Corporate social responsibility is deemed as a component that influences a company or survival of the organization. Although it has drawn considerable attention, whether a comprehensive model has been presented is a key question that has yet remained unanswered. The present chapter aims to propose an inclusive model of corporate social responsibility based on the definitions and concepts developed by another researcher. This paper expresses a different perspective on using literature review to extract corporate social responsibility dimensions and measures that make this research different from previous studies. In this regard, 317 papers on corporate social responsibility were selected which their theoretical frameworks, methodologies, theoretical gaps have been reviewed. The results indicate that CSR has been recognized and widely used in companies or organizations. Since ethical, environmental, economic, and psychological concerns have not been taken into account individually. The direction of future research is presented.
Top1. Introduction
Since the nature of corporate social responsibility (CSR, henceforth) is considered dynamic, there is no inclusive definition (Gond, 2017). Since 1930, while a number of authors have carried out important research on CSR, most of them have been focused on various aspects of CSR. According to Hodkin (2002), researchers have represented a definition on the matter based on what they perceived: e.g., philanthropy, benevolence, ethics, social entrepreneurship (Chell et al. 2016), environment, deriving, evaluation, responses (Gond et al, 2017), entrepreneurial business, sustainable development, awareness (Tai & Chuang, 2014). Additionally, companies need to invest in a domestic and international competitive market in order to achieve success, which fulfilling this goal requires to use an important element and an effective factor influencing on this success. Hodkin (2002) defines CSR as respected and protecting the environment, aiming to improve the quality and opportunities of life, enabling individuals and investing in societies where companies operate in. In fact, CSR aims to support consumers (Hancock et al., 2008). Chen et al. (2018) also suggest that the integration of CSR with different strategies such as operational and managerial as well as corporate governance policies boosts the value of a company. Also, CSR programs have become an integral part of the public relations strategy in many companies. Lii and Lee (2012) also identified the consumer companies and reputation, respectively. In addition, the increased customer loyalty, higher earnings, willingness to pay premium and flexibility to the negative press about the company were recognized by Du et al. (2007) Firstly, since there is no comprehensive definition of CSR, according to the researchers (Gond, 2017). We definite CSR as turning the idea into reality, respecting for the environment, compatibility, support, innovation, benevolence and humanitarian entrepreneurship as well as company reputation, which all of these factors improve the performance of a company or organization and lead to outperform its rivals. While in the earlier research, the definition of CSR was solely limited to the used dimensions, the definition presented in this study is based on different dimensions. This definition considers CSR as a process and outcome at the individual, organizational, and institutional level whereas the previous studies had been studied on one- or two-dimensional level. Also, the numbers of papers published in conferences and journals have highlighted the importance of CSR in recent years. Sue et al. (2016) studied the emerging markets and concluded that those who participate in the CSR activities have acquired more reputation and credibility that brings about increasing the performance and revenue of the company. Moreover, Yadav et al. (2016) found that a positive CSR report would lead to positive returns in stock portfolios. Although they analyzed CSR literature such as CSR reports, financial and social performance, and even corporate reputation, they could not find any significant relationship between CSR practices and corporate reputation as a medium. After studying previous studies, it can be noted that each study has examined CSR dimensions from a different point of views, but they have not provided a comprehensive and effective model.