Purpose Wide differences in the focus and form of corporate social responsibility (CSR) exist among countries due to the different institutional embeddedness of CSR practices. The purpose of this paper is to seek to explain them within the framework provided by institutional theory by identifying important pressures driving CSR practices. Further, it intends to extend theory by proposing a conceptual model that relates institutional pressures, CSR practices, reputation and financial performance of corporates in a developing country like India. Design/methodology/approach Drawing upon the extant literature on the constructs, the paper describes their evolution through decades and weaves relationship between them. Institutional theory provides the framework to develop hypotheses. Findings The model has its roots in Scott’s institutional theory – linking regulative, normative and cognitive pressures to CSR practices. Reputation mediates the relationship between CSR and financial performance. Practical implications The conceptual model can serve as a foundation for subsequent empirical research. An understanding of relationship between constructs in the model will help corporates to strategize CSR initiatives. At the organisational level, insight into managerial perceptions of CSR practices will help to identify the need for training, if there is a gap between what organisation intends and what managers perceive. Originality/value The authors have proposed for the first time an integrative model that will help to understand the antecedents as well as consequences of CSR practices in a developing country within a theoretical framework.

Purpose India has recently entered mandatory corporate social responsibility (CSR) spend era. It is important to unravel the pressures of CSR implementation in the Indian context to understand how a better fit between business strategy and CSR spend can be achieved. This study aims to validate a model that integrates pressures, CSR implementation and financial performance through reputation within the institutional theory framework. Design/methodology/approach It is based on a questionnaire survey of 162 top-level and middle-level CSR managers in India and semi-structured interviews with eight top-level executives. Findings The study concludes that local community, government, peers and media are important institutional pressures of CSR implementation in India. Reputation partially mediates the relationship between CSR implementation and financial performance. Practical implications The study findings can help managers to know which stakeholders (government, media, peers and local community) are exerting statistically significant institutional pressures and how CSR initiatives be designed to cater to their requirements. Though CSR spend is mandatory in India, a strategic orientation towards it would enable the firms to derive value for the stakeholders associated with the business. Originality/value Relationship between pressures of CSR and CSR implementation has not yet been explored in the Indian context. Such a relationship tells us why is CSR taken up and influence of which of the pressure groups is considered important while implementing CSR. The study will help to understand the relationship between CSR–reputation–financial performance as perceived by Indian managers and to assess whether they perceive corporate reputation building as one of the most important outcomes of CSR.

Purpose Drawing on both social identity theory and signalling theory, this paper aims to theorize and empirically examine a moderated mediation model that investigates the underlying mechanism through which perception of Corporate social responsibility (CSR) influence employee affective commitment (AC) (micro-CSR) in case of companies that are among the highest spenders on CSR initiatives targeted at external stakeholders (macro-CSR). Design/methodology/approach The hypotheses were tested on 444 employees of top five banking and four information technology Indian companies. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to test the measurement model, whereas moderated mediation analysis was done through Hayes PROCESS Macro (v.4). Findings Findings suggest that employees develop a positive attitudinal disposition towards organisations CSR activities even when targeted only at external stakeholders. The research findings support advancement of CSR literature by suggesting that expenditure on CSR initiatives of business sends strong signals to employees of the care and empathy it has for stakeholders and due to prestige, that comes along with it, their self-concept gets accentuated. Lack of influence of employee volunteering (EV) on CSR outcomes highlights the need of integration of CSR initiatives with CSR strategy and human resource policies. Originality/value Results indicate that perception about CSR is directly related to AC, but its influence improves if it is routed through perceived organisational support and organisational trust in that order. Furthermore, the serial mediation of the model is not moderated by EV.

Researchers world over are increasingly realising that use of a theoretical framework is necessary for designing and conducting research on corporate-community relations. There are no empirical studies in India, to the best of our knowledge, which look at Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives of a corporate in local community through theoretical lens. The research questions we examine through this study are – firstly, how institutional pressure at the level of local community drives CSR practices of a company and secondly, to assess how community has perceived these CSR initiatives. To answer the same, the researchers studied CSR practices of Cairn India in Barmer region of Rajasthan as a single case within the theoretical framework provided by the institutional theory. This empirical study, based on interviews with employees and NGO partners of Cairn and perceptual study in the community, offers an on-the-ground glimpse of how the company is implementing CSR initiatives and associated challenges it is facing. The findings testify that managing local community expectations has certainly helped Cairn India to integrate community expectations into its CSR strategy. The study brings to light the fact Government and NGOs are important drivers of CSR at the local community level in developing countries like India.

The aim of the study is to identify important pressures driving corporate social responsibility practices by companies in India. Institutional pressures are conceptualised as a second order hierarchical component model (reflective formative type) and its multiple dimensions as first order reflective constructs forming second-order components. The model has its roots in institutional theory as applied to CSR -linking government, industry association, NGOs, media, local communities and peer groups for overall institutional pressure. An exploratory study was conducted among top level and middle level CSR professionals of companies in S&P BSE 500 index to empirically validate constructs. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used for data analysis. Results indicate that institutional pressures can be measured in a reflective-formative type HCM (Hierarchical Component Model) and local community, peers, media, government and industry association are important triggers for CSR in India. The study provides evidence that stakeholders are exerting institutional pressures on corporates. Further, a new multidimensional institutional pressures formative construct to understand the pressures of CSR in India is proposed which can be used by researchers in future, by policy makers to make sector specific CSR laws and by corporates for training.