IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i19p5382-d271878.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Sustainable Approach to Corporate Social Responsibility: A Global Analysis and Future Trends

Author

Listed:
  • Emilio Abad-Segura

    (Department of Economy and Business. University of Almería, 04120 Almería, Spain)

  • Francisco Joaquín Cortés-García

    (Faculty of Business and Management, Universidad Autónoma de Chile, 7500912 Santiago, Chile)

  • Luis J. Belmonte-Ureña

    (Department of Economy and Business. University of Almería, 04120 Almería, Spain)

Abstract

Due to the process of globalization, companies are obligated to observe corporate social responsibility and best practices from a sustainability approach towards their stakeholders and society. The explicit aim is to determine the relevance of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its relationship with sustainability, in order to establish trends and future lines of research. The evolution of global research on this subject has been studied from 2001 to 2018. For this purpose, a bibliometric analysis of 1832 articles has been applied, obtaining results of the scientific productivity of the journals, authors, institutions, and countries that contribute to this research. Evidence shows a growing interest in studying the relationship between socially responsible practices and the dimension of sustainability. The main category is Business, Management, and Accounting. The most productive journals are the Journal of Business Ethics and Sustainability. The authors with the most articles are García-Sánchez, Moneva, and Moratis, while Kolk is the most cited. The most prolific institution is the University of Salamanca. The United States is the country with the most publications and quotes. France and China are the countries with the largest number of international collaborations in their work. Global research has been on an upward trend with optimal publication rates in recent years.

