Corporate Social Responsibility and International Marketing

Special issue call for papers from International Marketing Review

Guest Editors

Pervez N. Ghauri, King’s College London, United Kingdom
Byung Il Park, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, South Korea
Chang Hoon Oh, Simon Fraser University, Canada

Purpose and Research Questions

Despite the recent economic slump and subsequent fluctuations of development activities in some markets, the general trend of economic growth around the globe has continuously shown upward movement over the last three decades. Along with the improvement in the quality of life, consumers are paying more attention to ethical and philanthropic activities of Multinational Enterprises (MNEs). Due to this phenomenon, corporate social responsibility (CSR) research is growing in importance. Scholarly evidence increasingly confirms that CSR activities are beneficial for corporate success (e.g., Orlitzky et al., 2003; Waddock and Graves, 1997). We presume that this is probably because consistent CSR activities induce a corporation's image enhancement, which subsequently results in consumer's trust in its products (Turker, 2009). Taken together, there is a general consensus that CSR is often considered as a key factor significantly influencing market image and corporate success at home as well as in international markets.

Reflecting the trend discussed above, scholars and business practitioners perceive CSR as an integral part of marketing strategy. In addition, in order to maximize shareholder wealth by carrying out actions that increase business profit, various stakeholders also need to be convinced that the company is a good citizen in the society (Freeman, 1984). Meanwhile, it should be noted that among all the stakeholders, one important group that appears to be particularly influential for firms to initiate CSR activities is consumers (Du, Bhattacharya and Sen, 2010). Considering the globalization of the markets, companies need to create a positive image in all international markets. However, a thorough review of the literature indicates that most studies exploring CSR are concentrated only on Domestic Marketing (e.g., the impact of CSR on consumer loyalty in the local markets) (see e.g., Adams, Licht and Sagiv, 2011; Muller and Kräussl, 2011; Luo and Bhattacharya, 2006; Lai et al., 2010), which clearly indicates that CSR research tends to have an implied domestic marketing bias and very little research into CSR issues has considered CSR’s international marketing implications.

CSR activities can also be used as a valuable international marketing strategy. For instance, some studies in International Marketing suggest that CSR by international marketers will significantly improve their national and corporate brands in developing and emerging markets (Torres et al., 2012). As another example, the spread of good word-of-mouth about desirable business practices between international consumers is definitely crucial for multinational enterprises to achieve successful subsidiary operations in foreign markets (Luo and Bhattacharya, 2006). Despite these facts, it is hard to find scholarly attention paid to the discussions linking international marketers, their CSR behavior and its influence on success/failure in foreign markets. Many major questions thus remain unanswered with respect to the nature and consequences of CSR activity for MNEs’ marketing strategies.

The aim of this special issue is to bring together theoretical and empirical advancements connecting CSR and international marketing issues. We seek both theoretical and empirical papers that may address, but are not limited to, the following list of potential research questions:

• Do international marketers' CSR practices function as a catalyst enhancing international competitiveness and organizational performance in foreign markets?
• Does good corporate image derived from CSR practices play a pivotal role in acquiring local market information and eventually improving competitiveness in international markets?
• What are the motivations for CSR practices in foreign markets? Is there any particular relationship between the level of foreign CSR and national brand enhancement? Is there a difference in motivations between the CSR activities of international marketers in developed and developing nations?
• How do international marketers adapt themselves to host country CSR practices and regulations? What factors influence this adaptation? Does this adaptation process increase the brand value of MNEs?
• Do international marketers adopt standardized CSR practices, or do they adapt their approaches to host countries? What are the potential benefits/drawbacks and other marketing related consequences?
• Are the marketing-related and ethically-related benefits of CSR activities universal across foreign markets?
• Do foreign firms’ advanced environmental and marketing capabilities affect their CSR practices and brand image?
• How do firms transform environmental capability in order to internationally link it to marketing advantages under the institutional void (i.e., in least developed countries)?
• How do international marketers manage their CSR best practices in different local market environments?
• What are international marketing strategies of social enterprises?
• