserve resources, create less pollution, and protect the natural environment.

Society is constantly changing, and the way people live their lives may also vary. It is crucial to keep up with new technology so that it doesn’t negatively impact everyone else. Social responsibility is key to making sure that society is prosperous. For example, social media has created a platform for people to share their experiences and insights with other people. If a company were going to develop a new product or service, it would be beneficial for them to survey people about what they think about the idea before implementing it because prior knowledge can positively impact future decisions.

Social responsibility is essential because it creates a sense of responsibility to the environment . It can lead to greater trust among members of society. Another reason is that companies could find themselves at a competitive disadvantage if they do not ensure their practices are socially responsible. Moreover, companies help people in need through money, time, and clothing, which is a great way to showcase social responsibility.

Being socially responsible is a great responsibility of every human being, and we have briefly explained this in the short essay on social responsibility. Moreover, being socially responsible helps people upgrade the environment and society. For more essays, click on BYJU’S kids learning activities.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does being socially responsible help in protecting the environment.

Yes. Being socially responsible helps in protecting the environment.

Why should we be socially responsible?

We should be socially responsible because it is the right thing to upgrade society and the environment. Another reason is to help those in need because when more people have jobs, the economy can thrive, and people will have more opportunities.

• Share Share

Register with BYJU'S & Download Free PDFs

Register with byju's & watch live videos.

Home — Essay Samples — Environment — Global Citizen — Protection of the Environment: It is the Responsibility of Citizens

Protection of The Environment: It is The Responsibility of Citizens

• Categories: Ecology Global Citizen

About this sample

Words: 552 |

Updated: 29 March, 2024

Words: 552 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Prof Ernest (PhD)

Verified writer

• Expert in: Environment

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

4 pages / 1970 words

2 pages / 868 words

2 pages / 962 words

3 pages / 1670 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Global Citizen

In an increasingly interconnected world, the concept of global citizenship has gained prominence. But what does it truly mean to be a global citizen? Is it merely about having a passport that allows you to travel the world, or [...]

Global citizenship encompasses a set of values and attitudes that promote understanding, empathy, and action for a better world. It implies a deep commitment to social justice, environmental sustainability, and active civic [...]

We are often caught up in our academic and personal pursuits. Our busy schedules and individualistic mindset often make us forget the importance of being a good citizen in our communities. However, being an active and [...]

Do we really understand why the world emerged concerning about the Environment issue that make some of us volunteering promotes about the important of sustainable development? The answer is the existing of the global citizen. [...]

In a rapidly evolving world where borders seem to blur and cultures intermingle, the concept of global citizenship has gained immense importance. Hugh Evans eloquently defines a global citizen as someone who identifies primarily [...]

Among the largest market for automotive in North America is Canada. Every year the total value of automotive imports to Canada from America increases, for example in 2016 there was a 6% rise which included 9.6% of imports of [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

More From Forbes

The rise and fall of esg.

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Linkedin

WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 23: Climate change protesters block traffic during a protest to shut down ... [+] D.C. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

This week we celebrate the 55 th anniversary of Earth Day. Perhaps the most serious challenge facing the earth is climate change, which reflects the industrial economy’s reliance on fossil fuels. To decarbonize, governments have enacted a range of mandatory policies. Alongside there is a proliferation of voluntary business efforts. Probably the most well-recognized of business initiatives is ESG (Environmental-Social-Governance), a metric to assess firms’ performance holistically, as opposed to relying predominantly on profits.

The theory is that decarbonization requires substantial changes in how businesses function. Decarbonization policies, whether mandatory or voluntary, tend to impose short-term private costs on firms to produce the global public good of climate mitigation. If firms focus on short-term profit maximization, they will have fewer incentives to pursue decarbonization. The ESG metric is a game changer because it recognizes firms for their pro-environmental efforts. ESG also has social and governance dimensions which are expected to motivate managers to consider the interests of all stakeholders, not only shareholders. This is a big ask because financial markets are programmed to focus on profits.

ESG also reveals a remarkable shift in American politics. Historically, conservatives have criticized government regulations and favored voluntary business self-regulation. In recent years, however, it seems conservatives have revised their opinion about regulations. They are opposing business self-regulatory efforts via ESG. Specifically, they see business leaders succumbing to the pressure of liberal groups and becoming “woke.” For them, ESG means that firms will sacrifice their profit goals to fund liberal priorities.

The ESG debate is moot if ESG supports firms’ profit goals. What if it does not, a topic of spirited debate among scholars? How might then firms respond? Even if they can resist the pressure from the stock market to deliver short-term profits, they might face legal problems for violating the fiduciary duty of serving shareholders. This issue is being employed by conservatives to attack ESG on legal-political grounds.

