Managerial Mindsets Toward Corporate Social Responsibility: The Case of Auto Industry in Iran

Abstract

Despite a plethora of empirical evidence on the potential role of senior management in the success of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Western-dominated organizational contexts, little attempt has been made to document the various managerial mindsets toward CSR in organizations in Muslim-dominated countries in the Middle East region. To address this existing lacuna of theoretical and empirical research in CSR management, this paper offers a qualitative case study of CSR in three manufacturing firms operating in Iran's auto industry. Based on an inductive analysis of the qualitative data, three types of managerial mindset toward CSR are identified: conformist, self-seeker, and satisfier. While it is evident that these different mindsets of Iranian managers seek to serve managerial ends and short-term self-interests, they fall short of core values of Islamic ethics and CSR.

Sustainable supply chain management in emerging economies: Trade-offs between environmental and cost performance

“…Despite this being widely studied in developed economies (Hollos et al, 2012;Green et al, 2012a), there is a scarcity of research in the context of emerging economies (Hsu et al, 2013), raising the question as to whether SSCM practices such as sustainable production really pay off in emerging markets. Thus, further understanding of the relationship between SSCM practices and performance is needed, especially for firms in developing countries such as China and Iran which need to balance a growing economy and environmental protection (Geng et al ., 2013;Soltani et al, 2015).…”

Researching Corporate Social Responsibility in the Middle East: The Current State and Future Directions

“…Managers' views of CSR vary across countries; for example, many managers from Lebanon and Jordan prefer the philanthropic view of CSR and the socio‐economic view of CSR respectively (Jamali et al, ). Regardless of these differences, studies (such as Jamali et al ., ; Soltani et al, ) reveal that most managers from Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and Jordan hold the modern view of CSR (i.e., maintaining relationships with the broader matrix of society and creating short‐term and long‐term benefits). However, Erdogan and Baris () reveal that managers from Turkey have limited knowledge about social and environmental benefits.…”

“…Specifically, some nuanced findings indicate that B2C Turkish companies tend to focus more on philanthropic initiatives that are likely to be welcomed by key stakeholders because they have a more visible market presence, whereas business‐to‐business (B2B) companies are generally less visible and have fewer relationships and therefore, place greater emphasis on a strategic CSR focus related to economic and legal concerns. It also appears that managers from Turkey and Iran adopt CSR in order to attain various instrumental benefits such as cost or tactical ones (Erdogan & Baris, ; Soltani et al, ). While studying the motives of managers for adopting CSR in Iran, Soltani et al () identify three types of managerial mindset.…”

“…It also appears that managers from Turkey and Iran adopt CSR in order to attain various instrumental benefits such as cost or tactical ones (Erdogan & Baris, ; Soltani et al, ). While studying the motives of managers for adopting CSR in Iran, Soltani et al () identify three types of managerial mindset. These are conformist (i.e., to pursue a compliance culture), self‐seeker (i.e., to fulfil self‐interest) and satisfier (i.e., to improve product and service quality).…”

Towards an Understanding of Social Responsibility Within the Church of England

“…By examining the impact multi-level contextual factors have on actual practice in a faith-based context, this paper also contributes to a neglected area in the rapidly expanding field of research into social responsibility dynamics, which has mainly focussed on the corporate and business sectors (Yin and Zhang 2012;Soltani et al 2014). Enhancing knowledge about social responsibility in religious organisations contributes to a greater understanding of the importance of context for individual outcomes in a highly complex non-profit organisation.…”