Suggested Citation

  • Emilio Abad-Segura & Francisco Joaquín Cortés-García & Luis J. Belmonte-Ureña, 2019. "The Sustainable Approach to Corporate Social Responsibility: A Global Analysis and Future Trends," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-24, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:19:p:5382-:d:271878
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/19/5382/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/19/5382/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. de Roover, Raymond, 1958. "The Concept of the Just Price: Theory and Economic Policy," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(4), pages 418-434, December.
    2. Nancy E. Landrum & Brian Ohsowski, 2018. "Identifying Worldviews on Corporate Sustainability: A Content Analysis of Corporate Sustainability Reports," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 128-151, January.
    3. Andreas Georg Scherer & Guido Palazzo & David Seidl, 2013. "Managing Legitimacy in Complex and Heterogeneous Environments: Sustainable Development in a Globalized World," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 259-284, March.
    4. Windsor, Duane, 2013. "Corporate social responsibility and irresponsibility: A positive theory approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(10), pages 1937-1944.
    5. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808.
    6. Pasquale Ruggiero & Sebastiano Cupertino, 2018. "CSR Strategic Approach, Financial Resources and Corporate Social Performance: The Mediating Effect of Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-22, October.
    7. Valentín Molina-Moreno & Juan Carlos Leyva-Díaz & Jorge Sánchez-Molina & Antonio Peña-García, 2017. "Proposal to Foster Sustainability through Circular Economy-Based Engineering: A Profitable Chain from Waste Management to Tunnel Lighting," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-9, December.
    8. Málovics, György & Csigéné, Noémi Nagypál & Kraus, Sascha, 2008. "The role of corporate social responsibility in strong sustainability," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 907-918, June.
    9. Carson, Thomas L., 1993. "Does the Stakeholder Theory Constitute a New Kind of Theory of Social Responsibility?," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(2), pages 171-176, April.
    10. Rupert J. Baumgartner, 2014. "Managing Corporate Sustainability and CSR: A Conceptual Framework Combining Values, Strategies and Instruments Contributing to Sustainable Development," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(5), pages 258-271, September.
    11. Sarah Birrell Ivory & Simon Bentley Brooks, 2018. "Managing Corporate Sustainability with a Paradoxical Lens: Lessons from Strategic Agility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(2), pages 347-361, March.
    12. Craig, Iain D. & Plume, Andrew M. & McVeigh, Marie E. & Pringle, James & Amin, Mayur, 2007. "Do open access articles have greater citation impact?," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 1(3), pages 239-248.
    13. Tobias Hahn & Frank Figge & Jonatan Pinkse & Lutz Preuss, 2018. "A Paradox Perspective on Corporate Sustainability: Descriptive, Instrumental, and Normative Aspects," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(2), pages 235-248, March.
    14. Terence Tse, 2011. "Shareholder and stakeholder theory: after the financial crisis," Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 3(1), pages 51-63, April.
    15. Kolk, Ans, 2016. "The social responsibility of international business: From ethics and the environment to CSR and sustainable development," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 23-34.
    16. Sydney Finkelstein, 1997. "Interindustry merger patterns and resource dependence: a replication and extension of Pfeffer (1972)," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(10), pages 787-810, November.
    17. Carroll, Archie B., 1991. "The pyramid of corporate social responsibility: Toward the moral management of organizational stakeholders," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 39-48.
    18. Karcagi-Kovats, Andrea, 2012. "Performance Indicators In Csr And Sustainability Reports In Hungary," APSTRACT: Applied Studies in Agribusiness and Commerce, AGRIMBA, vol. 6(3-4), pages 1-6, November.
    19. Cooper, David J. & Sherer, Michael J., 1984. "The value of corporate accounting reports: Arguments for a political economy of accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 9(3-4), pages 207-232, October.
    20. Minseok Kim & Boyoung Kim & Sungho Oh, 2018. "Relational Benefit on Satisfaction and Durability in Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-18, April.
    21. Nees Jan Eck & Ludo Waltman, 2010. "Software survey: VOSviewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 84(2), pages 523-538, August.
    22. Luis Perez-Batres & Van Miller & Michael Pisani, 2010. "CSR, Sustainability and the Meaning of Global Reporting for Latin American Corporations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 91(2), pages 193-209, February.
    23. Phillips, Robert & Freeman, R. Edward & Wicks, Andrew C., 2003. "What Stakeholder Theory is Not," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(4), pages 479-502, October.
    24. Hanan Alhaddi, 2015. "Triple Bottom Line and Sustainability: A Literature Review," Business and Management Studies, Redfame publishing, vol. 1(2), pages 6-10, September.
    25. Sarah Birrell Ivory & Simon Bentley Brooks, 2018. "Erratum to: Managing Corporate Sustainability with a Paradoxical Lens: Lessons from Strategic Agility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(2), pages 363-363, March.
    26. Dima Jamali & Ramez Mirshak, 2007. "Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Theory and Practice in a Developing Country Context," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 72(3), pages 243-262, May.
    27. Kate Grosser & Jeremy Moon, 2019. "CSR and Feminist Organization Studies: Towards an Integrated Theorization for the Analysis of Gender Issues," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(2), pages 321-342, March.
    28. Jolanda Hessels & Siri Terjesen, 2010. "Resource dependency and institutional theory perspectives on direct and indirect export choices," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 203-220, February.
    29. Woocheol Kim & Gohar Feroz Khan & Jacob Wood & Muhammad Tariq Mahmood, 2016. "Employee Engagement for Sustainable Organizations: Keyword Analysis Using Social Network Analysis and Burst Detection Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-11, July.
    30. Dyann Ross, 2017. "A research-informed model for corporate social responsibility: towards accountability to impacted stakeholders," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 1-11, December.
    31. Mao, Guozhu & Liu, Xi & Du, Huibin & Zuo, Jian & Wang, Linyuan, 2015. "Way forward for alternative energy research: A bibliometric analysis during 1994–2013," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 276-286.
    32. Eugen Nicolăescu & Cristina Alpopi & Constantin Zaharia, 2015. "Measuring Corporate Sustainability Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-15, January.
    33. Paul J. McNulty, 1968. "Economic Theory and the Meaning of Competition," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 82(4), pages 639-656.
    34. Jesus Palomo & Cristina Figueroa-Domecq & Pilar Laguna, 2017. "Women, peace and security state-of-art: a bibliometric analysis in social sciences based on SCOPUS database," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 113(1), pages 123-148, October.
    35. Tsitaire Jean Arrive & Mei Feng & Yafen Yan & Samwel Macharia Chege, 2019. "The involvement of telecommunication industry in the road to corporate sustainability and corporate social responsibility commitment," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(1), pages 152-158, January.