ESG and Cultural Wars

BlackRock’s CEO Larry Fink is considered to be the most prominent ESG advocate. Our recent research with Nela Mrchkovska shows that Fink, who began writing his “Dear CEO” letters in 2012 , used the term ESG for the first time in 2016. Google Trends reveals that in the U.S., ESG rose in prominence in 2019. During its heydays, ESG was a dominant theme in elite gatherings such as the World Economic Forum. Financial firms launched ESG funds and business schools introduced ESG courses.

Trump Ally Warned Ex-President About Keeping Classified Docs—Over A Year Before Indictment, FBI Filing Says

Billionaire mark cuban issues post halving bitcoin warning amid unprecedented crypto fee price chaos, aew dynasty 2024 results winners and grades as swerve makes history.

Interest in ESG peaked in 2023 and its sharp decline seemed to have begun. A recent Wall Street Journal news story was entitled, “The Latest Dirty Word in Corporate America: ESG.” Why did ESG have a relatively short shelf-life? We highlight two factors: cultural wars and the Ukraine crisis.

ESG outlines the vision of stakeholder capitalism. Fink notes : “Stakeholder capitalism is … driven by mutually beneficial relationships between you and the employees, customers, suppliers, and communities your company relies on to prosper .” But Fink’s argument is losing its audience. ESG has become a victim of cultural wars. For conservatives, stakeholder capitalism is a smoke screen for liberal corporate managers to pursue political agendas using corporate resources. These managers can escape scrutiny because they can always find some “stakeholder” to support their preferred policy. While stock markets enforce profit-based accountability, stakeholder capitalism allows managers to escape from this discipline.

Firms have a fiduciary duty to maximize shareholders’ wealth. Using this argument, Attorney Generals of several U.S. states have sued financial companies that employ ESG. The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed BlackRock and State Street Global Advisors to investigate whether they are colluding to promote ESG. In this politically charged environment, financial investors are backtracking on ESG funds .

ESG and the Ukraine War

For fossil fuel supporters, ESG is a de facto climate standard. The Ukraine war, which focused global attention on energy inflation and energy security, created the political opportunity for this group to strike at ESG.

How so? The Ukraine invasion has changed the political and economic fortunes of the oil and gas industry. It seems keeping gas prices low is a policy priority across the world. With the active blessing of both Democratic and Republican Presidents, the U.S. has emerged as the world’s top oil producer . Fracking has allowed the U.S. to become the top natural gas producer as well. The U.S. has stepped up its natural gas exports and is creating a massive new LNG pipeline infrastructure. Oil and gas firms are gushing in profits. Thus, financial firms have a hard time explaining why they are not investing in highly profitable oil and gas firms, which they are obligated as part of their fiduciary duty.

Just consider the changes in the political environment as the oil and gas industry has gone on the offensive. Exxon Mobil has sued investors to prevent a vote on their pro-climate proposal during the company's shareholder meeting. Larry Fink has retreated from preaching decarbonization to advocating energy pragmatism which involves both renewables and fossil fuels. In a recent S&P Global Energy Conference, Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser predicted that fossil fuel demand will continue to grow and it is a “fantasy” that oil and gas will get phased out.

Was ESG a fad then?

Fads quickly gain prominence and quickly lose steam. The excitement around them is not rooted in reality. ESG was not a fad because the core ideas motivating it reflect the deeper issue of the social responsibility of businesses.

The climate crisis is real and capitalism is in danger due to public backlash to rising income inequalities and declining living standards. The fundamental questions about the social purpose of the firm are even more important today than ever before. In the 1970s, Milton Friedman wrote that the “Social Responsibility of Business is to increase its profits.” For Friedman, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is charity. In his perspective, firms are not in the charity business, and individual shareholders, as owners of firms, should individually decide how they want to spend their profits.

Yet, this approach has caused social and political upheavals and eroded firms’ social license to operate. The CSR movement seeks to reclaim this license. Bowen’s book, Social Responsibilities of the Businessman , outlined the intellectual rationale for it. In the 1980s, Freeman introduced the idea of stakeholder capitalism. Over the years CSR has gone through several iterations such as Triple Bottom Line and the United Nations Global Compact . ESG could be viewed as its most recent version, sculpted to meet the needs of the time. Yet, cultural wars and the Ukraine invasion have created a hostile political and legal climate for firms to embrace ESG.

To conclude, conservatives see ESG as woke capitalism. They are using the government to go after firms that self-regulate! Yet, the reality is that the climate crisis is worsening and the fundamental question about the social purpose of the firm is unresolved. It remains to be seen whether the ESG idea gets resurrected under a new acronym so that firms can explore ways to retain their social and political license to operate and combat climate change.

