Conceptualizing corporate social responsibility practice: an integration of obligation and opportunity

Purpose - This paper aims to develop an integrated model to analyse the corporate social responsibility (CSR) perception of organizations in a regulated environment. The developed model is used as a basis to analyse practice and perception of CSR using the obligation-opportunity concepts. Design/methodology/approach - The paper critically reviews the seminal literature and identifies inherent shortcomings in CSR’s existing conceptualizations. The concepts of implicit and explicit CSR are used to build a case for the integrated obligation-opportunity conceptual model. To analyse the CSR perception of select Indian organizations, a set of propositions are developed. The propositions are evaluated using the interpretive qualitative approach to analyse interviews from 12 CSR heads across 10 organizations. Findings - The paper develops an obligation-opportunity conceptual model as an analytical tool to visually map existing CSR models and analyse organizations’ CSR perceptions. The results of the analysis of interviews suggest: the organizations in India are contributing towards CSR to abide by the law that is as an obligation; organizations can contribute towards strategic CSR by incorporating economic, social and environmental responsibilities simultaneously with the help of the developed model; CSR environment in India is implicitly-explicit in nature. Originality/value - The proposed obligation-opportunity model enables mapping different theories along the dimensions of obligation-opportunity conceptualizations. It can be a powerful tool for researchers and practitioners to understand, research and strategically implement CSR in the given institutional environment.