Corporate Social Responsibility as a Tool of Strategic Advantage: Indian Customer Perspective

There is a growing interest in understanding corporate social responsibility (CSR), particularly in developing nations. However, in India, the significance of CSR is often misunderstood. Most of the Indian firms consider that only obeying with rules achieves their condition for CSR while a responsible firm identifies that CSR actions have a wider effect on the society in which it operates. Thus, the current study is an effort to examine CSR in a broad manner. The aim of paper is to study the use of CSR as a tool of strategic advantage from customer perspectives. The sample is consisted of 560 respondents and selected by quota sampling method. The data, thus generated, was analyzed with factor analysis and multiple regression. The study finds that there are 14 areas where corporate can use CSR to get benefits; however, sustainable development, purchase decision, generate opportunities, organizational effectiveness, and philanthropy are the key areas where CSR contributes a lot. Findings clearly indicate that CSR can be used as a tool of strategic advantage.