csr marketing dissertation

Corporate Social Responsibility and Brand Equity: Insights to Global, Luxury, and Co-Creation Brand Building Strategies

PDF Version Also Available for Download.

Description

Given the growing number of socially conscious and ethical consumers, brands have been taking a strategic approach to corporate social responsibility (CSR) by integrating socially responsible activities into the brand's core value proposition in order to remain relevant in the marketplace and drive brand equity. Extant research on CSR has investigated its effect on various consumer behavior outcomes. However, from a brand-building perspective, there is still a lack of understanding on how to effectively leverage CSR, and not enough directions on how to overcome its challenges in order to build brand equity. Therefore, through three essays, the objective of this … continued below

Physical Description

viii, 126 pages

Creation Information

Muniz, Fernanda May 2020.

This dissertation is part of the collection entitled: UNT Theses and Dissertations and was provided by the UNT Libraries to the UNT Digital Library , a digital repository hosted by the UNT Libraries . It has been viewed 435 times, with 7 in the last month. More information about this dissertation can be viewed below.

People and organizations associated with either the creation of this dissertation or its content.

• Muniz, Fernanda
• Guzman, Francisco Major Professor

Committee Members

• Paswan, Audhesh
• Kidwell, Blair
• University of North Texas Publisher Info: www.unt.edu Place of Publication: Denton, Texas

Rights Holder

For guidance see Citations, Rights, Re-Use .

Provided By

Unt libraries.

The UNT Libraries serve the university and community by providing access to physical and online collections, fostering information literacy, supporting academic research, and much, much more.

Descriptive information to help identify this dissertation. Follow the links below to find similar items on the Digital Library.

Degree Information

• Name: Doctor of Philosophy
• Level: Doctoral
• Department: Department of Marketing, Logistics, and Operations Management
• College: G. Brint Ryan College of Business
• Discipline: Business
• PublicationType: Doctoral Dissertation
• Grantor: University of North Texas

Given the growing number of socially conscious and ethical consumers, brands have been taking a strategic approach to corporate social responsibility (CSR) by integrating socially responsible activities into the brand's core value proposition in order to remain relevant in the marketplace and drive brand equity. Extant research on CSR has investigated its effect on various consumer behavior outcomes. However, from a brand-building perspective, there is still a lack of understanding on how to effectively leverage CSR, and not enough directions on how to overcome its challenges in order to build brand equity. Therefore, through three essays, the objective of this dissertation is to provide a deep understanding of the effect that CSR has on brand equity while revealing brand-building strategies that can be implemented to effectively leverage CSR, specifically within the (1) global, (2) luxury, and (3) co-creation contexts.

• Brand Building
• Brand Equity
• Business Administration, Marketing
• Co-Creation
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Global Brand
• Luxury Brand
• Thesis or Dissertation

Unique identifying numbers for this dissertation in the Digital Library or other systems.

• Accession or Local Control No : submission_1945
• Archival Resource Key : ark:/67531/metadc1703285

Collections

This dissertation is part of the following collection of related materials.

UNT Theses and Dissertations

Theses and dissertations represent a wealth of scholarly and artistic content created by masters and doctoral students in the degree-seeking process. Some ETDs in this collection are restricted to use by the UNT community .

What responsibilities do I have when using this dissertation?

Digital Files

• 135 image files available in multiple sizes
• 1 file (.pdf)
• Metadata API: descriptive and downloadable metadata available in other formats

Dates and time periods associated with this dissertation.

Creation Date

Added to the unt digital library.

• June 15, 2020, 7:38 p.m.

Description Last Updated

• Feb. 24, 2023, 4:20 p.m.

Usage Statistics

When was this dissertation last used?

Interact With This Dissertation

Here are some suggestions for what to do next.

Search Inside

• or search this site for other thesis or dissertations

Start Reading

• All Formats

Citations, Rights, Re-Use

• Citing this Dissertation
• Responsibilities of Use
• Licensing and Permissions
• Linking and Embedding
• Copies and Reproductions

International Image Interoperability Framework

We support the IIIF Presentation API

Print / Share

Links for robots.

Helpful links in machine-readable formats.

Archival Resource Key (ARK)

• ERC Record: /ark:/67531/metadc1703285/?
• Persistence Statement: /ark:/67531/metadc1703285/??

International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF)

• IIIF Manifest: /ark:/67531/metadc1703285/manifest/

Metadata Formats

• UNTL Format: /ark:/67531/metadc1703285/metadata.untl.xml
• DC RDF: /ark:/67531/metadc1703285/metadata.dc.rdf
• DC XML: /ark:/67531/metadc1703285/metadata.dc.xml
• OAI_DC : /oai/?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_dc&identifier=info:ark/67531/metadc1703285
• METS : /ark:/67531/metadc1703285/metadata.mets.xml
• OpenSearch Document: /ark:/67531/metadc1703285/opensearch.xml
• Thumbnail: /ark:/67531/metadc1703285/thumbnail/
• Small Image: /ark:/67531/metadc1703285/small/
• In-text: /ark:/67531/metadc1703285/urls.txt
• Usage Stats: /stats/stats.json?ark=ark:/67531/metadc1703285

Muniz, Fernanda. Corporate Social Responsibility and Brand Equity: Insights to Global, Luxury, and Co-Creation Brand Building Strategies , dissertation , May 2020; Denton, Texas . ( https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1703285/ : accessed September 9, 2024 ), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu ; .

Advertisement

Meta-analyses on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): a literature review

• Open access
• Published: 18 March 2021
• Volume 72 , pages 627–675, ( 2022 )

Cite this article

You have full access to this open access article

• Patrick Velte   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5960-8449 1  

54k Accesses

121 Citations

2 Altmetric

Explore all metrics

This paper addresses quantitative meta-analyses on corporate governance-related determinants and firms’ (non) financial consequences of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Legitimacy theory as our theoretical framework assumes that, through a social contract, a company must fulfil the respective society’s values and expectations and gain legitimacy. We also rely on the business case argument, assuming a positive relationship between CSR and financial outcomes of the firm. This analysis focusses on 54 quantitative meta-analyses on CSR and includes a structured literature review in order to increase our knowledge, which corporate governance variables and proxies of firm’s (non) financial outcome have been heavily included in archival research, and if there is an overall impact of these variables. Prior meta-analyses indicate that board independence, board gender diversity, and board size have a positive impact on CSR performance. Moreover, both CSR performance and environmental performance increase financial performance. This literature review makes a useful contribution to prior studies by summarizing the overall impact of corporate governance variables on CSR and their (non) financial consequences and by deducing recommendations for future research.

Similar content being viewed by others

Can Corporate Governance and Sustainability Policies Drive CSR Performance? An Empirical Study

Board attributes, corporate social responsibility strategy, and corporate environmental and social performance.

The fit between corporate social responsibility and corporate governance: the impact on a firm’s financial performance

Explore related subjects.

• Artificial Intelligence

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

1 Introduction

Since the financial crisis of 2008–09, public interest entities (PIEs) are very active in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies in line with the triple bottom line (economic, social, and environmental goals). In view of various (inter)national frameworks, e.g., the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards and their voluntary character in many regimes, stakeholders criticize the reliability of CSR reports and included CSR performance measures due to greenwashing policy and information overload (Huang and Watson 2015 ). CSR performance measures and reports are connected with increased managerial discretion as a potential self-impression tool (Huang and Watson 2015 ). According to the famous business case argument for CSR (Schaltegger et al. 2019 ), successful CSR strategies should lead to better firm’s (non) financial performance and increased firm value. A proper corporate governance system is needed to decrease greenwashing and information overload (Ortas et al. 2017 ) and to increase firm reputation. Especially, monitoring duties of non executive directors and the implementation of incentive-based compensation systems for top managers should strengthen substantial CSR management systems and avoid symbolic CSR activities (Guerrero-Villegas et al. 2018 ).

In line with the increased relevance in business practice, CSR represents a key topic in empirical-quantitative research. Next to numerous literature reviews on the business case of CSR (Schaltegger et al. 2019 ) who focus the variation of different theories, research methods and CSR proxies within this field, quantitative meta-analyses on CSR research become important during the last few years (e.g., Majumder et al. 2017 ; Cafri et al. 2010 ). As there are very different results in empirical-quantitative CSR studies, meta-analyses statistically summarize the existing research and increase the validity of CSR research and its implications. Another main goal of meta-analyses is the implementation of relevant moderator analysis across multiple studies (Velte 2019a ; Friede et al. 2015 ; Parmigiani and Rivera-Santos 2011 ). As we notice an increased amount of CSR-related meta-analyses during the last years, we are surprised that no literature review on CSR meta-analyses exists so far. In more detail, we just identify four literature reviews on meta-analyses in business administration: a literature review of meta-analyses on accounting (Khlif and Chalmers 2015 ), auditing (Hay 2019 ), finance (Geyer-Klingeberg et al. 2020 ) and accounting, auditing and corporate governance (Velte 2019b ). We see a major research gap on conducting a literature review on prior CSR meta-analyses in view of the following reasons: First, archival CSR research has been increased during the last decade and show heterogeneous results, leading to increased use of meta-analyses on CSR. Prior meta-analyses have used different methods, variables, and moderators, stressing the need to structure the results with the help of a literature review. Second, in line with legitimacy theory and the business case argument for CSR, it is questionable whether prior CSR meta-analyses reported a positive impact of corporate governance on CSR and whether CSR is connected with positive (non) financial consequences. We thus question whether corporate governance as a monitoring and incentive tool is needed for top managers to decrease opportunistic behaviour and strengthen their CSR efforts. Third, as CSR proxies are also very heterogeneous in practice and research, we know very little about the overall impact of corporate governance on different CSR proxies and their consequences, based on meta-analyses. We thus differentiate between the most used variables in prior research: CSR performance, reporting and their related subpillars (e.g., environmental or carbon issues), board gender diversity, Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) and Socially Responsible Investments (SRI). Fourth, one of the main goals of meta-analyses is to include relevant moderator and mediator analyses . Significant results may be related to moderating and meditating variables, so that it increases our knowledge on factors that may have an impact on the business case for CSR. Therefore, the goal of our study is to evaluate 54 quantitative CSR meta-analyses by addressing the following main research questions:

What are the main corporate governance-related determinants of CSR?

What are the key firms’ (non) financial consequences of CSR?

Which moderator and mediator variables have been included in prior CSR meta-analyses?

Our literature review on CSR meta-analyses indicates that the majority of included studies has focussed on the CSR-financial performance-link. In view of the key corporate governance-related determinants, we note that board independence, board gender diversity and board size have a positive impact on CSR performance. Thus, corporate governance tools can fulfil a main incentive and monitoring tool for top managers in order to increase their CSR efforts. Moreover, in line with our business case argument, CSR (environmental) performance leads to increased financial performance according to our literature review. Thus, shareholders and other stakeholder groups include successful CSR strategies in their decision-making and this may lead to an increased firm value.

The following review provides useful information for researchers, regulators, and practitioners, which may stimulate future researchers to conduct more quantitative meta-analyses on CSR. Furthermore, business practice and regulatory bodies should be aware of the great need to strengthen the comparability of CSR performance and related CSR reporting tools. Regulators may be encouraged to implement stricter regulations on sustainable corporate governance in order to decrease greenwashing policies and lower information overload with regard to CSR.

This article is structured as follows: after introducing our legitimacy theoretical framework and our research framework (Sect.  2 ), we portray the main results of our literature view on CSR meta-analyses (Sect.  3 ). Then, we stress main restrictions of existing research and present selective recommendations for future research activities (Sect.  4 ). A summary of our results will be focussed in Sect.  5 .

2 Legitimacy theoretical foundation and research framework

2.1 general remarks.

Legitimacy theory has established as one of the most important organizational and management theories. This theory assumes that an organization has an implicit social contract with the society in which it operates. This social contract (Shocker and Sethi 1973 ) should motivate managers to comply with a society’s specific values, norms and boundaries by implementing adequate structures and processes (Dowling and Pfeffer 1975 ). Thus, the long-term success and survival of a firm is subject to its ability to meet society’s expectations through suitable systems. If a legitimacy gap arises or is detected, organizations adopt legitimating strategies (Fernando and Lawrence 2014 ).

However, societal values are dynamic (Deegan 2002 ), especially with regard to CSR. Therefore, legitimization is a continuous process, which is supported by effective tools for communicating organization’s legitimization actions. CSR efforts therefore enhance an organization’s image as a good corporate citizen (O'Donovan 1999 ). Such legitimization strategies improve an organization’s access to resources, their image and their customer, employee and investor relationships, which will subsequently enhance their competitive position. If society suspects a lack of transparency, its legitimacy suffers (Aguilera et al. 2007 ).

Heterogeneous stakeholders’ information needs can only be fulfilled by the implementation of substantial CSR management systems, e.g., by SRI policy, SSCM, CSR reports and precise CSR performance measures. CSR reporting and the communication of CSR performance represent major challenges in order to gain legitimacy of main stakeholder groups. As greenwashing policy and information overload (Mahoney et al. 2013 ) are major risks in business practice, stakeholders expect reliable CSR information. Related managerial discretion in CSR and opportunistic behaviour of top managers may be reduced by proper corporate governance systems. Corporate governance is related with internal and external incentive and monitoring tools in order to strengthen CSR strategies in line with stakeholder demands (sustainable corporate governance). Legitimacy theory assumes that CSR strategies can be both symbolic or substantive (Mahoney et al. 2013 ). Substantive CSR strategies imply a careful implementation of CSR into the firm’s business model and risk management system (Brown and Fraser 2006 ). An integrative view of economic, environmental, and social goals is required in order to prevent a symbolic use of CSR. Symbolic CSR activities are intended to meet stakeholders’ expectations and enhance public image and financial outputs as offensive greenwashing policy (Maroun 2020 ). As there is no integration of CSR within the business model and risk management, financial and non financial performances are analysed separately in this context. This also refers to the separate publication of traditional financial statements and CSR reports as a simple marketing tool. Thus, it is not clear, whether corporate governance mechanisms are needed in order to stipulate CSR and whether CSR strategies lead to positive firm’s (non) financial performance (Byron and Post 2016 ). In this literature review, we rely on the business case argument for CSR. The business case argument for CSR proposes that top management follows an “enlightened self-interest” by achieving financial goals while considering CSR aspects (Schaltegger et al. 2019 ) and vice versa. In more detail, management evaluates a trade-off between CSR and financial success. In line with firm’s (non) financial performance as a consequence of CSR activities, the business case argument also assumes that corporate governance-related pressure may mainly influence this direction.

Effective corporate governance should put pressure on top managements to implement substantial CSR strategies. Corporate governance can be classified as a legitimacy tool toward stakeholders’ demands regarding the reliability of CSR activities. The following two main subgroups can be found: internal corporate governance (board composition), and external corporate governance (ownership structure) (e.g., Velte et al. 2020 ). As internal and external corporate governance represent different concepts, a clear differentiation is justified. This differentiation is also very useful to characterize corporate governance regimes. Countries with a clear focus on internal corporate governance (insider systems), e.g., Continental Europe, strengthen their regulations on board effectiveness, e.g., by audit committees. Regimes with a focus on external corporate governance (outsider- or market systems) increase their regulations on shareholder rights and on enforcement to monitor firms and put pressure on top managers to conform with shareholders’ interests.

2.2 Internal corporate governance

Internal corporate governance is mainly linked to board composition. Management should act in line with stakeholders’ interests in their investment and strategic decisions. The board of directors, at the apex of internal control systems, advise and monitor the management (executive directors) and has to duty to hire, fire, and to compensate the senior management (Gillan 2006 ; Shleifer and Visny 1997 ). Research on corporate boards has concentrated on the links between board structure and firm value. Legitimacy theory assumes that board effectiveness leads to increased CSR activities (e.g., performance and reporting) to improve firm reputation and gain social legitimacy. As CSR strategies are linked with restricted objectivity and thus increased managerial discretion, greenwashing behaviour and information overload may threaten stakeholders’ interests. In our literature review, we assume that board composition as board effectiveness will have a positive impact on CSR outputs.

2.3 External corporate governance

In line with Shleifer and Vishny ( 1997 ), shareholders use monitoring mechanisms to ensure that they will gain a return on their investments. Shareholders, as the residual claimants, elect board members and boards owe a fiduciary obligation to shareholders. In line with shareholders, other stakeholders have information needs which have to be addressed by executive directors (Gillan 2006 ). Normally, shareholder do not just rely on the monitoring by the board of directors. They implement individual monitoring mechanisms to put pressure on the top management to fulfil their goals. Say on pay voting is a major example for active monitoring by shareholders. The degree of monitoring is mainly dependent on the individual ownership structure within a firm. Corporate governance research mainly stresses the monitoring role of institutional investors and blockholders in view of their increased power and influence on senior managers (Gillan 2006 ; Shleifer and Visny 1997 ). From a traditional perspective, investors’ goals mainly rely on financial performance. During the last decade, social responsible investors with long-term and non-financial preferences have entered the capital market (Velte et al. 2020 ). These investors are normally part of institutional investors and blockholders, leading to an increased influence on firms’ CSR strategies, e.g., climate change policies. Legitimacy theory assumes that strong monitoring by shareholders as (non) financial shareholder activism will put pressure on senior management to increase their CSR efforts.

2.4 Firms’ (non) financial consequences of CSR

We stated in Sect.  2.1 that both internal and external corporate governance are connected with increased CSR activities of the firm. But all corporate governance elements, both the board of directors and shareholders, are not only interested in an appropriate CSR performance and reporting. They also demand an adequate level of financial performance to guarantee going concern of the firm. Legitimacy theory assumes that the senior management increases their efforts to reach legitimacy of the society. Firm reputation can only be reached by a conglomeration of financial and CSR-related success of firm strategies. CSR efforts can be classified as “pre-financials” and they will be transferred into financial outcome if the market will honour the management activities. Moreover, as CSR strategies include a bundle of different aspects, an increase of a specific CSR variable, e.g., CSR performance, may also related to future changes in CSR reporting or supply chain management.

According to the business case argument for CSR, firm value, shareholder trust and other stakeholder demands are dependent from each other and gain legitimacy for firms (Dowling and Pfeffer 1975 ). There may be both intrinsic or extrinsic motivation of the top management to implement CSR management systems. Firms with better CSR tools can mainly influence their financial benefits in the long run (e.g., increased cash flows, liquidity) and thus gain better stakeholder reputation (Schaltegger et al. 2019 ). Stakeholders use CSR measures, e.g., CSR performance or CSR reporting quality, in order to analyse the reliability of CSR management and related firm risks (Velte et al. 2020 ). If stakeholders assume a low risk of greenwashing policy and information overload in a specific firm, they may not leave the firm or may increase their engagement with higher firm value as a financial consequence (Schaltegger et al. 2019 ). But certain CSR measures could also increase overall CSR performance as a consequence of professional CSR management, stressing the interlocks between various CSR efforts (e.g., the promotion of gender diversity in boards and their impact on CSR performance) (Byron and Post 2016 ). As successful CSR efforts should be linked with better stakeholder relations and firm reputation, CSR should also be value relevant for the capital market (Velte and Stawinoga 2017 ), especially for sustainable investors. Thus, we differentiate between financial performance and CSR performance as firm’s (non) financial consequences of CSR strategies .

2.5 Research framework

Figure  1 presents an overview of our research framework. In line with the business case argument for CSR and legitimacy theory, CSR (and related subpillars) will be connected with better firms’ (non) financial performance. Furthermore, an appropriate corporate governance is needed as a firm-specific pressure for executive directors to increase their CSR activities and lower the possibility of greenwashing behaviour and self-impression management. Indeed, corporate governance as a monitoring mechanism should lead to higher substantial CSR efforts and thus increased CSR performance and reporting in line with stakeholders’ needs. Thus, the goal of our literature review on prior CSR meta-analyses is a detailed analysis of the corporate governance-related determinants of CSR and their (non) financial consequences with a clear focus on financial performance. As CSR variables are heterogeneous in empirical-quantitative research, we differentiate between the most used variables in our review: CSR (and related subpillars) performance and reporting, board gender diversity, sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) and socially responsible investments (SRI). We are also interested in moderator and mediator analyses in this research strength.

Research framework on CSR meta-analyses

Based on legitimacy theory and the business case argument, our analysis focusses on the impact of corporate governance on CSR. We assume that greenwashing and information will be decreased by strict monitoring by the board of directors and shareholders. Then, we assume that successful CSR strategies should lead to increased (non) financial performance. The board of directors and shareholders will put pressure on the management to implement substantial CSR management systems. These substantial CSR efforts will strengthen (non) financial performance from a long-term perspective. Firm reputation and legitimacy by the society include both financial success and CSR performance. However, we are aware of the fact that the research on these two topics is very complex and linked with many interdependencies. Researchers include possible moderator and mediator variables to address those interdependencies. The implementation of moderators and mediators represents one of the major goals of meta-analyses. We like to incorporate prior findings on CSR meta-analyses whether certain moderators and mediators drive our two relationships. Thus, as a summary, the following three research questions are stated:

Which corporate governance determinants influence CSR in a positive way?

Does CSR lead to increased (non) financial performance ?

Which moderator and meditator variables influence the link between corporate governance and CSR on the one hand and firms’ (non) financial consequences on the other hand?

Our analysis is based on established papers on conducting high-quality structured literature reviews (Torraco 2005 ). We identify a major research gap in meta-analyses on the business case for CSR, leading to a closer look on the determinants and consequences of CSR. While CSR-related meta-analyses have increased during the last years, we do not find any literature review on prior meta-analyses on that topic. In more detail, we stress that only four literature reviews on meta-analyses in business administration exist so far: a review of accounting (Khlif and Chalmers 2015 ), auditing (Hay 2019 ), finance (Geyer-Klingeberg et al. 2020 ) and accounting, auditing and corporate governance (Velte 2019b ). We see a major research gap on the business case research on CSR, as regulators, practice and research currently controversially discuss whether corporate governance-issues are related to better CSR and whether a stricter regulation on sustainable corporate governance is needed. Moreover, we like to stress top managers’ incentives to increase CSR activities as it may lead to higher financial and CSR performance in the long run.

We use several international databases to the end of December 2020 to select our sample of included studies (Web of Science, Google Scholar, SSRN, Ebsco, Science Direct). A targeted search was conducted using the keyword “meta-analysis” in connection with “CSR”, “Sustainability”, “Corporate Social Responsibility”, “CSR Performance”, “CSR Reporting”, “Sustainability Reporting”, “Sustainability Performance”, “gender diversity”, “socially responsible investment”, “sustainable supply chain management” and related terms. We also included broad terms such as “Corporate Governance” and “firm value”. A temporal restriction on the included CSR meta-analyses was not necessary because of the relatively young research tradition. We begin with an initial sample of 71 meta-analyses.

As exclusion criteria, we only recognize quantitative meta-analyses on CSR as our goal is to analyse economic determinants and consequences of CSR. Thus, 5 studies were dropped. In line with other literature reviews, we only include meta-analyses published in English in peer-reviewed journals. Working papers were excluded. This step leads to a reduction of 12 studies. Thus, 54 studies represent the final sample of our literature review.

3 Main results of CSR meta-analyses

3.1 content analysis.

Prior CSR meta-analyses are characterized by a heterogeneity of collected data, study designs, theoretical approaches, and analytical techniques. Literature reviews have become a relevant research method for scholars, practitioners, and regulators seeking to increase our knowledge about a complex research topic (Webster and Watson 2002 ). For scholars, a literature review should create new knowledge about CSR using existing meta-analyses that covers the selected topic. A literature review should also contribute to theory development and may close research gaps and revealing precise research recommendations. For practitioners, a literature review gives useful information and insights into effective organizational developments for future business strategies and guidance for policy-making and implementation. As many regulators currently discuss stricter regulations on CSR, sustainable corporate governance, and sustainable finance, our literature review should guide regulatory bodies in these issues. We present a structured literature review in line with our theoretical foundation and our research framework. We mainly focus on our key research questions, addressing corporate governance-related determinants of CSR, the impact of CSR on (non) financial performance, and moderator and mediator variables on these links.

Table 1 gives an overview of the papers per publication year (Panel A), journal (Panel B), content (Panel C) and CSR variables (Panel D). According to Panel A, we note an increased research activity during the last few years (2017–2010) and a rather young research discipline (first study in 1997). Moreover, referring to Panel C, most meta-analyses in our review have been published in Business Ethics and Sustainability journals, e.g., Business and Society , Business Strategy and the Environment , Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management , or Journal of Business Ethics . Management and corporate governance journal are also included to a higher amount. Most of the meta-analyses address the consequences of CSR, especially the impact of CSR performance on financial performance (Panel C). Determinants of CSR are of lower attraction yet. Panel D stresses that CSR performance represents the most important CSR variable included in prior meta-studies.

Table 2 gives an overview about included moderator and mediator variables. One of the main advantages of meta-analyses is to identify possible moderator and mediator variables. With few exceptions, most papers include moderators (51). Methodological moderator variables are recognized in nearly every meta-analysis, while the differentiation of measures of independent and dependent variables is rather common (29). Moreover, firm-specific variables, e.g., industry, and country-related governance factors, e.g. cultural aspects, are important in our literature review. In contrast to this, accounting and corporate governance-related moderators are rarely included yet. We also note a very low amount of mediator variables in prior CSR meta-analyses (3).

3.2 Corporate governance determinants

We already noted that many meta-analyses relate on determinants of CSR as dominant research topic. In line with prior literature (Velte 2019b ), we differentiate between internal corporate governance (board composition) and external corporate governance (ownership structure) with a focus on board composition measures. The average number of included studies within the meta-analyses is rather low (24–158). In our literature review, we mention those studies with a relatively high and low amount of included studies. A possible reason for this is the restricted amount of single studies on the link between corporate governance and CSR. All of our included studies with a specific description of the applied procedures included random-effects models, assuming the variability between effect sizes is due to sampling error in addition to the variability in the population. Most of prior meta-analyses on the link between corporate governance and CSR included bivariate meta-analyses. A bivariate meta-analysis is a special type of meta-analysis that summarises the results from separately performed diagnostic test studies while keeping the two-dimensionality of the data.