• Editorial Standards
• Reprints & Permissions

Greenwashing and stakeholder theory in China: an empirical evidence of corporate social responsibility and firms performance

• Published: 22 April 2024

Cite this article

• Abd Alwahed Dagestani 1 ,
• Ibrahim Alnafrah 2 ,
• Luboš Smutka 3 ,
• Yuriy Bilan 4 &
• Pengyu Chen   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4584-2036 5  

Previous research on the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and corporate sustainability remains ambiguous, with limited exploration of stakeholder influence. This study addresses this gap by analyzing data from 14,206 firm-year observations of Chinese manufacturing companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges (2010–2019). To this end, 2SLS and PSM-DID methods were applied to address endogeneity concerns and isolate the causal impact of CSR. The findings of this study reveal a positive impact of CSR on both economic and environmental performance. Moreover, internal stakeholders, including major shareholders, domestic and overseas institutional investors, and employees, act as motivators for sustainable performance. However, the results show that institutional investors may hinder environmental progress. External stakeholders, on the other hand, exert diverse influences. While government, creditors, and suppliers enhance CSR’s positive effect on economic performance, government, customers, and peer pressure promote improvements in environmental performance. Notably, internal stakeholders act as primary watchdogs, regulating potential negative behaviors like greenwashing, while external stakeholders tend to overlook them due to stronger emphasis on self-interest. These findings highlight the need for policies that encourage internal stakeholder engagement, address potential conflicts of interest among external stakeholders, and strengthen regulatory frameworks for greenwashing, paving the way for more sustainable corporate practices and improved economic and environmental performance.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Rent this article via DeepDyve

Institutional subscriptions

Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available in the WIND and CSMAR (China Stock Market & Accounting Research Database).

https://www.hexun.com/

https://www.gtadata.com/

Abbreviations

• Corporate social responsibility
• Economic performance
• Environmental performance

Difference-in-Differences

Environmental, Social, and Governance

Alvarez, I. (2015). Financialization, non-financial corporations and income inequality: The case of France. Socio-Economic Review, 13 (3), 449–475.

Article   Google Scholar  

Amin, A., Chourou, L., Kamal, S., Malik, M., & Zhao, Y. (2020). It’s who you know that counts: Board connectedness and CSR performance. Journal of Corporate Finance, 64 , 101662.

Angelia, D., & Suryaningsih, R. (2015). The effect of environmental performance and corporate social responsibility disclosure towards financial performance (Case study to manufacture, infrastructure, and service companies that listed at Indonesia stock exchange). Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 211 , 348–355.

Arora, P., & Dharwadkar, R. (2011). Corporate governance and corporate social responsibility (CSR): The moderating roles of attainment discrepancy and organization slack. Corporate Governance: An International Review, 19 (2), 136–152.

Aschauer, D. A. (2000). Do states optimize? Public capital and economic growth. The Annals of Regional Science, 34 (3), 343–363.

Auld, G., Balboa, C., Bernstein, S., Cashore, B. E. N. I. A. M. I. N., Delmas, M., & Young, O. (2009). The emergence of non-state market-driven (NSDM) global environmental governance. In Governance for the environment: New perspectives , 183.

Awaysheh, A., Heron, R. A., Perry, T., & Wilson, J. I. (2020). On the relation between corporate social responsibility and financial performance. Strategic Management Journal, 41 (6), 965–987.

Balabanis, G., Phillips, H. C., & Lyall, J. (1998). Corporate social responsibility and economic performance in the top British companies: Are they linked? European Business Review, 98 (1), 25–44.

Barney, J. (1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Management, 17 (1), 99–120.

Barone, M. J., Miyazaki, A. D., & Taylor, K. A. (2000). The influence of cause-related marketing on consumer choice: Does one good turn deserve another? Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 28 (2), 248–262.

Belu, C., & Manescu, C. (2013). Strategic corporate social responsibility and economic performance. Applied Economics, 45 (19), 2751–2764.

Benjamin, S. J., Wasiuzzaman, S., Mokhtarinia, H., & Nejad, N. R. (2016). Family ownership and dividend payout in Malaysia. International Journal of Managerial Finance, 12 (3), 314–34.

Beringer, C., Jonas, D., & Kock, A. (2013). Behavior of internal stakeholders in project portfolio management and its impact on success. International Journal of Project Management, 31 (6), 830–846.

Bradford, C. S. (2012). Crowdfunding and the federal securities laws. Columbia Business Law Review , 1 .

Campello, M., & Larrain, M. (2016). Enlarging the contracting space: Collateral menus, access to credit, and economic activity. The Review of Financial Studies, 29 (2), 349–383.

Cao, Q., Fang, M., & Pan, Y. (2022). Minority shareholders protection and corporate financial leverage: Evidence from a natural experiment in China. Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, 73 , 101742.

Charlo, M. J., Moya, I., & Muñoz, A. M. (2015). Sustainable development and corporate financial performance: A study based on the FTSE4Good IBEX Index. Business Strategy and the Environment, 24 (4), 277–288.

