Global Country Social Responsibility: What Is It? An Abstract

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR), which refers to business practices and corporate resource contributions that help improve societal well-being (Kotler & Lee, 2005), and its impact on a country’s bottom line have attracted increased scholarly interest over the years as corporations recognize the communities in which they operate as significant stakeholders. CSR initiatives thus tend to help corporations boost their reputation and be viewed positively by consumers, investors, and prospective employees (Korschun, Bhattacharya, & Swain, 2014; Sen, Bhattacharya, & Korschun, 2006). Specifically, when firms engage in CSR activities, they communicate to key stakeholders their organizational values, which can reap multiple benefits when they are congruent with key stakeholders’ values (Bhattacharya & Sen, 2003; Galbreath, 2010; Sen et al., 2006). However, given the numerous pressing social issues our world is facing today, it is imminent for the entire countries, not just corporations, to address important societal issues such as health and well-being, peace and security, and environmental sustainability. Recognizing this need, we extend the CSR concept to the country level and introduce the concept of global country social responsibility (GCSR), defined as a country’s practices that contribute to the well-being of its key constituents or stakeholders, including immigrants, emigrants, native citizens, non-native citizens, as well as domestic and foreign businesses.

In our effort to construct the concept of GCSR, we point to three broad dimensions of GCSR – international peace and security, societal welfare, and environment – as these represent the primary indicators of socially responsible corporate activities (citation?). International peace and security concern a country’s active involvement with governments of other countries and international organizations such as the United Nations in an effort to ensure the safety of its key stakeholders. Societal welfare prefers to promoting economic well-being, equality, health, and education, while the pressing issues under environment for countries include promoting sustainability and mitigating negative human impact.