3.2.1 Internal corporate governance (board composition)

The main duty of the board of directors is to monitor the executive directors in line with stakeholders’ interests (Byron and Post 2016 ; Maroun 2020 ; Wintoki et al. 2012 ). During the last decade, many different board characteristics were implemented in order to analyse board effectiveness. Board effectiveness should lead to increased executives’ incentives to rely on CSR activities. In this literature review, we note a research intensity on board independence, board gender diversity, board size, board activity and CEO duality as main determinants of CSR performance and reporting.

Board independence represents one major requirement of board effectiveness, as non executives should conduct their monitoring tasks without major conflicts of interests in line with stakeholders’ needs. There are clear indications that board independence significantly increases both CSR performance (Endrikat et al. 2020 ; Ortas et al. 2017 ) and CSR reporting (Lagasio and Cucari 2019 ; Velte 2019a ; Guerrero-Villegas et al. 2018 ). However, Majumder et al. ( 2017 ) found insignificant results, based on just 29 included studies. During the last decade, board gender diversity also gets main attraction in CSR research. A greater range of board diversity, especially with regard to gender, should lead to increased awareness of CSR strategies. Thus, prior meta-analyses state that board gender diversity is linked with better CSR performance (Endrikat et al. 2020 ; Byron and Post 2016 ) and CSR reporting (Lagasio and Cucari 2019 ; Velte 2019a ; Guerrero-Villegas et al. 2018 ). Again, Majumder et al. ( 2017 ) did not find any significant results. Board size and board activity are our next internal corporate governance determinants in our literature review. Literature assumes that an appropriate board size and board meeting frequency are necessary to guarantee board effectiveness (Endrikat et al. 2020 ). With regard to board size, there are indications of a positive impact on both CSR performance (Endrikat et al. 2020 ; Zubeltzu-Jaka et al. 2020 ) and CSR reporting (Lagasio and Cucari 2019 ; Guerrero-Villegas et al. 2018 ; Majumder et al. 2017 ). However, Velte ( 2019a ) did not find any significant impact on CSR reporting. Board activity is of lower relevance yet. According to Majumder et al. ( 2017 ), board meetings and CSR reporting are positively related, while insignificant results are also available (Lagasio and Cucari 2019 ). Heterogeneous results can be stated for CEO duality . From a theoretical perspective, CEO duality can either contribute to better board effectiveness and CSR activities or may be linked to a reduced monitoring activity with regard to powerful and opportunistic CEOs. Most of the included meta-analyses stated a non-significant relationship between CEO duality and CSR (Endrikat et al. 2020 ; Lagasio and Cucari 2019 ; Velte 2019a ; Majumder et al. 2017 ). According to Guerrero-Villegas et al. ( 2018 ), CEO duality decreases CSR reporting. Le et al. ( 2015 ) is the only study in our review with a focus on top managements’ values and demographic characteristics . The authors just included 29 studies and found that stakeholder values and diversity in experience of top managers are related with increased CSR performance. However, CEO ethical leadership, age and tenure are not related with CSR (Le et al. 2015 ). We also identify one study on the determinants of board gender diversity ( Halliday et al. 2020 ), based on 158 included studies. The authors found female CEO, female chairperson, CEO duality and board independence to have a positive impact on board gender diversity, while board age decreases it.

As the key goal of meta-analyses is to identify and analyse possible moderators and mediators of CSR, we also stress the key results. In this context, we note a very low attractiveness of mediator analysis in prior meta-analyses. One exception is Endrikat et al. ( 2020 ), who found a significant mediator influence of CSR committees on the impact of selective board composition variables on CSR performance.

With regard to moderators , board independence and code law regimes strengthen the positive influence of board size on CSR performance (Zubeltzu-Jaka et al. 2020 ). This is in line with the moderating impact of civil law regimes on the link between board independence and CSR performance (Ortas et al. 2017 ). Majumder et al. ( 2017 ) found that the differentiation between developed and developing countries impacts the positive relationship between board size and CSR reporting. Other country-related aspects as significant moderator variables are the degree of shareholder protection (Endrikat et al. 2020 ; Velte 2019a ; Byron and Post 2016 ), legal enforcement (Velte 2019a ), country-related gender parity (Endrikat et al. 2020 ; Byron and Post 2016 ), low country commitment to sustainable goals (Guerrero-Villegas et al. 2018 ) and market conditions (Ortas et al. 2017 ) with an impact on the relationship between corporate governance variables and CSR. Moreover, country-related gender parity weakens the link between a female CEO and board diversity (Halliday et al. 2020 ). Finally, different CSR proxies represent important moderator variables in the included meta-analyses (Endrikat et al. 2020 ; Ortas et al. 2017 with regard to self-reporting proxies; Le et al. 2015 with regard to social performance).

3.2.2 External corporate governance (ownership structure)

External corporate governance is linked with external stakeholders’ monitoring. Prior corporate governance research heavily relies on shareholders as key stakeholders of PIEs. In this context, ownership structure can have a major impact on management strategies. Certain groups of shareholders, mainly sustainable investors, may put pressure on top management to increase CSR strategies in line with other stakeholder interests. Until now, a low research activity on external corporate governance determinants can be found. Canavati ( 2018 ) stated a positive influence of family ownership on CSR performance. This contrasts the results by Lagasio and Cucari ( 2019 ) and Majumder et al. ( 2017 ) who stressed insignificant results on ownership structure in general and on government, foreign and institutional ownerships in particular.

With regard to moderator variables , according to Canavati ( 2018 ), private family firms and weak labor and corporate governance frameworks positively contribute to the impact of family ownership on CSR performance. Moreover, big four audits have a positive and managerial and concentrated ownership have a negative impact on CSR reporting (Majumder et al. 2017 ).

3.3 Firms’ (non) financial consequences of CSR

In line with the business case argument, most archival research on CSR relies on firms’ financial consequences . Literature states that both CSR performance and CSR reporting may lead to positive financial developments within companies in the long run (e.g., Busch and Friede 2018a ). As stakeholders’ demands on CSR-related information and successful CSR strategies increased since the financial crisis of 2008–09, high CSR performance and CSR reporting quality may be connected with increased firm reputation, better stakeholder relations and thus higher firm valuation. Next to firm’s financial consequences, CSR performance and reporting may have a significant impact on other CSR-related consequences. This strength of research addresses the connectivity between various CSR measures. Thus, in our literature review, we separate between financial performance and CSR performance on the one hand and between CSR and related subpillars (e.g., environmental performance) on the other hand.

In comparison to Sect.  3.2 , we note a higher average amount of studies included in prior meta-analyses on (non) financial consequences of CSR (18–437 studies). This can be explained by a relatively long tradition of studies on the CSR-financial performance-link and the increased amount of meta-analyses on that topic. In line with our results in Sect.  3.2 , random-effects models were dominantly used. One major exception is the use of fixed-effects models on the impact of environmental (green) supply chain management on (non) financial performance. Fixed-effects models in meta-analyses assume that there is one true effect size that underlies all the studies in the analysis. While we stress a variety of different methods (uni-, bi-, and multivariate meta-analyses), bivariate meta-analyses are mainly used in this research topic. This is line with our remarks in Sect.  3.2 . However, we note a relatively high amount of included meta-analyses with a lack of transparency on the applied procedures. This reduces the validity of the analyses.

3.3.1 Financial performance

Most of the included meta-analyses on the consequences of CSR address the CSR performance-financial performance-link . In this context, a differentiation between accounting-based (e.g., ROA) and market-based (e.g., Tobin’s Q) measures is common. Some researchers also separate between accounting-, market- and perception-based proxies of financial performance (Orlitzky et al. 2001 ). There are several indications for a positive significant impact of CSR performance on financial performance (Vishwanathan et al. 2020 ; Busch and Friede 2018a ; Plewnia and Guenther 2017 ; Hou et al. 2016 ; Lu and Taylor 2016 ; Friede et al. 2015 ; Wang et al. 2016 ; Quazi and Richardson 2012 ; Allouche and Laroche 2005 ; Orlitzky et al. 2003 ; Frooman 1997 ). More specifically, Busch and Friede ( 2018a ) included 25 prior meta-analysis and state a bidirectional link between CSR and finanicial performance. According to Hou et al. ( 2016 ), the impact is stronger by including environmental performance and operational performance. In a recent study, however, based on 437 included studies, no significant results between CSR and financial performance can be found (Huang et al. 2020 ). Orlitzky and Benjamin ( 2001 ) stated a positive bidirectional link between CSR performance and firm risk.

A great variety of moderator variables have been included on this link. Vishwanathan et al. ( 2020 ) included 344 studies and have identified firm reputation, stakeholder reciprocation, firm risk mitigation and innovation level as relevant moderators. Plewnia and Guenther ( 2017 ) come to the conclusion, that time lags, region (US-settings), continuous time horizons, controls for advertising intensity and public ownership control moderate the CSR-financial performance link. According to Lu and Taylor ( 2016 ), referring to 198 CSR studies, long-term effects, environmental performance, non US-settings, pre-2000 studies and multi-industries are relevant moderators. Moreover, journal quality (Busch and Friede 2018a ), SMEs, private firms and developing firms (Hou et al. 2016 ), environmental performance and developed countries (Wang et al. 2016 ) and sample size (Quazi and Richardson 2012 ) moderate this relationship. Orlitzky ( 2011 ) referred to 388 CSR studies and stressed that, in comparison to different publication outlets, economics journals concentrate on positive significant results. This might be a main argument for a problematic publication bias. The different measures of CSR and financial performance also represent major moderators in the included meta-analyses with a significant impact (Busch and Friede 2018a ; Hou et al. 2016 ; Lu and Taylor 2016 ; Allouche and Laroche 2005 ; Orlitzky et al. 2003 ; Orlitzky and Benjamin 2001 ). In his main research objective, Orlitzky ( 2001 ) concluded that firm size does not moderate the CSR-financial performance relationship. Huang et al. ( 2020 ) addressed two main challenges of prior business case research. Economic fluctuations and endogeneity concerns limit the reliability of archival CSR research. The authors found that the elimination of confounding effects of economic fluctuations and the recognition of proper estimation methods due to endogeneity concerns lead to a positive CSR-financial performance link.

Environmental performance represents one major subpillar of CSR performance. In view of the current climate change discussions from an international perspective, it is not surprising that many prior studies focus on environmental performance as CSR proxy. There are also indications that environmental performance leads to better financial performance (Hang et al. 2019 ; Endrikat 2016 ; Endrikat et al. 2014 ; Albertini 2013 ; Dixon-Fowler et al. 2013 ). In more detail, Hang et al. ( 2019 ) stressed a short run (1 year) one-way link and a long run bidirectional link (after 1 year). Endrikat et al. ( 2014 ) also reported a partially bidirectional relationship. Furthermore, according to Endrikat ( 2016 ), market reactions are stronger negative for negative events than positive for positive events. In a current meta-analysis by Tsai et al. ( 2020 ), environmental management also leads to better financial performance. Busch and Lewandowski ( 2018b ) included just 32 studies on carbon performance and found a positive impact on financial performance. Horvathova ( 2010 ) is the only meta-analysis in our review with insignificant results on the impact of environmental performance on financial performance.

We identify a variety of moderator variables on the environmental-financial performance link: employees’ age, gender and culture (Wang et al. 2020 ), event windows related to event studies (Endrikat 2016 ), proactive strategic approaches, sampling, addressing endogeneity and financial risks (Endrikat et al. 2014 ), performance measures, regions, industry, time frame (Albertini 2013 ) and the differentiation between small firms, public firms and US-settings (Dixon-Fowler et al. 2013 ). Tsai et al. ( 2020 ) stressed that financial performance proxies, the year of data collection, industry, economic development and cultural aspects moderate the environmental-financial performance link. Moreover, according to Busch and Lewandowski ( 2018b ), specific performance measures (relative emissions, market based financial performance) influence this relationship.

Next to environmental performance, we note that one meta-analysis also states a positive link between social performance and financial performance (Lopez-Arceiz et al. 2018 ). Size criteria for financial performance and social performance based on stakeholder criteria moderate this relationship.

As board gender diversity is controversially discussed with regard to the business case argument, some meta-analyses refer to the impact of female directors on financial performance. Hoobler et al. ( 2018 ), based on sales performance, and Post and Byron ( 2015 ), based on accounting returns, stated a positive impact. However, Pletzer et al. ( 2015 ) did not find any significant relationship. Cultural aspects (Hoobler et al. 2018 ), the degree of shareholder protection (Post and Byron 2015 ) and employees’ perceived CSR and employees’ perception of organization performance (Wang et al. 2020 ) can be qualified as main moderator variables on this relationship.

During the last decade, SSCM has gain main attraction in CSR research. The main goal of SSCM is the integration of environmentally and socially viable practices into the full supply chain lifecycle, from product design and development, to material selection, manufacturing, packaging, transportation, warehousing, distribution, consumption, return and disposal. Govindan et al. ( 2020 ) and Golicic and Smith ( 2013 ) found a positive impact of SSCM on financial performance. Moreover, the branch of industry (manufacturing) (Govindan et al. 2020 ; Golicic and Smith 2013 ), measurements of SSCM, region and time (Golicic and Smith 2013 ) represent relevant moderator variables.

