Corporate Social Responsibility Among Saudi Arabian Firms: An Empirical Investigation

Abstract

There is an increasing recognition within the developed economies across the world that today, CSR is not an optional extra; i.e., firms can no longer look at CSR as a luxury or an indicator of their goodwill toward society. Firms, in todays context, are seeking to integrate CSR in their corporate policies and strategies. Developing countries firms, however, are still in the early stage of their awareness and integration of CSR activities within their corporate policies and strategies. The present exploratory study utilizes a sample of Saudi Arabian firms managers to assess the extent of their awareness of CSR, its role within their organizations, the extent of CSR integration in their corporate policies, and the nature and scope of these firms CSR activities. Results indicate that there is a reasonable level of CSR awareness as well as a moderately positive attitude toward the concept. However, most CSR activities in Saudi Arabia seem to focus on the local communities in which these firms operate. Discussion of the results and their implications are provided.

Corporate sustainability disclosure in annual reports: Evidence from UAE banks: Islamic versus conventional

“…In the context of the emerging market economies located in the Gulf region, there are research works about the corporate sustainability and social responsibility such as Nasser and Baker in Jordan, Al-Khater and Naser [3], Naser and Baker [28] and AlNaimi et al [4] in Qatar, Katsioloudes and Brodtkorb [24] and Rettab et al [31] in UAE, Rizk et al [32] in Egypt, Mandurah et al [26] in Saudi Arabia and Khasharmeh and Suwaidan [23] in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).…”

“…In their paper, they use the content analysis covering several areas of the CSR reporting such as environment, human resources, product development and community involvement. In their exploratory study of the CSR status among Saudi companies, Mandurah et al [26] find that the managers are aware of the CSR importance and have a positive attitude toward it. Katsioloudes and Brodtkorb [24] highlight the CSR in UAE companies and find that most companies comply with the UAE environmental laws while Rettab et al [31] highlight the positive association between the CSR and the corporate financial performance.…”

Corporate Social Responsibility in Developing Countries as an Emerging Field of Study

“…D. Jamali and C. Karam (Chun 2009;Duarte 2010;Erondu et al 2004;Gupta and Hodges 2012;Katamba et al 2012;Obalola 2008;Rodrigo and Arenas 2008;Shafer et al 2007;Turker 2009;Vivier 2013) Increased employee commitment to the firm (Bayoud et al 2012;Chun 2009;Turker 2009) Personal religions orientations (Brammer et al 2007;Mandurah et al 2012) Increased OCBs ( responsibilities (Baden and Wilkinson 2014;Cai and Aguilar 2014;Dawkins et al 2014;Demuijnck and Ngnodjom 2013;Farooq et al 2014;Mahmood and Humphrey 2013;Jamali et al 2009a;Nambiar and Chitty 2014;Robertson et al 2013;Zhu et al 2014;Zu and Song 2009) describes the Monsanto Small Holder Program and suggests that the initial philanthropic intent was undermined by competing commercial pressures leaving vulnerable stakeholders underserved. Bond (2008) warns of the naïve acceptance of corporate bona fides, and Akpan (2006) similarly highlights that corporate inducement and pacification strategies through CSR have the consequence of stoking greed and opportunism and exacerbating conflicts in local communities.…”

Critical Barriers to Social Responsibility Implementation within Mega-Construction Projects: The Case of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

“…This is in part due to the lack of SR studies in the context of developing countries including the KSA. However, the KSA government has developed the Saudi Vision 2030 which encourages active participation of the private sector in the country's development [49]. There is growing recognition of the importance of SR within the KSA government, society, public and private organizations [48,50].…”

“…Most SR activities in the Middle East region are performed mainly by western multi-national companies such as Intel, DHL and Shell [61]. Therefore, it is important for local organizations to consider this issue seriously as the World Bank has pointed out that good governance and accountability are the main factors for achieving economic growth and sustainability in the Middle East [49]. There is a pressing need for a holistic national consideration of SR that promotes and supports companies making a move in this direction [47,54].…”