Chen, P., & Dagestani, A. A. (2023). Greenwashing behavior and firm value–From the perspective of board characteristics. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 30 (5), 2330–2343.

Chen, Z., & Xie, G. (2022). ESG disclosure and financial performance: Moderating role of ESG investors. International Review of Financial Analysis, 83 , 102291.

Chun, R., & Davies, G. (2006). The influence of corporate character on customers and employees: Exploring similarities and differences. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 34 (2), 138–146.

Cordeiro, J. J., Profumo, G., & Tutore, I. (2020). Board gender diversity and corporate environmental performance: The moderating role of family and dual-class majority ownership structures. Business Strategy and the Environment, 29 (3), 1127–1144.

DeCampos, H. A., Rosales, C. R., & Narayanan, S. (2022). Supply chain horizontal complexity and the moderating impact of inventory turns: A study of the automotive component industry. International Journal of Production Economics, 245 , 108377.

Dias, A., Rodrigues, L. L., & Craig, R. (2016). Global financial crisis and corporate social responsibility disclosure. Social Responsibility Journal, 12 (4), 654–671.

Ditlev-Simonsen, C. D., & Wenstøp, F. (2013). How stakeholders view stakeholders as CSR motivators. Social Responsibility Journal, 9 (1), 137–147.

Du, S., Bhattacharya, C. B., & Sen, S. (2010). Maximizing business returns to corporate social responsibility (CSR): The role of CSR communication. International Journal of Management Reviews, 12 (1), 8–19.

Egginton, J. F., & McBrayer, G. A. (2019). Does it pay to be forthcoming? Evidence from CSR disclosure and equity market liquidity. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 26 (2), 396–407.

Fisch, J. E. (2005). Measuring efficiency in corporate law: The role of shareholder primacy. Journal of Corporation Law, 31 , 637.

Google Scholar  

Foster, G., & Gupta, M. (1994). Marketing, cost management and management accounting. Journal of Management Accounting Research, 6 , 43.

Freeman, R., Harrison, J., & Zyglidopoulos, S. (2018). Stakeholder Theory: Concepts and Strategies (Elements in Organization Theory) . Cambridge University Press.

Book   Google Scholar  

Gallego-Álvarez, I., Prado-Lorenzo, J. M., & García-Sánchez, I. M. (2011). Corporate social responsibility and innovation: A resource-based theory. Management Decision, 49 (10), 1709–1727.

García Martín, C. J., & Herrero, B. (2020). Do board characteristics affect environmental performance? A study of EU firms. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 27 (1), 74–94.

Giroud, X., & Mueller, H. M. (2011). Corporate governance, product market competition, and equity prices. The Journal of Finance, 66 (2), 563–600.

Glicksman, R. L., & Earnhart, D. H. (2007). The comparative effectiveness of government interventions on environmental performance in the chemical industry. Stanford Environmental Law Journal, 26 , 317.

Gupta, H., Kumar, A., & Wasan, P. (2021). Industry 4.0, cleaner production and circular economy: An integrative framework for evaluating ethical and sustainable business performance of manufacturing organizations. Journal of Cleaner Production , 295 , 126253.

Hao, J., & He, F. (2022). Corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and green innovation: Evidence from China. Finance Research Letters, 48 , 102889.

Hart, S. L., & Dowell, G. (2011). Invited editorial: A natural-resource-based view of the firm: Fifteen years after. Journal of Management, 37 (5), 1464–1479.

Heath, J., & Norman, W. (2004). Stakeholder theory, corporate governance and public management: What can the history of state-run enterprises teach us in the post-Enron era? Journal of Business Ethics, 53 (3), 247–265.

Hernández, J. P. S. I., Yañez-Araque, B., & Moreno-García, J. (2020). Moderating effect of firm size on the influence of corporate social responsibility in the economic performance of micro-, small-and medium-sized enterprises. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 151 , 119774.

Hickle, G. (2017). Extending the boundaries: An assessment of the integration of extended producer responsibility within corporate social responsibility. Business Strategy and the Environment, 26 (1), 112–124.

Islam, T., Islam, R., Pitafi, A. H., Xiaobei, L., Rehmani, M., Irfan, M., & Mubarak, M. S. (2021). The impact of corporate social responsibility on customer loyalty: The mediating role of corporate reputation, customer satisfaction, and trust. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 25 , 123–135.

Jiang, Y., Wang, C., Li, S., & Wan, J. (2022). Do institutional investors’ corporate site visits improve ESG performance? Evidence from China. Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, 76 , 101884.

Kagan, R. A., Gunningham, N., & Thornton, D. (2003). Explaining corporate environmental performance: How does regulation matter? Law & Society Review, 37 (1), 51–90.

Kraus, S., Rehman, S. U., & García, F. J. S. (2020). Corporate social responsibility and environmental performance: The mediating role of environmental strategy and green innovation. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 160 , 120262.

