Strategic corporate social responsibility: the struggle for legitimacy and reputation Online publication date: Wed, 08-Apr-2015
by Irene Pollach
International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics (IJBGE), Vol. 10, No. 1, 2015
Abstract: Companies face the pressure to differentiate themselves from other companies, while simultaneously facing the pressure to work by the same standards as other companies in order to maintain their legitimacy. Firms that want to gain a differentiation advantage through their CSR activities need to match the practices of other firms, innovate and communicate their own CSR practices, and protect their CSR achievements from mimicry by other firms. An interview study among CSR directors of large industrial companies with high CSR ambitions was conducted in order to shed light on how CSR directors navigate this cycle of CSR innovation, CSR communication, and CSR mimicry. The findings suggest that companies should seek to foster relationship building within the organisation in order to speed up the execution of CSR ideas, build coopetitive networks for knowledge sharing with other companies, critically examine the organisation's culture, and optimise the effectiveness of CSR communication.
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