Abstract
As concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) continue to evolve, the predicament facing CSR managers when attempting to balance the differing interests of various stakeholders remains a persistent management challenge. A review of the extensive literature in this field reveals that the conceptualisation of corporate approaches to responsible stakeholder management remains underdeveloped. In particular, CSR practices within the specific context of the pharmaceutical industry, a sector which particularly dramatically depicts the stakeholder management dilemmas faced by business managers, has been under-researched. To address this gap, this paper utilises qualitative, exploratory data, obtained via multiple research methods, to investigate the CSR practices of major pharmaceutical companies in the UK and Germany. The data are employed to critically re-examine and revise a previously published explanatory framework which identifies the management steps involved in CSR stakeholder engagement. The resulting revised explanatory framework is the main contribution of this paper. By abstracting those factors which influence CSR practice, it provides an analytical tool which is designed to be of practical use for business decision-makers when managing their stakeholder engagement activities. Given that the research addresses values and ideals and prescribes practical recommendations for practitioners, it is essentially applied and normative in nature. Ultimately, the framework proposes a set of steps for developing CSR strategies which could help CSR professionals to make a ‘mindset transition’ from a narrower ‘traditional’ approach to CSR to a more innovative way of thinking.
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Notes
Please note that the conceptual framework presented in this paper was refigured based on evidence which was obtained in separate research (O’Riordan 2010). If required, that research is available upon specific request.
Please note that more detailed findings with respect to this research can be found if required in a separate paper by O’Riordan and Fairbrass (2012) entitled ‘Corporate Approaches to CSR Stakeholder Engagement in the Pharmaceutical Industry’.
Here the term ‘company’ is defined to embrace stakeholder groups including shareholders i.e. the owners and/or the employees of the company but not their families who are understood to belong to the stakeholder group: society/community.
(i.e. first analysing the context, second making choices based on an enlightened mind-set on the innovative opportunities that exist for business in line with the new business model concept described in greater detail above, and third calculating the return via a collaborative relationship approach which aims to achieve the optimum outcome for the partnership as opposed to individual interests in that partnership).
For clarification, rather than implying that that companies ‘evolve’ from one group to another in this illustration, the intention instead is to suggest that these type of responses to the CSR ‘call’ simply exist within firms. As a result, various subsidiaries or projects within the same company could actually ‘co-exist’ at different levels of evolutionary development. Here committed leadership is required to stimulate accountable practice.
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O’Riordan, L., Fairbrass, J. Managing CSR Stakeholder Engagement: A New Conceptual Framework. J Bus Ethics 125, 121–145 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1913-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1913-x