Levinsohn, J., & Petrin, A. (2003). Estimating production functions using inputs to control for unobservables. The Review of Economic Studies, 70 (2), 317–341.

Lewis, N., Parker, L. D., & Sutcliffe, P. (1984). Financial reporting to employees: Towards a research framework. Accounting and Business Research, 14 (55), 229–239.

Li, J., Xia, J., & Zajac, E. J. (2018). On the duality of political and economic stakeholder influence on firm innovation performance: T heory and evidence from C hinese firms. Strategic Management Journal, 39 (1), 193–216.

Li, Y., Chen, R., & Xiang, E. (2022). Corporate social responsibility, green financial system guidelines, and cost of debt financing: Evidence from pollution-intensive industries in China. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management., 29 (3), 593–608.

Liu, Z., Li, W., Hao, C., & Liu, H. (2021). Corporate environmental performance and financing constraints: An empirical study in the Chinese context. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 28 (2), 616–629.

Ljungqvist, A., Marston, F., Starks, L. T., Wei, K. D., & Yan, H. (2007). Conflicts of interest in sell-side research and the moderating role of institutional investors. Journal of Financial Economics, 85 (2), 420–456.

Long, W., Li, S., Wu, H., & Song, X. (2020). Corporate social responsibility and financial performance: The roles of government intervention and market competition. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 27 (2), 525–541.

Lu, J., & Wang, J. (2021). Corporate governance, law, culture, environmental performance and CSR disclosure: A global perspective. Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, 70 , 101264.

Ma, S., Naughton, T., & Tian, G. (2010). Ownership and ownership concentration: Which is important in determining the performance of China’s listed firms? Accounting & Finance, 50 (4), 871–897.

McWilliams, A., & Siegel, D. S. (2011). Creating and capturing value: Strategic corporate social responsibility, resource-based theory, and sustainable competitive advantage. Journal of Management, 37 (5), 1480–1495.

Mijatovic, I. S., & Stokic, D. (2010). The influence of internal and external codes on CSR practice: The case of companies operating in Serbia. Journal of Business Ethics, 94 (4), 533–552.

Miles, M. P., & Covin, J. G. (2000). Environmental marketing: A source of reputational, competitive, and financial advantage. Journal of Business Ethics, 23 (3), 299–311.

Moon, J. (2007). The contribution of corporate social responsibility to sustainable development. Sustainable Development, 15 (5), 296–306.

Moyeen, A. (2018). CSR management strategies, stakeholder engagement and MNE subsidiaries efforts to foster sustainable development. In The goals of sustainable development (pp. 43–54). Springer.

Nakamura, E. (2015). The bidirectional CSR investment–economic performance relationship. Journal of Global Responsibility, 6 (1), 128–144.

Nazari, J. A., Hrazdil, K., & Mahmoudian, F. (2017). Assessing social and environmental performance through narrative complexity in CSR reports. Journal of Contemporary Accounting & Economics, 13 (2), 166–178.

Neubaum, D. O., Dibrell, C., & Craig, J. B. (2012). Balancing natural environmental concerns of internal and external stakeholders in family and non-family businesses. Journal of Family Business Strategy, 3 (1), 28–37.

Neumeyer, P. A., & Perri, F. (2005). Business cycles in emerging economies: The role of interest rates. Journal of Monetary Economics, 52 (2), 345–380.

Olley, S., & Pakes, A. (1992). The dynamics of productivity in the telecommunications equipment industry .

Peng, J., Sun, J., & Luo, R. (2015). Corporate voluntary carbon information disclosure: Evidence from China’s listed companies. The World Economy, 38 (1), 91–109.

Peteraf, M. A. (1993). The cornerstones of competitive advantage: A resource-based view. Strategic Management Journal, 14 (3), 179–191.

Plaza-Úbeda, J. A., Burgos-Jiménez, J., Vazquez, D. A., & Liston-Heyes, C. (2009). The ‘win–win’paradigm and stakeholder integration. Business Strategy and the Environment, 18 (8), 487–499.

Polonsky, M. (1995a). Incorporating the natural environment in corporate strategy: A stakeholder approach. Journal of Business Strategies, 12 (2), 151–168.

Polonsky, M. J. (1995b). A stakeholder theory approach to designing environmental marketing strategy. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 10 (3), 29–46.

Porter, M. E., Hills, G., Pfitzer, M., Patscheke, S., & Hawkins, E. (2011). Measuring shared value. How to Unlock Value by Linking Social and Business Results (pp. 10–11).

Purnomo, P. K., & Widianingsih, L. P. (2012). The influence of environmental performance on financial performance with corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure as a moderating variable: Evidence from listed companies in Indonesia. Review of Integrative Business and Economics Research, 1 (1), 57.

Rashid, A., Shams, S., Bose, S., & Khan, H. (2020). CEO power and corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure: Does stakeholder influence matter? Managerial Auditing Journal, 35 (9), 1279–1312.

