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Perception of corporate social responsibility among devout and nondevout customers in an Islamic society

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Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a very common buzz word in the field of marketing since many years. This empirical paper assesses the attitude of devout and nondevout customers towards CSR in the context of a religious society. As making clear distinction between devout and nondevout customers may have associated measurement problems in a single-religion-dominated country, this paper initiates the discussion of peculiarity between two important religiosity measures, that is, observation based and solicited. A hypothetical story board with embedded CSR information in a scenario supporting a religious cause is presented to the highly and less religious subjects in text written form. The scenario is followed by questions pertaining to their religious behaviors and attitude towards the company in question. The results illustrate that highly religious customers show slightly greater preference towards CSR as compared to less religious customers and the observation-based religiosity measure has a tendency of more reliability if the researchers have deep cultural and religious know-how about a specific society. Results of this study might help international marketers about choosing a particular cause under its umbrella CSR activities particularly when entering in a highly religious society dominated by a single religion.

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Notes

  1. Which is interest based.

  2. Most of the shrines also have mosques in it.

  3. Most of the religious subjects had beard and prefer to wear shalwar and qamiz (long shirt).

  4. Name of an Islamic month when Muslims keep fasting from dawn to dusk.

  5. A formal practice of religious preaching, for a specified duration, as in practice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Management Sciences, University of Balochistan, Quetta, Pakistan

    Sana-ur-Rehman Sheikh

  2. College of International Management, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Beppu, Japan

    Rian Beise-Zee

Authors
  1. Sana-ur-Rehman Sheikh
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  2. Rian Beise-Zee
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Correspondence to Sana-ur-Rehman Sheikh.

Appendix

Appendix

Company A is a bed sheets manufacturing and retailing company in Pakistan, serving since the last 15 years in the local market with quality products. The company is involved in socially responsible activities related to its general operations. Moreover, it supports financially and morally an organization that is working for a cause in the society. The cause is to transform the entire banking system of Pakistan into a pure Islamic banking system. The company allocates a certain portion of its profit every year for this cause. The owners and the top executives of the company believe that it is the most important cause and the company must support it unconditionally.

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Sheikh, SuR., Beise-Zee, R. Perception of corporate social responsibility among devout and nondevout customers in an Islamic society. Asian J Bus Ethics 4, 131–146 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13520-015-0048-9

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