SRI are investments that are considered socially responsible due to the nature of the business the firm conducts. Common themes for SRI include green and socially conscious investing. SRI can be made into individual companies with good green and social value, or through a socially conscious mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF). Kim ( 2019 ), Revelli and Viviani ( 2015 ) and Rathner ( 2013 ) analyse whether SRI perform better in comparison to conversional funds. The authors state a non-significant relationship. As main significant moderators, the economic crisis, control groups, the SRI measure, sampling and methodology (Kim 2019 ), survivorship bias and US focus (Rathner 2013 ) are recognized.

3.3.2 CSR performance

Next to financial performance, CSR strategies or subpillars can improve future CSR performance , stressing the various interlinks between CSR variables. This assumption was stated by Gabriel and Nathwani ( 2014 ), while this link is more pronounced by proactive CSR strategies. With regard to the link between CSR reporting and CSR performance, Gallardo-Vazquez et al. ( 2019 ) did not find any significant results. However, region, firm size and CSR disclosure type were included as significant moderators (Gallardo-Vazquez et al. 2019 ). There are also indications that green supply chain management and CSR performance are positively linked (Fang and Zhang 2018 ; Qorri et al. 2018 ; Geng et al. 2017 ). The authors used fixed-effects models as research design. The most important moderators in this context are industry, ISO, export orientation, culture (uncertainty avoidance) (Fang and Zhang 2018 ), region, industry or firm size (Qorri et al. 2018 ; Geng et al. 2017 ).

Doan and Sassen ( 2020 ) reported a weak negative influence of environmental performance on environmental reporting . The different proxy variations represent a main moderator variable. According to Erauskin-Tolosa et al. ( 2020 ), environmental management practices lead to better environmental performance , moderated by mature certification and environmental innovation. Finally, CSR performance leads to better brand loyalty (Aljarah and Ibrahim 2020 ), customer relationship quality (Aljarah et al. 2020 ) and increased employees’ attitudes and behaviour (Zhao et al. 2020 ). The innovation level and the manufacturing industry weaken the link between CSR and brand loyalty. Cultural collectivism, experience product types and online survey designs strengthen the link (Aljarah and Ibrahim 2020 ). The relationship between CSR and customer relationship quality is even stronger by customer relationship proxy trust (Aljarah et al. 2020 ). Organizational justice, trust and identification mediate the link between CSR and employees’ attitudes and behaviour (Zhao et al. 2020 ).

3.4 Key results

With regard to corporate governance determinants, we find that board independence, board gender diversity and board size have a positive impact on CSR performance . These results are in line with the assumption that corporate governance and CSR represent two dependent disciplines (sustainable corporate governance). As CSR activities can be used for greenwashing policy and self-impression management, corporate governance attributes strengthen monitoring quality, and incentive alignment and put pressure on top managers to include substantial CSR strategies. Moreover, according to our literature review, both CSR performance and environmental performance lead to increased financial performance . Thus, firm can follow the business case argument for CSR and may increase their firm value. Other relationships in this literature review are inconclusive. The amount of meta-analyses are either too low or these studies found insignificant results (e.g., CEO duality, SRI out-performance). This leaves room for many research recommendations in the next chapter. Figure  2 summarize our key results and Table 3 gives a detailed overview of included meta-analyses on CSR.

Key results of our literature review

4 Research recommendations

4.1 internal corporate governance.

Due to the lack of standardization of CSR, we stress a high degree of managerial discretion (e.g., by the choice of CSR reporting frameworks or performance measures), leading to a low comparability of CSR proxies over time and between PIEs (Mahoney et al. 2013 ). Furthermore, greenwashing and impression management mainly influence CSR activities and may be connected with symbolic use of CSR. Our literature review on prior CSR meta-analyses indicates that the majority of included studies concentrate on CSR performance as main proxy, financial performance as major consequence of CSR and variations of CSR measures as moderator variables. We recommend to conduct future meta-analyses on other corporate governance determinants, e.g., sustainable board expertise, on CSR reporting and subpillars of CSR, e.g., carbon reporting. As current discussions heavily rely on carbon performance and disclosure, we know very little about the overall effects of corporate governance on carbon-related issues (Doan and Sassen 2020 ). Moreover, as mediator analyses are very low in amount (Endrikat et al. 2020 ), other corporate governance variables may mediate the impact of CSR on financial outputs. In this context, future moderators should be more linked with the separation between symbolic/substantive and extrinsic/intrinsic motivations of senior managers in view to CSR strategies. Interestingly, the reliability of CSR performance and reporting by voluntary CSR assurance services, e.g., by professional accountants, is not included in meta-analytical research designs yet (Velte and Stawinoga 2017 ). Next to classical content analysis and scoring method, advanced methods of textual analysis (e.g., by the use of artificial intelligence, recognition of social media) can mainly impact the future empirical business case research on CSR e.g., by including readability measures or by analysing tone management. The current focus on archival (secondary) studies with regard to CSR research and their recognition in quantitative meta-analyses should be complemented by experimental designs in order to include individual preferences of various stakeholder groups.

Furthermore, individual manager characteristics and traits, e.g. by the CEO and other members of the top management team, should be included in meta-analytical designs. In line with upper echelons theory (Hambrick and Mason 1984 ), behavioural corporate governance aspects might also influence CSR strategies. CEO, CFO or other Chief officers characteristics, e.g. education and professional backgrounds, personality and preferences, as well as sustainability-related attitudes, should be addressed. In line with the monitoring role of corporate governance mechanisms, incentive alignment between managers and stakeholders can be mainly achieved by sustainable management compensation systems. As Winschel and Stawinoga ( 2019 ) conduct a literature review on the determinants and consequences of sustainable CEO compensation, we do not find any meta-analysis on this important topic yet.

4.2 External corporate governance

Interestingly, external corporate governance factors (ownership structure) are rarely used in comparison to board composition. We know very little about the impact of different types of investors on CSR in view of their time horizon and their (non) financial interests. However, traditional corporate governance research has a main focus on ownership structure and their impact on financial performance. In line with the portfolio theory, shareholders’ investment decisions are linked with considerations of risk and return (Cumming and Johan 2007 ; Hoq et al. 2010 ; Faller and Knyphausen-Aufseß 2018 ). While institutional investors are primarily focused on financial results and investment risks, SRIs explicitly consider ESG aspects in their investment decisions (Clark and Hebb 2005 ). The time horizon of institutional investors plays an important role in this context (Cox et al. 2004 ). Thus, long- and short-term investors on the one hand, and active and passive institutions on the other hand, realise different investment strategies (Soliman et al. 2013 ). Future meta-analyses should include the impact of institutional ownership on CSR due to the increased amount of studies on that topic.

Other stakeholder groups, e.g., customers or suppliers, are rarely included in prior empirical-quantitative research on CSR (Winschel and Stawinoga 2019 ). We know very little about the impact of other stakeholder groups on CSR strategies and a possible moderator influence. In line with corporate governance, many researchers analyse the impact of country-related governance on CSR, e.g., shareholder rights or cultural aspects. Thus, there are many research gaps in view of conducting meta-analyses on possible determinants of CSR, if the amount of single studies on that topic reaches an appropriate range.

4.3 (Non) financial consequences of CSR

We already mentioned that most of our included meta-studies focussed on the impact of CSR performance on financial performance. But other (non) financial consequences also important in recent CSR studies, e.g. the impact of CSR on earnings management or tax avoidance, indicating heterogeneous results. Literature assumes that intrinsic motivations of managers may lead to a negative impact of CSR strategies on both earnings management and tax avoidance (Velte et al. 2020 ). Opportunistic manager behaviour (greenwashing policies) may lead to a positive relationship between these variables.

In many ways, we know very little about reversed causality in CSR meta-regressions (Endrikat et al. 2014 ). A bidirectional link between corporate governance-related determinants and CSR on the one hand and firms’ (non) financial consequences of CSR on the other hand may be more realistic (Endrikat et al. 2014 ). Increased CSR activities may be the consequence of higher financial circumstances and successful CSR management may also lead to increased corporate governance mechanisms in the future. In view of these important endogeneity concerns, future meta-analyses on CSR should explicitly include moderator variables whether included single studies have used “advanced” regression models, e.g., two or three stage least squares (SLS) or generalized method of moments (GMM) models with instrumental variables (Wintoki et al. 2012 ). While the amount of meta-analyses on firm’s (financial) consequences of CSR has increased during the last years and recent studies increased their number of included studies and samples, we recommend to increase the transparency of explanations of applied procedures. Some meta-analyses do not explicitly include whether they conducted a uni-, bi- or multivariate meta-analysis or whether they have chosen a random- or fixed effects model.

Stakeholders of PIEs demand an appropriate CSR management system that includes diversity concepts, CSR reporting and performance measures (Maroun 2020 ). During the last decade, firm valuation is not only dependent on financial performance, but also on environmental and social strategies and successful management strategies on these issues. As a main challenge, greenwashing policy and information overload are main risks in business practice, which have been criticized by many stakeholder groups (Mahoney et al. 2013 ). With reference to the business case argument for CSR (Schaltegger et al. 2019 ), it is not clear, whether CSR-oriented firms will have better (non) financial performance in the future. Thus, the impact of corporate governance as key determinants of successful CSR practices might be crucial. During the last decade, massive research has been conducted on the corporate governance-related determinants and firm’s (non) financial consequences of CSR activities (e.g., Endrikat et al. 2020 ). We also recognize many literature reviews (e.g., Velte et al. 2020 ) and meta-analyses on CSR. However, no literature review on CSR-related meta-analyses exists so far. Prior literature review of meta-analyses only address accounting (Khlif and Chalmers 2015 ), auditing (Hay 2019 ), finance (Geyer-Klingeberg et al. 2020 ) and accounting, auditing and corporate governance (Velte 2019b ) without any focus on CSR. We see a major research gap on focussing CSR meta-analyses, as it is questionable, which corporate governance determinants are most important in prior research and will positively influence CSR efforts. Moreover, we are interested whether CSR strategies will lead to positive (non) financial consequences for firms. Meta-analyses are more suitable for inclusion in literature reviews as single studies because their aggregation of information leads to an increased statistical power (Cafri et al. 2010 ). It increases our knowledge about archival CSR research because the overall effect of various single studies on CSR can be included. Thus, we offer the first comprehensive, legitimacy theory-based framework on the business case of CSR meta-studies. In this context, we systematically include empirical-quantitative meta-analyses on CSR and differentiate between in- and external corporate governance drivers on the one hand and (non) financial performance as main firms’ consequences on the other hand. We are also interested in prior moderator and mediator analysis within meta-analytic designs.

In contrast to narrative literature reviews and single studies, quantitative meta-analyses as an alternative research method become important in CSR research during the last few years. This literature review includes 54 meta-analyses on CSR and states that the majority of quantitative CSR research concentrates on the CSR-financial performance-link. In line with the business case for CSR, board independence, board gender diversity and board size as key corporate governance factors have a positive impact on CSR performance. These corporate governance determinants seem to be most relevant in prior CSR research and significantly promote CSR strategies. Moreover, with regard to firms’ (non) financial consequences, both CSR performance and environmental performance lead to increased financial performance. There are clear indications that the business case argument for CSR does exit in business practice. However, prior meta-analyses do not mainly address the challenges of symbolic or substantive use of CSR efforts. Mediator analyses are rare and moderator analyses mainly rely on methodological aspects and classical firm-related attributes (e.g., industry). We propose research recommendations from a methodological and content-related perspective in this literature review in line with our main research questions.

Our analysis is not only useful for researchers, but it also makes a main contribution for regulatory bodies and business practice. First, based on our first research question, corporate governance mechanisms may promote successful CSR management strategies as an incentive and monitoring tool in line with our business case hypothesis. Executives should be aware of stakeholder pressure in conducting substantial instead of symbolic CSR in order to prevent information overload and greenwashing policy. Firms should clearly integrate CSR issues into their business model and their risk management processes. Second, based on our second research question, a positive link between CSR and financial performance includes a proper integration of different firm departments and a dynamic dialogue (e.g., finance and accounting department, IT, marketing, and sustainability) and sustainability expertise in the board of directors. Increased sustainability expertise by managers will strengthen CSR management and a more balanced view of both risks and chances (future value drivers) of intensive CSR investments and reorganization of business strategies. CSR efforts as “pre-financials” may be transferred into financial outputs from a long-term perspective and increase firm reputation and legitimacy. A stricter link between CSR and financial performance may be realistic, if firms switch from classical financial reporting and CSR reporting to an integrated report. A clear connectivity between financial and CSR information as integrated thinking may have a positive influence on substantial CSR strategies. Integrated reporting can be also most useful for external valuation by capital market participants and other stakeholders. Thus, a long-term transformation from CSR management to integrated thinking processes as a clear interaction of financial and CSR aspects is favorable. Finally, based on our third research question, the impact of corporate governance on CSR and their (non) financial consequences are most complex and heterogeneous in business practice. Corporate governance may only be related with increased CSR efforts if a specific environment is existent (e.g., other firm-related or country-related aspects as moderators or mediators). Similar aspects may be most important due to the CSR-financial performance link.