Rexhepi, G., Kurtishi, S., & Bexheti, G. (2013). Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and innovation–the drivers of business growth? Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 75 , 532–541.

Reynolds, M., & Yuthas, K. (2008). Moral discourse and corporate social responsibility reporting. Journal of Business Ethics, 78 (1), 47–64.

Riyadh, H. A., Sukoharsono, E. G., & Alfaiza, S. A. (2019). The impact of corporate social responsibility disclosure and board characteristics on corporate performance. Cogent Business & Management, 6 (1), 1647917.

Rovigatti, G., & Mollisi, V. (2018). Theory and practice of total-factor productivity estimation: The control function approach using Stata. The Stata Journal, 18 (3), 618–662.

Roy, M. J., & Vezina, R. (2001). Environmental performance as a basis for competitive strategy: Opportunities and threats. Corporate Environmental Strategy, 8 (4), 339–347.

Saini, N., & Singhania, M. (2019). Performance relevance of environmental and social disclosures: The role of foreign ownership. Benchmarking: An International Journal, 26 (6), 1845–1873.

Saka, C., & NODA, A. (2013). The effects of stakeholders on CSR disclosure: Evidence from Japan . Available at SSRN 2239469.

Salihu, I. A., Annuar, H. A., & Obid, S. N. S. (2015). Foreign investors’ interests and corporate tax avoidance: Evidence from an emerging economy. Journal of Contemporary Accounting & Economics, 11 (2), 138–147.

Satpathy, L. D., Chatterjee, B., & Mahakud, J. (2017). Firm characteristics and total factor productivity: evidence from Indian manufacturing firms. Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, 11 (1), 77–98.

Shabbir, M. S., & Wisdom, O. (2020). The relationship between corporate social responsibility, environmental investments and financial performance: Evidence from manufacturing companies. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 27 (32), 39946–39957.

Shah, K. U., Arjoon, S., & Rambocas, M. (2016). Aligning corporate social responsibility with green economy development pathways in developing countries. Sustainable Development, 24 (4), 237–253.

She, C., & Michelon, G. (2019). Managing stakeholder perceptions: Organized hypocrisy in CSR disclosures on Facebook. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 61 , 54–76.

Shen, H., Zheng, S., Adams, J., & Jaggi, B. (2020). The effect stakeholders have on voluntary carbon disclosure within Chinese business organizations. Carbon Management, 11 (5), 455–472.

Article   CAS   Google Scholar  

Sila, I., & Cek, K. (2017). The impact of environmental, social and governance dimensions of corporate social responsibility on economic performance: Australian evidence. Procedia Computer Science, 120 , 797–804.

Singh, K., & Misra, M. (2021). Linking corporate social responsibility (CSR) and organizational performance: The moderating effect of corporate reputation. European Research on Management and Business Economics, 27 (1), 100139.

Singh, S. K., Chen, J., Del Giudice, M., & El-Kassar, A. N. (2019). Environmental ethics, environmental performance, and competitive advantage: Role of environmental training. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 146 , 203–211.

Sinha Babu, S., & Datta, S. K. (2013). The relevance of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) in a framework of broad-based environmental degradation and modified measure of growth–a pooled data analysis. International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology, 20 (4), 309–316.

Sirgy, M. J. (2002). Measuring corporate performance by building on the stakeholders model of business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 35 (3), 143–162.

Song, W., & Yu, H. (2018). Green innovation strategy and green innovation: The roles of green creativity and green organizational identity. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 25 (2), 135–150.

Tang, Z., & Tang, J. (2012). Stakeholder–firm power difference, stakeholders’ CSR orientation, and SMEs’ environmental performance in China. Journal of Business Venturing, 27 (4), 436–455.

Telle, K., & Larsson, J. (2007). Do environmental regulations hamper productivity growth? How accounting for improvements of plants’ environmental performance can change the conclusion. Ecological Economics, 61 (2–3), 438–445.

Theodoulidis, B., Diaz, D., Crotto, F., & Rancati, E. (2017). Exploring corporate social responsibility and financial performance through stakeholder theory in the tourism industries. Tourism Management, 62 , 173–188.

Thijssens, T., Bollen, L., & Hassink, H. (2015). Secondary stakeholder influence on CSR disclosure: An application of stakeholder salience theory. Journal of Business Ethics, 132 (4), 873–891.

Tihanyi, L., Johnson, R. A., Hoskisson, R. E., & Hitt, M. A. (2003). Institutional ownership differences and international diversification: The effects of boards of directors and technological opportunity. Academy of Management Journal, 46 (2), 195–211.

Tomomi, T. (2010). Environmental management strategy for small and medium-sized enterprises: Why do SMBs practice environmental management? Asian Business & Management, 9 (2), 265–280.