    36. Andy Lockett & Jeremy Moon & Wayne Visser, 2006. "Corporate Social Responsibility in Management Research: Focus, Nature, Salience and Sources of Influence," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(1), pages 115-136, January.
    37. Freeman, R. Edward, 1994. "The Politics of Stakeholder Theory: Some Future Directions1," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(4), pages 409-421, October.
    38. Amer Ait Sidhoum & Teresa Serra, 2018. "Corporate Sustainable Development. Revisiting the Relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility Dimensions," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(4), pages 365-378, July.
    39. Roberts, Robin W., 1992. "Determinants of corporate social responsibility disclosure: An application of stakeholder theory," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 595-612, August.
    40. Vladimir Strezov & Annette Evans & Tim J. Evans, 2017. "Assessment of the Economic, Social and Environmental Dimensions of the Indicators for Sustainable Development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(3), pages 242-253, May.
    41. Philip Hallinger & Chatchai Chatpinyakoop, 2019. "A Bibliometric Review of Research on Higher Education for Sustainable Development, 1998–2018," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-20, April.
    42. Teemu Malmi & Markus Granlund, 2009. "In Search of Management Accounting Theory," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(3), pages 597-620.
    43. Sarah Tiba & Frank J. van Rijnsoever & Marko P. Hekkert, 2019. "Firms with benefits: A systematic review of responsible entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility literature," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(2), pages 265-284, March.
    44. Hofer, Christian & Jin, Henry & Swanson, R. David & Waller, Matthew A. & Williams, Brent D., 2012. "The Impact of Key Retail Accounts on Supplier Performance: A Collaborative Perspective of Resource Dependency Theory," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 88(3), pages 412-420.
    45. Ignacio Ferrero & W. Michael Hoffman & Robert E. McNulty, 2012. "Must Milton Friedman Embrace Stakeholder Theory?," Faculty Working Papers 10/12, School of Economics and Business Administration, University of Navarra.
    46. S. Ravikumar & Ashutosh Agrahari & S. N. Singh, 2015. "Mapping the intellectual structure of scientometrics: a co-word analysis of the journal Scientometrics (2005–2010)," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 102(1), pages 929-955, January.
    47. Chang Yu & Chris Davis & Gerard P.J. Dijkema, 2014. "Understanding the Evolution of Industrial Symbiosis Research," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 18(2), pages 280-293, April.
    48. Acheampong, Alex O., 2018. "Economic growth, CO2 emissions and energy consumption: What causes what and where?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 677-692.
    49. Kevin Gibson, 2012. "Stakeholders and Sustainability: An Evolving Theory," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 109(1), pages 15-25, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Víctor Meseguer-Sánchez & Emilio Abad-Segura & Luis Jesús Belmonte-Ureña & Valentín Molina-Moreno, 2020. "Examining the Research Evolution on the Socio-Economic and Environmental Dimensions on University Social Responsibility," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-30, July.
    2. Esther Prieto-Jiménez & Luis López-Catalán & Blanca López-Catalán & Guillermo Domínguez-Fernández, 2021. "Sustainable Development Goals and Education: A Bibliometric Mapping Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-20, February.
    3. Aisma Linda Kiesnere & Rupert J. Baumgartner, 2019. "Sustainability Management in Practice: Organizational Change for Sustainability in Smaller Large-Sized Companies in Austria," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-40, January.
    4. Jaakko Siltaloppi & Risto Rajala & Henri Hietala, 2021. "Integrating CSR with Business Strategy: A Tension Management Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 174(3), pages 507-527, December.
    5. Jay Joseph & Helen Borland & Marc Orlitzky & Adam Lindgreen, 2020. "Seeing Versus Doing: How Businesses Manage Tensions in Pursuit of Sustainability," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(2), pages 349-370, June.
    6. Bongani Munkuli & Renee Horne, 2018. "Financial Markets Value Reputation for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) – A Study of the South African Mining Sector," Africagrowth Agenda, Africagrowth Institute, vol. 15(2), pages 17-22.
    7. Sybille Sachs & Marc Maurer, 2009. "Toward Dynamic Corporate Stakeholder Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 85(3), pages 535-544, April.
    8. Juelin Yin & Yuli Zhang, 2012. "Institutional Dynamics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in an Emerging Country Context: Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 111(2), pages 301-316, December.
    9. Francesca Bernini & Fabio La Rosa, 2024. "Research in the greenwashing field: concepts, theories, and potential impacts on economic and social value," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 28(2), pages 405-444, June.
    10. Mario Morales-Parragué & Luis Araya-Castillo & Fidel Molina-Luque & Hugo Moraga-Flores, 2022. "Scientometric Analysis of Research on Corporate Social Responsibility," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-22, February.
    11. Bouguerra, Abderaouf & Gölgeci, Ismail & Gligor, David M. & Tatoglu, Ekrem, 2021. "How do agile organizations contribute to environmental collaboration? Evidence from MNEs in Turkey," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(1).
    12. Jonathan Taglialatela & Kevin Pirazzi Maffiola & Roberto Barontini & Francesco Testa, 2023. "Board of Directors' characteristics and environmental SDGs adoption: an international study," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(5), pages 2490-2506, September.
    13. Tomina Saveanu & Daniel Badulescu & Sorana Saveanu & Maria-Madela Abrudan & Alina Badulescu, 2021. "The Role of Owner-Managers in Shaping CSR Activity of Romanian SMEs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-19, October.
    14. Samantha Miles, 2017. "Stakeholder Theory Classification: A Theoretical and Empirical Evaluation of Definitions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 142(3), pages 437-459, May.
    15. Franck Aggeri & Aurélien Acquier, 2005. "La théorie des stakeholders permet-elle de rendre compte des pratiques d'entreprise en matière de RSE ?," Post-Print halshs-00645708, HAL.
    16. Silvia Vernizzi & Andrea Beretta Zanoni & Sara Moggi & Silvia Cantele, 2021. "A Stakeholder Relationship Framework for a Sustainable and Effective Business Strategy," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 14(3), pages 1-1, July.
    17. Kyoko Sasaki & Wendy Stubbs & Megan Farrelly, 2023. "The relationship between corporate purpose and the sustainable development goals in large Japanese companies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(5), pages 2475-2489, September.
    18. Lis, Bettina, 2012. "The Relevance of Corporate Social Responsibility for a Sustainable Human Resource Management: An Analysis of Organizational Attractiveness as a Determinant in Employees’ Selection of a (Potential) Emp," management revue - Socio-Economic Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 23(3), pages 279-295.
    19. Sharma, Varun & Vijayaraghavan, T.A.S. & Raghu Ram, Tata L., 2023. "Resolving operational paradox of sustainable supply chain: A decision framework approach," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 87(PB).
    20. Petya Koleva, 2021. "Towards the Development of an Empirical Model for Islamic Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from the Middle East," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(4), pages 789-813, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:19:p:5382-:d:271878. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.