Aguilera R, Rupp D, Williams C, Ganapathi J (2007) Putting the S back in CSR: a multi-level theory of social change in organizations. Acad Manag Rev 32:836–863

Article   Google Scholar  

Albertini E (2013) Does environmental management improve financial performance? A meta-analytical review. Org Environ 26:431–457

Aljarah A, Emeagwali L, Ibrahim B, Ababneh B (2020) Does corporate social responsibility really increase customer relationship quality? A meta-analytic review. Soc Responsib J 16:28–49

Aljarah A, Ibrahim B (2020) The robustness of corporate social responsibility and brand loyalty relation: a meta-analytic examination. J Promot Manag 26:1038–1072

Allouche J, Laroche P (2005) A Meta-analytical investigation of the relationship between corporate social and financial performance. Revue de Gestion des Ressour Humaines 21:18–34

Google Scholar  

Brown J, Fraser M (2006) Approaches and perspectives in social and environmental accounting: an overview of the conceptual landscape. Bus Strategy Environ 15:103–117

Busch T, Friede G (2018a) The robustness of the corporate social and financial performance relation: a second-order meta-analysis. Corp Soc Responsib Environ Manag 25:583–608

Busch T, Lewandowski S (2018b) Corporate carbon and financial performance. J Ind Ecol 22:745–759

Byron K, Post C (2016) Women on boards of directors and corporate social performance. a meta-analysis. Corp Gov Int Rev 24:428–442

Cafri G, Kromrey JD, Brannick MT (2010) A meta-meta-analysis: empirical review of statistical power, type I error rates, effect sizes, and model selection of meta-analyses published in psychology. Multivar Behav Res 45:239–270

Canavati S (2018) Corporate social performance in family firms: a meta-analysis. J Family Bus Manag 8:235–273

Clark GL, Hebb T (2005) Why should they care? Environ Plan 37:2015–2031

Cox P, Brammer S, Millington A (2004) An empirical examination of institutional investor preferences for corporate social performance. J Bus Ethics 52:27–43

Cumming D, Johan S (2007) Socially responsible institutional investment in private equity. J Bus Ethics 75:395–416

Deegan C (2002) The legitimising effect of social and environmental disclosures: a theoretical foundation. Account Audit Account J 15(3):282–311

Dixon-Fowler HR, Slater DJ, Johnson JL, Ellstrand AE, Romi AM (2013) Beyond “does it pay to be green?” A meta-analysis of moderators of the CEP-CFP relationship. J Bus Ethics 112:353–366

Doan MH, Sassen R (2020) The relationship between environmental performance and environmental disclosure. J Ind Ecol (online first) 24:1140–1157

Dowling J, Pfeffer J (1975) Organizational legitimacy. Pac Sociol Rev 18:122–136

Endrikat J (2016) Market reactions to corporate environmental performance related events: a meta-analytic consolidation of the empirical evidence. J Bus Ethics 138:535–548

Endrikat J, Guenther E, Hoppe H (2014) Making sense of conflicting empirical findings: a meta-analytic review of the relationship between corporate environmental and financial performance. Eur Manag J 32:735–751

Endrikat J, de Villiers C, Guenther TW, Guenther EM (2020) Board characteristics and corporate social responsibility: a meta-analytic investigation. Bus Soc (online first). https://doi.org/10.1177/0007650320930638

Erauskin-Tolosa A, Zubeltzu-Jaka E, Heras-Saizarbitoria I, Boiral O (2020) ISO 14001, EMAS and environmental performance: a meta-analysis. Bus Strategy Environ 29:1145–1159

Faller CM, Knyphausen-Aufseß D (2018) Does equity ownership matter for corporate social responsibility? J Bus Ethics 150:15–40

Fang C, Zhang J (2018) Performance of green supply chain management: a systematic review and meta analysis. J Clean Prod 183:1064–1081

Fernando S, Lawrence S (2014) A theoretical framework for CSR practices: integrating legitimacy theory, stakeholder theory and institutional theory. J Theor Account Res 10:149–178

Friede G, Busch T, Bassen A (2015) ESG and financial performance: aggregated evidence from more than 2000 empirical studies. J Sustain Finance Invest 5:210–233

Frooman J (1997) Socially irresponsible and illegal behavior and shareholder wealth. Bus Soc 36:221–249

Gabriel M, Nathwani J (2014) Linkage between firm’s sustainability strategies and corporate performance: a meta-analysis of global studies. Int J Sustain Strateg Manag 4:189–209

Gallardo-Vazquez D, Barroso-Mendez MJ, Pajuelo-Moreno ML, Sanchez-Meca J (2019) Corporate social responsibility disclosure and performance: a meta-analytic approach. Sustainability 11:1115

Geng R, Mansouri SA, Aktas E (2017) The relationship between supply chain management and performance: a meta-analysis of empirical evidences in Asian emerging economies. Int J Prod Econ 183:245–258

Geyer-Klingeberg J, Hang M, Rathgeber A (2020) Meta-analysis in finance research: opportunities, challenges, and contemporary applications. Int Rev Finance Anal 71:101524

Gillan SL (2006) Recent developments in corporate governance: an overview. J Corpor Finance 12:381–402

Golicic SL, Smith CD (2013) A meta-analysis of environmentally sustainable supply chain management practices and firm performance. J Supply Chain Manag 49:78–95

Govindan K, Rajeev A, Padhi SS, Pati PK (2020) Supply chain sustainability and performance of firms: a meta-analysis of the literature. Transp Res Part E 137:101923

Guerrero-Villegas J, Perez-Calero L, Hurtado-Gonzalez J, Giraldez-Puig P (2018) Board attributes and corporate social responsibility disclosure: a meta-analysis. Sustainability 10:4808

Halliday CS, Paustian-Underdahl SC, Fainshmidt S (2020) Women on boards: a metra-analytic examination of the roles of organizational leadership and national context for gender equality. J Bus Psychol (online first). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-019-09679-y

Hambrick DC, Mason PA (1984) Upper echelons. Acad Manag Rev 9:193–206

Hang M, Geyer-Klingeberg J, Rathgeber AW (2019) It is merely a matter of time: a meta-analysis of the causality between between environmental performance and financial performance. Bus Strateg Environ 28:257–273

Hay D (2019) The potential for greater use of meta-analysis in archival auditing research. Manag Audit J 34:76–95

Hoobler JM, Masterson CR, Nkomo SM, Michel EJ (2018) The business case for women leaders. Meta-analysis, research critique, and path forward. J Manag 44:2473–2499

Hoq MZ, Saleh M, Zubayer M, Mahmud KT (2010) The effect of CSR disclosure on institutional ownership. Pak J Commer Soc Sci 4:22–39

Horvathova E (2010) Does environmental performance affect financial performance? A meta-analysis. Ecol Econ 70:52–59

Hou M, Liu H, Fan P, Wei Z (2016) Does CSR practice pay off in East Asian firms? Asia Pac J Manag 33:195–228

Huang XB, Watson L (2015) Corporate social responsibility research in accounting. J Account Lit 34:1–16

Huang K, Sim N, Zhao H (2020) Corporate social responsibility, corporate financial performance and the confounding effects of economic fluctuations: a meta-analysis. Int Rev Financ Anal (online first) 70:101504

Khlif H, Chalmers K (2015) A review of meta-analytic research in accounting. J Account Lit 35:1–27

Kim CS (2019) Can socially responsible investments be compatible with financial performance? A meta-analysis. Asia Pac J Financ Stud 48:30–64

Lagasio V, Cucari N (2019) Corporate governance and environmental social disclosure: a meta-analytical review. Corpor Soc Responsib EnvironManag (online first) 26:701–711

Le S, Fuller B, Muriithi S, Walters B, Kroll MJ (2015) The influence of top managers’ values on corporate social performance: a meta-analysis. J Manag Issues 27:9–27

Lopez-Arceiz FJ, Bellostas AJ, Rivera P (2018) Twenty years of research on the relationship between economic and social performance: a meta-analysis approach. Soc Indic Res 140:453–484

Lu WL, Taylor ME (2016) Which factors moderate the relationship between sustainability performance and financial performance: a meta-analysis study. J Int Account Res 15:1–15

Mahoney LS, Thorne L, Cecil L, LaGore W (2013) A research note on standalone corporate social responsibility reports. Crit Perspect Account 24:350–359

Majumder MTH, Akter A, Li X (2017) Corporate governance and corporate social disclosures. A meta-analytical review. Int J Account Inf Manag 25:434–458

Maroun W (2020) A conceptual model for understanding corporate social responsibility assurance practice. J Bus Ethics 161:187–209

O’Donovan G (1999) Managing legitimacy through increased corporate environmental reporting: an exploratory study. Interdiscip Environ Rev 1:63–99

Orlitzky M (2011) Institutional logics in the study of organizations: the social construction of the relationship between corporate social and financial performance. Bus Ethics Q 21:409–444

Orlitzky M, Benjamin JD (2001) Corporate social performance and firm risk: a meta-analytic review. Bus Soc 40:369–396

Orlitzky M, Schmidt FL, Rynes SL (2003) Corporate social and financial performance: a meta-analysis. Org Stud 24:403–441

Ortas E, Alvarez I, Zubeltzu E (2017) Firms’ board independence and corporate social performance: a meta analysis. Sustainability 9:1–26

Parmigiani A, Rivera-Santos M (2011) Clearing a path through the forest: a meta-review of interorganizational relationships. J Manag 37:1108–1136

Pletzer JL, Nikolova R, Kedzior KK, Voelpel SC (2015) Does gender matter? Female representation on corporate boards and firm financial performance. Meta Anal PLoS ONE 10:1–20

Plewnia F, Guenther E (2017) The benefits of doing good: a meta-analysis of corporate philanthropy business outcomes and its implications for management control. J Manag Control 28:347–376

Post C, Byron K (2015) Women on boards and firm financial performance: a meta-analysis. Acad Manag J 58:1546–1571

Qorri A, Mujkic Z, Gashi S, Kraslawski A (2018) Green supply chain management practices and company performance: a meta-analysis approach. Proc Manuf 17:317–325

Quazi A, Richardson A (2012) Sources of variation in linking corporate social responsibility and financial performance. Soc Responsib J 8:242–256

Rathner S (2013) The influence of primary study characteristics on the performance differential between socially responsible and conventional investment funds: a meta-analysis. J Bus Ethics 118:349–363

Revelli C, Viviani JL (2015) Financial performance of socially responsible investing (SRI): what have we learned? A meta-analysis. Bus Ethics Eur Rev 24:158–185

Schaltegger S, Hörisch J, Freeman RE (2019) Business cases for sustainability: a stakeholder theory perspective. Org Environ 32:191–212

Shleifer A, Vishny RW (1997) A survey of corporate governance. J Fin 52:737–783

Shocker A, Sethi P (1973) An approach to incorporating societal preferences in developing corporate action strategies. Calif Manag Rev 15:97–105

Soliman MM, El Din MB, Sakr A (2013) Ownership structure and corporate social responsibility (CSR): an empirical study of the listed companies in Egypt. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2257816

Torraco RJ (2005) writing integrative literature reviews: guidelines and examples. Human Resour Dev Rev 4:356–367

Tsai KH, Huang CT, Chen ZH (2020) Understanding variation in the relationship between environmental management practices and firm performance across studies: a meta-analytic review. Bus Strategy Environ 29:547–565

Velte P (2019a) Does board composition influence CSR reporting? A meta-analysis. Corp Ownersh Control 16:48–59

Velte P (2019b) What do we know about meta-analyses in accounting, auditing, and corporate governance? Medit Account Res 27:17–43

Velte P, Stawinoga M (2017) Empirical research on corporate social responsibility assurance (CSRA): a literature review. J Bus Econ 87:1017–1066

Velte P, Stawinoga M, Lueg R (2020) Carbon performance and disclosure. J Clean Prod 254:120063

Vishwanathan P, van Oosterhout HJ, Heugens PPMAR, Duran P, van Essen M (2020) Strategic CSR: a concept building meta-analysis. J Manag Stud 57:314–350

Wang Q, Dou J, Jia S (2016) A meta-analytic review of corporate social responsibility and corporate financial performance: the moderating effect of contextual factors. Bus Soc 55:1083–1121

Wang Y, Xu S, Wang Y (2020) The consequences of employees‘ perceived corporate social responsibility: a meta-analysis. Bus Ethics Eur Rev 29:471–496

Webster J, Watson RT (2002) Analyzing the past to prepare for the future: writing a literature review. MIS Q 26:XIII–XXIII

Winschel J, Stawinoga M (2019) Determinants and effects of sustainable CEO compensation. Manag Rev Q 69:265–328

Wintoki MB, Linck JS, Netter JM (2012) Endogeneity and the dynamics of internal corporate governance. J Finance Econ 105:581–606

Zhao X, Wu C, Chen CC, Zhou Z (2020) The influence of corporate social responsibility on incumbent employees: a meta-analytic investigation of the mediating and moderating mechanisms. J Manag (online first). https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206320946108

Zubeltzu-Jaka E, Alvarez-Etxeberria I, Ortas E (2020) The effect of the size of the board of directors on corporate social performance: a meta-analytic approach. Corp Soc Responsib Environ Manag 27:1361–1374

Download references

Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Chair for Accounting, Auditing and Corporate Governance, Institute of Management, Accounting and Finance (IMAF), Leuphana University of Lueneburg, Universitätsallee 1, 21335, Lueneburg, Germany

Patrick Velte

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Patrick Velte .