Udayasankar, K. (2008). Corporate social responsibility and firm size. Journal of Business Ethics, 83 (2), 167–175.

Vardhan, K. H., Kumar, P. S., & Panda, R. C. (2019). A review on heavy metal pollution, toxicity and remedial measures: Current trends and future perspectives. Journal of Molecular Liquids, 290 , 111197.

Verbeke, A., & Tung, V. (2013). The future of stakeholder management theory: A temporal perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 112 (3), 529–543.

Vig, V. (2013). Access to collateral and corporate debt structure: Evidence from a natural experiment. The Journal of Finance, 68 (3), 881–928.

Waheed, A., & Yang, J. (2019). Effect of corporate social responsibility disclosure on firms’ sales performance: A perspective of stakeholder engagement and theory. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 26 (3), 559–566.

Walls, J. L., Berrone, P., & Phan, P. H. (2012). Corporate governance and environmental performance: Is there really a link? Strategic Management Journal, 33 (8), 885–913.

Xiong, B., Lu, W., Skitmore, M., Chau, K. W., & Ye, M. (2016). Virtuous nexus between corporate social performance and financial performance: A study of construction enterprises in China. Journal of Cleaner Production, 129 , 223–233.

Zhou, M., Pan, Y., Chen, Z., & Yang, W. (2013). Optimizing green production strategies: An integrated approach. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 65 (3), 517–528.

Download references

Acknowledgements

Not applicable.

The article has been prepared with the support of: The project titled “Cluster for innovative energy” in the frame of the program “HORIZON-MSCA-2022-SE-01” under the Grant agreement number 101129820, and The Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (Ural Federal University Program of Development within the Priority-2030 Program).

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

School of Business Central, South University, Changsha, 410083, People’s Republic of China

Abd Alwahed Dagestani

Graduate School of Economics and Management, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg, 620002, Russia

Ibrahim Alnafrah

Department of Trade and Finance, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, Prague 6, 165 00, Prague, Czech Republic

Luboš Smutka

Faculty of Management, Rzeszow University of Technology, Al. Powstańców Warszawy 12, 35-959, Rzeszów, Poland

Yuriy Bilan

School of Economics and Management, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, 010021, Inner Mongolia, China

Pengyu Chen

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

AAD: Conceptualization, writing, review and editing. IA: writing, review and editing. LS: Formal analysis. YB: Resources. PC: Methodology, writing – original draft, and writing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pengyu Chen .

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate, consent to participate, consent for publication, competing interests.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

See Table  8 .

See Table  9 .

See Table  10 .

See Table  11 .

See Table  12 .

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Dagestani, A.A., Alnafrah, I., Smutka, L. et al. Greenwashing and stakeholder theory in China: an empirical evidence of corporate social responsibility and firms performance. Environ Dev Sustain (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-024-04849-2

Download citation

Received : 07 November 2023

Accepted : 24 March 2024

Published : 22 April 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-024-04849-2

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Heterogeneous stakeholders
• Stakeholder theory

JEL Classification

Advertisement

• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research

Social Learning and how it Affected Richard Ramirez’s Behavior

This essay about the role of observational learning in shaping criminal behavior uses the case of Richard Ramirez to illustrate its points. It explores how Ramirez’s exposure to violence and deviant behaviors during his formative years, through family dynamics and influential adults, exemplified the principles of social learning theory. The essay argues that the behaviors Ramirez observed and internalized guided him towards his criminal path, suggesting that environmental factors are pivotal in the development of such behaviors. It stresses the importance of positive role models and supportive societal structures to prevent the emergence of similar patterns in vulnerable individuals. The discussion emphasizes that understanding the environmental influences on behavior can lead to more effective preventative and rehabilitative strategies for at-risk youth.

How it works

Richard Ramirez, known infamously as the “Night Stalker,” presents a case study that vividly illustrates the impact of one’s immediate environment on personal development, particularly in the context of criminal behavior. Ramirez’s story highlights the potential ramifications of observational learning, a core concept of social learning theory, which suggests that people can learn new behaviors by watching others.

Ramirez’s childhood was steeped in negative influences; his early exposure to violent imagery and stories, especially those shared by a war veteran relative, provided a skewed framework of social norms.

These stories, often glorified and detailed, depicted violence as a strategy for overcoming problems and achieving one’s goals. This was compounded by the abusive behavior he witnessed at home, where violence was a commonplace response to frustration and conflict. In this setting, Ramirez did not just see violence as an isolated part of life; it was intertwined with survival, power, and control.

Furthermore, Ramirez’s early encounters with illicit substances and inappropriate sexual content added layers to his distorted perceptions. These experiences, combined with the aggressive models he observed, likely fused his concepts of violence and sexuality. Such complex interactions of observed behaviors can create a potent mix that may propel an individual toward a path of deviant or criminal behavior.

Some may argue that attributing Ramirez’s criminal actions solely to environmental factors simplifies the complexity of human behavior, neglecting the interplay of psychological and biological elements. However, considering his background through the lens of social learning does not excuse his actions but rather expands our understanding of how such extreme behaviors can evolve. It suggests that behavior can be significantly molded by the environment, especially when influential role models are involved.

Reflecting on Ramirez’s life from this perspective does not just paint a picture of inevitability; it serves as a cautionary tale about the power of early experiences and the models to which children are exposed. It urges a reconsideration of how, as a society, we can better influence young minds. Positive role models and supportive environments are crucial in fostering healthy behavior patterns and deterring paths that lead to harm.

In the bigger picture, Ramirez’s case reinforces the importance of proactive social measures, such as community support structures, positive mentoring programs, and accessible mental health services, which can intervene and potentially redirect negative trajectories before they solidify.

By delving into the dark narrative of Richard Ramirez with an understanding of social learning theory, we gain insights not only into the origins of his actions but also into preventive strategies that could deter similar outcomes in others. It’s a testament to the necessity of cultivating healthy environments where positive behaviors are demonstrated and rewarded, shaping individuals’ choices and actions in profoundly impactful ways.

Cite this page

Social Learning And How It Affected Richard Ramirez's Behavior. (2024, Apr 22). Retrieved from https://papersowl.com/examples/social-learning-and-how-it-affected-richard-ramirezs-behavior/

"Social Learning And How It Affected Richard Ramirez's Behavior." PapersOwl.com , 22 Apr 2024, https://papersowl.com/examples/social-learning-and-how-it-affected-richard-ramirezs-behavior/

PapersOwl.com. (2024). Social Learning And How It Affected Richard Ramirez's Behavior . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/social-learning-and-how-it-affected-richard-ramirezs-behavior/ [Accessed: 23 Apr. 2024]

"Social Learning And How It Affected Richard Ramirez's Behavior." PapersOwl.com, Apr 22, 2024. Accessed April 23, 2024. https://papersowl.com/examples/social-learning-and-how-it-affected-richard-ramirezs-behavior/

"Social Learning And How It Affected Richard Ramirez's Behavior," PapersOwl.com , 22-Apr-2024. [Online]. Available: https://papersowl.com/examples/social-learning-and-how-it-affected-richard-ramirezs-behavior/. [Accessed: 23-Apr-2024]

PapersOwl.com. (2024). Social Learning And How It Affected Richard Ramirez's Behavior . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/social-learning-and-how-it-affected-richard-ramirezs-behavior/ [Accessed: 23-Apr-2024]

Don't let plagiarism ruin your grade

Hire a writer to get a unique paper crafted to your needs.

Our writers will help you fix any mistakes and get an A+!

Please check your inbox.

You can order an original essay written according to your instructions.

Trusted by over 1 million students worldwide

1. Tell Us Your Requirements

2. Pick your perfect writer

3. Get Your Paper and Pay

Hi! I'm Amy, your personal assistant!

Don't know where to start? Give me your paper requirements and I connect you to an academic expert.

short deadlines

100% Plagiarism-Free

Certified writers

• SUGGESTED TOPICS
• The Magazine
• Newsletters
• Managing Yourself
• Managing Teams
• Work-life Balance
• The Big Idea
• Data & Visuals
• Reading Lists
• Case Selections
• HBR Learning
• Topic Feeds
• Account Settings
• Email Preferences

6 Common Leadership Styles — and How to Decide Which to Use When

• Rebecca Knight

Being a great leader means recognizing that different circumstances call for different approaches.

Research suggests that the most effective leaders adapt their style to different circumstances — be it a change in setting, a shift in organizational dynamics, or a turn in the business cycle. But what if you feel like you’re not equipped to take on a new and different leadership style — let alone more than one? In this article, the author outlines the six leadership styles Daniel Goleman first introduced in his 2000 HBR article, “Leadership That Gets Results,” and explains when to use each one. The good news is that personality is not destiny. Even if you’re naturally introverted or you tend to be driven by data and analysis rather than emotion, you can still learn how to adapt different leadership styles to organize, motivate, and direct your team.

Much has been written about common leadership styles and how to identify the right style for you, whether it’s transactional or transformational, bureaucratic or laissez-faire. But according to Daniel Goleman, a psychologist best known for his work on emotional intelligence, “Being a great leader means recognizing that different circumstances may call for different approaches.”

• RK Rebecca Knight is a journalist who writes about all things related to the changing nature of careers and the workplace. Her essays and reported stories have been featured in The Boston Globe, Business Insider, The New York Times, BBC, and The Christian Science Monitor. She was shortlisted as a Reuters Institute Fellow at Oxford University in 2023. Earlier in her career, she spent a decade as an editor and reporter at the Financial Times in New York, London, and Boston.

Partner Center