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Velte, P. Meta-analyses on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): a literature review. Manag Rev Q 72 , 627–675 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11301-021-00211-2

Download citation

Received : 06 December 2020

Accepted : 10 February 2021

Published : 18 March 2021

Issue Date : September 2022

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11301-021-00211-2

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Corporate governance
• Legitimacy theory
• Literature Review
• Meta-analysis

JEL Classification

• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research

Information

• Author Services

Initiatives

You are accessing a machine-readable page. In order to be human-readable, please install an RSS reader.

All articles published by MDPI are made immediately available worldwide under an open access license. No special permission is required to reuse all or part of the article published by MDPI, including figures and tables. For articles published under an open access Creative Common CC BY license, any part of the article may be reused without permission provided that the original article is clearly cited. For more information, please refer to https://www.mdpi.com/openaccess .

Feature papers represent the most advanced research with significant potential for high impact in the field. A Feature Paper should be a substantial original Article that involves several techniques or approaches, provides an outlook for future research directions and describes possible research applications.

Feature papers are submitted upon individual invitation or recommendation by the scientific editors and must receive positive feedback from the reviewers.

Editor’s Choice articles are based on recommendations by the scientific editors of MDPI journals from around the world. Editors select a small number of articles recently published in the journal that they believe will be particularly interesting to readers, or important in the respective research area. The aim is to provide a snapshot of some of the most exciting work published in the various research areas of the journal.

Original Submission Date Received: .

• Active Journals
• Find a Journal
• Proceedings Series
• For Authors
• For Reviewers
• For Editors
• For Librarians
• For Publishers
• For Societies
• For Conference Organizers
• Open Access Policy
• Institutional Open Access Program
• Special Issues Guidelines
• Editorial Process
• Research and Publication Ethics
• Article Processing Charges
• Testimonials
• Preprints.org
• SciProfiles
• Encyclopedia

Article Menu

• Subscribe SciFeed
• Recommended Articles
• Google Scholar
• on Google Scholar
• Table of Contents

Find support for a specific problem in the support section of our website.

Please let us know what you think of our products and services.

Visit our dedicated information section to learn more about MDPI.

JSmol Viewer

Corporate social responsibility and marketing: a bibliometric and visualization analysis of the literature between the years 1994 and 2020.

1. Introduction

2. theoretical framework, 2.1. bibliometric methods, 2.2. corporate social responsibility, 2.3. corporate social responsibility and marketing, 3. methodology, 3.1. journal selection, 3.2. data analysis, 4.1. publications by year and by category, 4.2. journal analysis, 4.3. keyword analysis, 4.4. geographical analysis, 4.5. analysis of publications by organization, 4.6. analysis of citations, 4.7. authors’ analysis, 4.8. identification of csr variables related to marketing, 5. discussion, 6. conclusions, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, acknowledgments, conflicts of interest.

• Albus, H.; Ro, H. Corporate Social Responsibility: The Effect of Green Practices In A Service Recovery. J. Hosp. Tour. Res. 2017 , 41 , 41–65. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ Green Version ]
• Gürhan-Canli, Z.; Batra, R. When corporate image affects product evaluations: The moderating role of perceived risk. J. Mark. Res. 2004 , 41 , 197–205. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Bhattacharya, C.B.; Sen, S. Consumer-company identification: A framework for understanding consumers’ relationships with companies. J. Mark. 2003 , 67 , 76–88. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Sen, S.; Bhattacharya, C.B. Does doing good always lead to doing better? Consumer reactions to corporate social responsibility. J. Mark. Res. 2001 , 38 , 225–243. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Balmer, J.M.T. Corporate identity, corporate branding and corporate marketing Seeing through the fog. Eur. J. Mark. 2001 , 35 , 248–291. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Luo, X.; Bhattacharya, C.B. Corporate Social Responsibility, Customer Satisfaction, and Market Value. J. Mark. 2006 , 70 , 1–18. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Lii, Y.S.; Lee, M. Doing Right Leads to Doing Well: When the Type of CSR and Reputation Interact to Affect Consumer Evaluations of the Firm. J. Bus. Ethics 2012 , 105 , 69–81. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Upadhye, B.D.; Das, G.; Varshneya, G. Corporate social responsibility: A boon or bane for innovative firms? J. Strateg. Mark. 2019 , 27 , 50–66. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ji, Y.G.; Tao, W.; Rim, H. Mapping corporate social responsibility research in communication: A network and bibliometric analysis. Public Relat. Rev. 2020 , 46 , 101963. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ji, Y.G.; Tao, W.; Rim, H. Theoretical Insights of CSR Research in Communication from 1980 to 2018: A Bibliometric Network Analysis. J. Bus. Ethics 2021 . [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Nadanyiova, M.; Gajanova, L.; Majerova, J. Green marketing as a part of the socially responsible brand’s communication from the aspect of generational stratification. Sustainability 2020 , 12 , 7118. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Webster, J.; Watson, R. Analyzing the past to prepare for the future: Writting a literature review. Manag. Inf. Syst. Q. 2002 , 26 , 13–23. [ Google Scholar ]
• Rowe, F. What literature review is not: Diversity, boundaries and recommendations. Eur. J. Inf. Syst. 2014 , 23 , 241–255. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Zupic, I.; Čater, T. Bibliometric Methods in Management and Organization. Organ. Res. Methods 2015 , 18 , 429–472. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Bhatt, Y.; Ghuman, K.; Dhir, A. Sustainable manufacturing. Bibliometrics and content analysis. J. Clean. Prod. 2020 , 260 , 120988. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Donthu, N.; Kumar, S.; Mukherjee, D.; Pandey, N.; Lim, W.M. How to conduct a bibliometric analysis: An overview and guidelines. J. Bus. Res. 2021 , 133 , 285–296. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ellegaard, O. The application of bibliometric analysis: Disciplinary and user aspects. Scientometrics 2018 , 116 , 181–202. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ Green Version ]
• Jiménez-García, M.; Ruiz-Chico, J.; Peña-Sánchez, A.R.; López-Sánchez, J.A. A bibliometric analysis of sports tourism and sustainability (2002–2019). Sustainability 2020 , 12 , 2840. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ Green Version ]
• Donthu, N.; Gremler, D.D.; Kumar, S.; Pattnaik, D. Mapping of Journal of Service Research Themes: A 22-Year Review. J. Serv. Res. 2020 . [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Donthu, N.; Kumar, S.; Pandey, N. A retrospective evaluation of Marketing Intelligence and Planning: 1983–2019. Mark. Intell. Plan. 2020 . [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Verma, S.; Gustafsson, A. Investigating the emerging COVID-19 research trends in the field of business and management: A bibliometric analysis approach. J. Bus. Res. 2020 , 118 , 253–261. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Cavalcante, W.Q.D.F.; Coelho, A.; Bairrada, C.M. Sustainability and Tourism Marketing: A Bibliometric Analysis of Publications between 1997 and 2020 Using VOSviewer Software. Sustainability 2021 , 13 , 4987. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Niñerola, A.; Sánchez-Rebull, M.V.; Hernández-Lara, A.B. Tourism research on sustainability: A bibliometric analysis. Sustainability 2019 , 11 , 1377. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ Green Version ]
• Garrigos-Simon, F.J.; Narangajavana-Kaosiri, Y.; Lengua-Lengua, I. Tourism and sustainability: A bibliometric and visualization analysis. Sustainability 2018 , 10 , 1976. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ Green Version ]
• Vallaster, C.; Kraus, S.; Merigó Lindahl, J.M.; Nielsen, A. Ethics and entrepreneurship: A bibliometric study and literature review. J. Bus. Res. 2019 , 99 , 226–237. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Schmeltz, L. Consumer-oriented CSR communication: Focusing on ability or morality? Corp. Commun. Int. J. 2012 , 17 , 29–49. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Bulut, D.; Yumrukaya, C.B. Corporate social responsibility in culture and art. Manag. Environ. Qual. Int. J. 2009 , 20 , 311–320. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Carroll, A.B. The Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility: Toward the Moral Management of Organizational Stakeholders. Bus. Horiz. 1991 , 34 , 39–48. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• McWilliams, A.; Siegel, D. Corporate social responsibility: A theory of the firm perspective. Acad. Manag. Rev. 2001 , 26 , 117–127. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Carroll, A.B. A Three-Dimensional Conceptual Model of Corporate Performance. Acad. Manag. Rev. 1979 , 4 , 497–505. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Mohr, L.A.; Webb, D.J.; Harris, K.E. Do consumers expect companies to be socially responsible? The impact of corporate social responsibility on buying behavior. J. Consum. Aff. 2001 , 35 , 45–72. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Singh, J.; de los Salmones Sanchez, M.D.M.G.; Del Bosque, I.R. Understanding corporate social responsibility and product perceptions in consumer markets: A cross-cultural evaluation. J. Bus. Ethics 2008 , 80 , 597–611. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Arevalo, J.A.; Aravind, D. The impact of the crisis on corporate responsibility: The case of UN global compact participants in the USA. Corp. Gov. 2010 , 10 , 406–420. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ Green Version ]
• Jahmane, A.; Gaies, B. Corporate social responsibility, financial instability and corporate financial performance: Linear, non-linear and spillover effects—The case of the CAC 40 companies. Financ. Res. Lett. 2020 , 34 , 101483. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Carroll, A.B. Corporate Social Responsibility Evolution of a Definitional Construct. Bus. Soc. 1999 , 38 , 268–295. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Maignan, I.; Ferrell, O.C.; Hult, G.T.M. Corporate Citizenship: Cultural Antecedents and Business Benefits. J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 1999 , 27 , 455–469. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Kang, J.W.; Namkung, Y. The Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility on Brand Equity and the Moderating Role of Ethical Consumerism: The Case of Starbucks. J. Hosp. Tour. Res. 2018 , 42 , 1130–1151. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Barone, M.J.; Miyazaki, A.D.; Taylor, K.A. The Influence of Cause-Related Marketing on Consumer Choice: Does One Good Turn Deserve Another? J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 2000 , 28 , 248–262. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Berger, I.E.; Kanetkar, V. Increasing Environmental Sensitivity via Workplace Experiences. J. Public Policy Mark. 1995 , 14 , 205–215. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Creyer, E.H. The influence of firm behavior on purchase intention: Do consumers really care about business ethics? J. Consum. Mark. 1997 , 14 , 421–432. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Godfrey, P.C.; Merrill, C.B.; Hansen, J.M. The relationship between corporate social responsibility and shareholder value: An empirical test of the risk management hypothesis. Strateg. Manag. J. 2009 , 30 , 425–445. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Vlachos, P.A. Corporate social performance and consumer-retailer emotional attachment: The moderating role of individual traits. Eur. J. Mark. 2012 , 46 , 1559–1580. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ozuem, W.; Howell, K.; Lancaster, G. Corporate social responsibility: Towards a context-specific perspective in developing countries. Soc. Responsib. J. 2014 , 10 , 399–415. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ramesh, K.; Saha, R.; Goswami, S.; Sekar; Dahiya, R. Consumer’s response to CSR activities: Mediating role of brand image and brand attitude. Corp. Soc. Responsib. Environ. Manag. 2019 , 26 , 377–387. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Rodrigues, P.; Borges, A.P.; Vieira, E.P. Corporate social responsibility image and emotions for the competitiveness of tourism destinations. J. Place Manag. Dev. 2020 . [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Sprinkle, G.B.; Maines, L.A. The benefits and costs of corporate social responsibility. Bus. Horiz. 2010 , 53 , 445–453. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Abu Zayyad, H.M.; Obeidat, Z.M.; Alshurideh, M.T.; Abuhashesh, M.; Maqableh, M.; Masa’deh, R. Corporate social responsibility and patronage intentions: The mediating effect of brand credibility. J. Mark. Commun. 2021 , 27 , 510–533. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Luffarelli, J.; Awaysheh, A. The Impact of Indirect Corporate Social Performance Signals on Firm Value: Evidence from an Event Study. Corp. Soc. Responsib. Environ. Manag. 2018 , 25 , 295–310. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ Green Version ]
• Polonsky, M.J.; Jevons, C. Understanding issue complexity when building a socially responsible brand. Eur. Bus. Rev. 2006 , 18 , 340–349. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ Green Version ]
• Ghodeswar, B.M. Building brand identity in competitive markets: A conceptual model. J. Prod. Brand Manag. 2008 , 17 , 4–12. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ Green Version ]
• Balmer, J.M.T. Corporate Identity and the Advent of Corporate Marketing. J. Mark. Manag. 1998 , 14 , 963–996. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Brønn, P.S.; Vrioni, A.B. Corporate social responsibility and cause-related marketing: An overview. Int. J. Advert. 2001 , 20 , 207–222. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Maignan, I.; Ferrell, O.C. Corporate Social Responsibility and Marketing: An Integrative Framework. J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 2004 , 32 , 3–19. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Burke, L.; Logsdon, J.M. How Corporate Social Responsibility Pays Off. Long Range Plann. 1996 , 29 , 495–502. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Orlitzky, M.; Schmidt, F.L.; Rynes, S.L. Corporate social and financial performance: A meta-analysis. Organ. Stud. 2003 , 24 , 403–441. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Paul, C.J.M.; Siegel, D.S. Corporate social responsibility and economic performance. J. Product. Anal. 2006 , 26 , 207–211. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ Green Version ]
• Kim, J.; Baek, Y.; Choi, Y.H. The Structural Effects of Metaphor-Elicited Cognitive and Affective Elaboration Levels on Attitude Toward the Ad. J. Advert. 2012 , 41 , 77–96. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Frankental, P. Corporate social responsibility—A PR invention? Corp. Commun. An. Int. J. 2001 , 6 , 18–23. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ Green Version ]
• Sun, H.; Rabbani, M.R.; Ahmad, N.; Sial, M.S.; Cheng, G.; Zia-Ud-Din, M.; Fu, Q. CSR, Co-Creation and Green Consumer Loyalty: Are Green Banking Initiatives Important? A Moderated Mediation Approach from an Emerging Economy. Sustainability 2020 , 12 , 10688. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Servera-Francés, D.; Fuentes-Blasco, M.; Piqueras-Tomás, L. The Importance of Sustainable Practices in Value Creation and Consumers’ Commitment with Companies’ Commercial Format. Sustainability 2020 , 12 , 9852. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Hwang, J.; Kim, J.J.; Lee, S. The Importance of Philanthropic Corporate Social Responsibility and Its Impact on Attitude and Behavioral Intentions: The Moderating Role of the Barista Disability Status. Sustainability 2020 , 12 , 6235. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Anselmsson, J.; Bondesson, N.V.; Johansson, U. Brand image and customers’ willingness to pay a price premium for food brands. J. Prod. Brand Manag. 2014 , 23 , 90–102. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Fatma, M.; Ruiz, A.P.; Khan, I.; Rahman, Z. The effect of CSR engagement on eWOM on social media. Int. J. Organ. Anal. 2020 , 28 , 941–956. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Choi, B.; La, S. The impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and customer trust on the restoration of loyalty after service failure and recovery. J. Serv. Mark. 2013 , 27 , 223–233. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Hsu, K.T. The Advertising Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on Corporate Reputation and Brand Equity: Evidence from the Life Insurance Industry in Taiwan. J. Bus. Ethics 2012 , 109 , 189–201. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Rivera, J.J.; Bigne, E.; Curras-Perez, R. Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility perception on consumer satisfaction with the brand. Span. J. Mark.-ESIC 2016 , 20 , 104–114. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ Green Version ]
• Tranfield, D.; Denyer, D.; Smart, P. Towards a Methodology for Developing Evidence-Informed Management Knowledge by Means of Systematic Review. Br. J. Manag. 2003 , 14 , 207–222. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ramos, R.F.; Rita, P.; Moro, S. From institutional websites to social media and mobile applications: A usability perspective. Eur. Res. Manag. Bus. Econ. 2019 , 25 , 138–143. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Pan, X.; Yan, E.; Cui, M.; Hua, W. Examining the usage, citation, and diffusion patterns of bibliometric mapping software: A comparative study of three tools. J. Informetr. 2018 , 12 , 481–493. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• van Eck, N.J.; Waltman, L. Software survey: VOSviewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping. Scientometrics 2010 , 84 , 523–538. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ Green Version ]
• Torres-pruñonosa, J.; Plaza-navas, M.A.; Díez-martín, F.; Beltran-cangrós, A. The intellectual structure of social and sustainable public procurement research: A co-citation analysis. Sustainability 2021 , 13 , 774. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Cobo, M.J.; López-Herrera, A.G.; Herrera-Viedma, E.; Herrera, F. SciMAT: A new science mapping analysis software tool. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 2012 , 63 , 1609–1630. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Van Eck, N.J.; Waltman, L. CitNetExplorer: A new software tool for analyzing and visualizing citation networks. J. Informetr. 2014 , 8 , 802–823. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ Green Version ]
• Persson, O.; Danell, R.; Schneider, J.W. How to use Bibexcel for various types of bibliometric analysis. In Celebrating Scholarly Communication Studies: A Festschrift for Olle Persson at His 60th Birthday ; International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics: Leuven, Belgium, 2009; p. 94. [ Google Scholar ]
• Light, R.P.; Polley, D.E.; Börner, K. Open data and open code for big science of science studies. Scientometrics 2014 , 101 , 1535–1551. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ Green Version ]
• Shah, S.H.H.; Lei, S.; Ali, M.; Doronin, D.; Hussain, S.T. Prosumption: Bibliometric analysis using HistCite and VOSviewer. Kybernetes 2019 , 49 , 1020–1045. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Mulet-Forteza, C.; Martorell-Cunill, O.; Merigó, J.M.; Genovart-Balaguer, J.; Mauleon-Mendez, E. Twenty five years of the Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing: A bibliometric ranking. J. Travel Tour. Mark. 2018 , 35 , 1201–1221. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Martínez-López, F.J.; Merigó, J.M.; Valenzuela-Fernández, L.; Nicolás, C. Fifty years of the European Journal of Marketing: A bibliometric analysis. Eur. J. Mark. 2018 , 52 , 439–468. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Porter, M.E.; Kramer, M.R. Strategy and society: The link between competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility. Harv. Bus. Rev. 2006 , 1–16. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Torres-Pruñonosa, J.; Plaza-Navas, M.A.; Díez-Martín, F.; Prado-Roman, C. The Sources of Knowledge of the Economic and Social Value in Sport Industry Research: A Co-citation Analysis. Front. Psychol. 2020 , 11 , 1–17. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ferrell, O.C.; Harrison, D.E.; Ferrell, L.; Hair, J.F. Business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and brand attitudes: An exploratory study. J. Bus. Res. 2019 , 95 , 491–501. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Iglesias, O.; Markovic, S.; Bagherzadeh, M.; Singh, J.J. Co-creation: A Key Link between Corporate Social Responsibility, Customer Trust, and Customer Loyalty. J. Bus. Ethics 2020 , 163 , 151–166. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Liu, M.T.; Wong, I.A.; Shi, G.; Chu, R.; Brock, J.L. The impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and perceived brand quality on customer-based brand preference. J. Serv. Mark. 2014 , 28 , 181–194. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Baena, V. The importance of CSR practices carried out by sport teams and its influence on brand love: The Real Madrid Foundation. Soc. Responsib. J. 2018 , 14 , 61–79. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• De Los Salmones, M.D.M.G.; Crespo, A.H.; Del Bosque, I.R. Influence of corporate social responsibility on loyalty and valuation of services. J. Bus. Ethics 2005 , 61 , 369–385. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Chu, S.C.; Chen, H.T. Impact of consumers’ corporate social responsibility-related activities in social media on brand attitude, electronic word-of-mouth intention, and purchase intention: A study of Chinese consumer behavior. J. Consum. Behav. 2019 , 18 , 453–463. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Martínez, P.; del Bosque, I.R. CSR and customer loyalty: The roles of trust, customer identification with the company and satisfaction. Int. J. Hosp. Manag. 2013 , 35 , 89–99. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Öberseder, M.; Schlegelmilch, B.B.; Murphy, P.E.; Gruber, V. Consumers’ Perceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility: Scale Development and Validation. J. Bus. Ethics 2014 , 124 , 101–115. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ Green Version ]
• Donaldson, T.; Preston, L.E. The Stakeholder Theory of the Corporation: Concepts, Evidence, and Implications. Acad. Manag. Rev. 1995 , 20 , 65–91. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Tkalac Verčič, A.; Sinčić Ćorić, D. The relationship between reputation, employer branding and corporate social responsibility. Public Relat. Rev. 2018 , 44 , 444–452. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Barnett, M.L. Stakeholder influence capacity and the variability of financial returns to corporate social responsibility. Acad. Manag. Rev. 2007 , 32 , 794–816. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Kolodinsky, R.W.; Madden, T.M.; Zisk, D.S.; Henkel, E.T. Attitudes about corporate social responsibility: Business student predictors. J. Bus. Ethics 2010 , 91 , 167–181. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Buertey, S.; Sun, E.; Lee, J.S.; Hwang, J. Corporate social responsibility and earnings management: The moderating effect of corporate governance mechanisms. Corp. Soc. Responsib. Environ. Manag. 2020 , 27 , 256–271. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Orazalin, N.; Baydauletov, M. Corporate social responsibility strategy and corporate environmental and social performance: The moderating role of board gender diversity. Corp. Soc. Responsib. Environ. Manag. 2020 , 27 , 1664–1676. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Waheed, A.; Zhang, Q.; Rashid, Y.; Zaman Khan, S. The impact of corporate social responsibility on buying tendencies from the perspective of stakeholder theory and practices. Corp. Soc. Responsib. Environ. Manag. 2020 , 27 , 1307–1315. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ayuso, S.; Rodríguez, M.A.; García-Castro, R.; Ariño, M.A. Maximizing Stakeholders’ Interests: An Empirical Analysis of the Stakeholder Approach to Corporate Governance. Bus. Soc. 2014 , 53 , 414–439. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Carroll, A.B. The Four Faces of Corporate Citizenship. Bus. Soc. Rev. 1998 , 100 . [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Detomasi, D.A. The political roots of corporate social responsibility. J. Bus. Ethics 2008 , 82 , 807–819. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Boccia, F.; Sarnacchiaro, P. The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Consumer Preference: A Structural Equation Analysis. Corp. Soc. Responsib. Environ. Manag. 2017 , 25 , 151–163. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Hur, W.M.; Kim, H.; Woo, J. How CSR Leads to Corporate Brand Equity: Mediating Mechanisms of Corporate Brand Credibility and Reputation. J. Bus. Ethics 2013 , 125 , 75–86. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Lee, J.; Lee, Y. The interactions of CSR, self-congruity and purchase intention among Chinese consumers. Australas. Mark. J. 2015 , 23 , 19–26. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Pino, G.; Amatulli, C.; De Angelis, M.; Peluso, A.M. The influence of corporate social responsibility on consumers’ attitudes and intentions toward genetically modified foods: Evidence from Italy. J. Clean. Prod. 2016 , 112 , 2861–2869. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Werther, W.B., Jr.; Chandler, D. Strategic corporate social responsibility as global brand insurance. Bus. Horiz. 2005 , 48 , 317–324. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Maignan, I.; Ferrell, O.C.; Ferrell, L. A stakeholder model for implementing social responsibility in marketing. Eur. J. Mark. 2005 , 39 , 956–977. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ Green Version ]
• Kim, J.; Song, H.J.; Lee, C.K. Effects of corporate social responsibility and internal marketing on organizational commitment and turnover intentions. Int. J. Hosp. Manag. 2016 , 55 , 25–32. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Jahdi, K.S.; Acikdilli, G. Marketing Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Marriage of Convenience or Shotgun Wedding? J. Bus. Ethics 2009 , 88 , 103–113. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Gilal, F.G.; Channa, N.A.; Gilal, N.G.; Gilal, R.G.; Gong, Z.; Zhang, N. Corporate social responsibility and brand passion among consumers: Theory and evidence. Corp. Soc. Responsib. Environ. Manag. 2020 , 27 , 2275–2285. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Iniesta-Bonillo, M.A.; Sánchez-Fernández, R.; Jiménez-Castillo, D. Sustainability, value, and satisfaction: Model testing and cross-validation in tourist destinations. J. Bus. Res. 2016 , 69 , 5002–5007. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Sánchez-Fernández, R.; Iniesta-Bonillo, M.Á.; Cervera-Taulet, A. Exploring the concept of perceived sustainability at tourist destinations: A market segmentation approach. J. Travel Tour. Mark. 2019 , 36 , 176–190. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Randle, M.; Kemperman, A.; Dolnicar, S. Making cause-related corporate social responsibility (CSR)count in holiday accommodation choice. Tour. Manag. 2019 , 75 , 66–77. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Koseoglu, M.A.; Uyar, A.; Kilic, M.; Kuzey, C.; Karaman, A.S. Exploring the connections among CSR performance, reporting, and external assurance: Evidence from the hospitality and tourism industry. Int. J. Hosp. Manag. 2021 , 94 , 102819. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Pope, S.; Wæraas, A. CSR-Washing is Rare: A Conceptual Framework, Literature Review, and Critique. J. Bus. Ethics 2016 , 137 , 173–193. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Boiral, O.; Heras-Saizarbitoria, I.; Testa, F. SA8000 as CSR-Washing? The Role of Stakeholder Pressures. Corp. Soc. Responsib. Environ. Manag. 2017 , 24 , 57–70. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Kang, C.; Germann, F.; Grewal, R. Washing away your sins? Corporate social responsibility, corporate social irresponsibility, and firm performance. J. Mark. 2016 , 80 , 59–79. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Vredenburg, J.; Kapitan, S.; Spry, A.; Kemper, J.A. Brands Taking a Stand: Authentic Brand Activism or Woke Washing? J. Public Policy Mark. 2020 , 39 , 444–460. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Heras-Saizarbitoria, I.; Urbieta, L.; Boiral, O. Organizations’ engagement with sustainable development goals: From cherry-picking to SDG-washing? Corp. Soc. Responsib. Environ. Manag. 2021 , 1–13. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Koleva, P.; Meadows, M. Inherited Scepticism and Neo-communist CSR-washing: Evidence from a Post-communist Society. J. Bus. Ethics 2021 , 174 , 783–804. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ruiz-Blanco, S.; Romero, S.; Fernandez-Feijoo, B. Green, blue or black, but washing–What company characteristics determine greenwashing? Environ. Dev. Sustain. 2021 , 1–22. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Sterbenk, Y.; Champlin, S.; Windels, K.; Shelton, S. Is Femvertising the New Greenwashing? Examining Corporate Commitment to Gender Equality. J. Bus. Ethics 2021 , 1–15. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Szabo, S.; Webster, J. Perceived Greenwashing: The Effects of Green Marketing on Environmental and Product Perceptions. J. Bus. Ethics 2021 , 171 , 719–739. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Bairrada, C.M.; Coelho, F.; Coelho, A. Antecedents and outcomes of brand love: Utilitarian and symbolic brand qualities. Eur. J. Mark. 2018 , 52 , 656–682. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Dalman, M.D.; Buche, M.W.; Min, J. The Differential Influence of Identification on Ethical Judgment: The Role of Brand Love. J. Bus. Ethics 2019 , 158 , 875–891. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Grace, D.; Ross, M.; King, C. Brand fidelity: Scale development and validation. J. Retail. Consum. Serv. 2020 , 52 , 101908. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Grace, D.; Ross, M.; King, C. Brand fidelity: A relationship maintenance perspective. J. Brand Manag. 2018 , 25 , 577–590. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Davies, G.; Rojas-Méndez, J.I.; Whelan, S.; Mete, M.; Loo, T. Brand personality: Theory and dimensionality. J. Prod. Brand Manag. 2018 , 27 , 115–127. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ferrell, O.C.; Fraedrich, J.; Ferrell, L. Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases , 10th ed.; Cengage Learning: Stamford, CT, USA, 2015; ISBN 978-1285423715. [ Google Scholar ]
• Markovic, S.; Iglesias, O.; Singh, J.J.; Sierra, V. How does the Perceived Ethicality of Corporate Services Brands Influence Loyalty and Positive Word-of-Mouth? Analyzing the Roles of Empathy, Affective Commitment, and Perceived Quality. J. Bus. Ethics 2018 , 148 , 721–740. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Glozer, S.; Morsing, M. Helpful hypocrisy? Investigating ‘double-talk’ and irony in CSR marketing communications. J. Bus. Res. 2020 , 114 , 363–375. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Kim, M.; Stepchenkova, S. Do consumers care about CSR activities of their favorite restaurant brands? Evidence from engagement on social networks. J. Hosp. Mark. Manag. 2021 , 30 , 305–325. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]

Click here to enlarge figure

Share and Cite

Quezado, T.C.C.; Cavalcante, W.Q.F.; Fortes, N.; Ramos, R.F. Corporate Social Responsibility and Marketing: A Bibliometric and Visualization Analysis of the Literature between the Years 1994 and 2020. Sustainability 2022 , 14 , 1694. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031694

Quezado TCC, Cavalcante WQF, Fortes N, Ramos RF. Corporate Social Responsibility and Marketing: A Bibliometric and Visualization Analysis of the Literature between the Years 1994 and 2020. Sustainability . 2022; 14(3):1694. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031694

Quezado, Tarcia Camily Cavalcante, William Quezado Figueiredo Cavalcante, Nuno Fortes, and Ricardo Filipe Ramos. 2022. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Marketing: A Bibliometric and Visualization Analysis of the Literature between the Years 1994 and 2020" Sustainability 14, no. 3: 1694. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031694

Article Metrics

Article access statistics, further information, mdpi initiatives, follow mdpi.

Subscribe to receive issue release notifications and newsletters from MDPI journals

To read this content please select one of the options below:

Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, corporate social responsibility in marketing: a review of the state-of-the-art literature.

Journal of Social Marketing

ISSN : 2042-6763

Article publication date: 1 October 2019

Issue publication date: 18 October 2019

The purpose of the study is to understand the evolution of the state-of-the-art of corporate social responsibility (CSR) research in the domain of marketing.

Design/methodology/approach

The top-ranked journals in the domain of marketing have been chosen for the purpose of this study, and the papers related to CSR concept published in those journals between 1930 and 2018 have been reviewed. A lucid framework has been used to structure the reviewing process.

The study finds that the CSR concept in marketing context has become more complex, its dimensions have evolved and increased in number, affecting diverse stakeholders leading to different outcomes.

Research limitations/implications

A simple model is proposed to understand the amalgamation of CSR concept in marketing literature. The study also highlights extant gaps in the literature and suggests the directions for future research.

Practical implications

The notion of CSR goes beyond the economic and regulatory obligation of the firm. Hence, for it to be duly implemented, practitioners must have a holistic understanding of this multi-faceted construct. This paper examines the changing role of CSR in the context of marketing over a period of almost a century. It thereby helps marketers to understand and visualize their changing responsibility toward the society at large and thereby co-create a sustainable relationship with all the stakeholders. The study provides both tactical and strategic pointers to practitioners.

Social implications

The study draws upon extant literature and documents the positive impact of CSR on marketing variables and thereby gives a compelling reason to the marketers to be socially responsible. Compilation of persuasive evidence would encourage the adoption of CSR concepts by the marketers. This would elicit a more socially responsible action which will have a positive impact on the society that the marketer serves.

Originality/value

This is an in-depth study depicting the journey of CSR construct in marketing literature and provides a holistic understanding of the construct in the context of marketing.

• Corporate social responsibility
• Literature review
• Content analysis
• CSR in marketing

Chakraborty, A. and Jha, A. (2019), "Corporate social responsibility in marketing: a review of the state-of-the-art literature", Journal of Social Marketing , Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 418-446. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSOCM-01-2019-0005

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles

All feedback is valuable.

Please share your general feedback

Report an issue or find answers to frequently asked questions

Contact Customer Support

We apologize for the inconvenience...

To ensure we keep this website safe, please can you confirm you are a human by ticking the box below.

If you are unable to complete the above request please contact us using the below link, providing a screenshot of your experience.

https://ioppublishing.org/contacts/

45,000+ students realised their study abroad dream with us. Take the first step today

Meet top uk universities from the comfort of your home, here’s your new year gift, one app for all your, study abroad needs, start your journey, track your progress, grow with the community and so much more.

Verification Code

An OTP has been sent to your registered mobile no. Please verify

Thanks for your comment !

Our team will review it before it's shown to our readers.

CSR Dissertation Topics

• Updated on  
• Jan 10, 2023

Writing a dissertation ? Why not choose a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) topic? CSR is the way businesses take responsibility for their stakeholders. While looking at corporate social responsibility managers tend to ask the question “Who are we harming through our actions and how can we reduce it?” For this reason, some businesses will try to focus on broader social-environmental issues to lend their support.  As a result, topics from CSR are a great choice for your dissertation.  

This Blog Includes:

Csr encourages client loyalty, csr competitive advantage , csr enhances the happiness of employees, csr sustainability, sustainability csr dissertation , role and impact of corporate social responsibility, coronavirus and csr, on the challenges of csr, csr general topics for discussion, corporate social responsibility from ethical perspective , importance of corporate social responsibility.

CSR is a self-regulating business model that helps a company to be socially accountable to its stockholders and the public. The importance of corporate social responsibility to society is as follows.

To retain customers businesses need to pay attention to what the customers care about.  When customers feel like they are expressing their belief in support of a particular business they are likely to continue with the brand. When they purchase from the brand they would feel a sense of pride. As a result, they are likely to recommend it.

Customers are loyal to companies that share their beliefs. Although the same products are offered by other companies. They will purchase the product of the company that they share their beliefs with. This is the Corporate social responsibility competitive advantage.

80% of employees feel a higher sense of purpose when they believe that their employment has a positive impact on the world. Employees who are personally fulfilled are less susceptible to stress and are more likely to stay with the organization.

When a business prioritizes corporate responsibility it has to be imaginative and creative. It compels the company to remain relevant and adapt to the client’s needs. Such adaptability is critical for the sustainability of an organization

CSR Dissertation Topics for Discussion

Below are the CSR thesis topics that you can take up for discussion 

• A quantitative examination of the effect Corporate Social Responsibility has on company sustainability
• To what extent does Coca-Cola’s CSR program coincide with the UN sustainable development goals?
• To what degree dealing with climate issues a corporate responsibility?To what degree does Starbucks’ corporate social responsibility pro
• Does gram coincide with the United Nations’ sustainable development goals?
• What effect do employer-sponsored volunteer days have based on a multi-stakeholder survey?
• To what extent is CSR is linked with business values?
• Examine whether customers in the fashion sector care about CSR
• Find out the environmental impact of CSR in the energy sector
• Find out the financial impact of CSR: A before and after comparison of Marks and Spencer’s Plan 
• Can enterprises use CSR to gain a competitive edge? Do a case study of small and medium-sized companies from the health and wellness industry
• Examining the dangers associated with reactive CSR approaches to the coronavirus problem.
• Has the COVID-19 situation resulted in a reduction in CSR spending?
• Examining the retail sector’s Corporate Social Responsibility dilemma after the coronavirus pandemic
• Responsible education: Developing organizational-wide CSR competences
• Analyzing the pragmatic as well as the ethical challenges to Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure
• How can businesses incorporate Corporate Social Responsibility across the value chain?
• Conducting a study of top executives’ attitudes toward CSR Is it real or is it greenwashing?
• Developing a culture of social responsibility inside an organization: A qualitative method

These are the CSR general topics that you can take up for dissertation discussion.

• Gender diversity impact on the BOD (board of directors) and foreign ownership on CSR performance
• The importance of voluntary CSR reporting and gender diversity on the board of directors
• Is there any sort of connection between CSR and equity finance?
• Impact of CSR on brand value and company performance
• The impact of financial limits when it comes to corporate social responsibility
• Does CSR have varying value consequences for different shareholders?
• The influence on company performance of CSR and business irresponsibility 
• Institutional structures at the country level, the role of CSR initiatives, and corporate values
• Earnings Management and the CSR practices
• Efficient Use of Investment Capital and CSR
• CSR and conflict Among Shareholders

CSR and business ethics are different concepts but are used interchangeably when referring to the same topic. Businessmen may violate the established moral norms while conducting business. Hence, Corporate Social Responsibility is a price paid by businesses as a penalty for breaching some of their rights. It explains why the revenue gained is used for restoring public health and the environment.

CSR stands for corporate social responsibility. It means a company should play a positive role in society and consider the environmental and social impact of their business decisions.

The four main types of CSR are- environmental, ethical, philanthropic, and economic responsibility.

Working conditions, human rights, corruption prevention, gender equality, corporate governance, consumer interest, taxes, and occupational integration are some of the current issues of CSR.

Corporate social responsibility has been a part of ethical business behavior. Hence, corporate social responsibility has to be ingrained in an organization’s strategy. Need assistance in studying abroad ? Call Leverage Edu at 1800 572 000 and book our free 30-minute counseling session today.

Blessy George

Blessy George is a Content Marketing Associate at Leverage Edu, boasting over a year of experience in the industry. Her expertise lies in crafting compelling content tailored to online courses, making her a go-to source for those navigating the vast landscape of digital learning. In addition to online classes, she writes content related to study abroad, English test preparation and visas. She has completed her MA degree in Political Science and has gained valuable experience as an intern.She is known for her extensive writing on various aspects of international education, garnering recognition for her insights and contributions. Apart from her professional pursuits, Blessy is passionate about creative writing, particularly poetry and songwriting.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Contact no. *

Leaving already?

8 Universities with higher ROI than IITs and IIMs

Grab this one-time opportunity to download this ebook

Connect With Us

45,000+ students realised their study abroad dream with us. take the first step today..

Resend OTP in

Need help with?

Study abroad.

UK, Canada, US & More

IELTS, GRE, GMAT & More

Scholarship, Loans & Forex

Country Preference

New Zealand

Which English test are you planning to take?

Which academic test are you planning to take.

Not Sure yet

When are you planning to take the exam?

Already booked my exam slot

Within 2 Months

Want to learn about the test

Which Degree do you wish to pursue?

When do you want to start studying abroad.

January 2024

September 2024

What is your budget to study abroad?

How would you describe this article ?

Please rate this article

We would like to hear more.

Have something on your mind?

• På svenska
•   Ammattikorkeakoulut
• Lahden ammattikorkeakoulu
• Opinnäytetyöt
• Näytä viite

City Marketing : Case: Moscow

Kuzina, irina (2017).

Avaa tiedosto

Tiivistelmä, selaa kokoelmaa, henkilökunnalle.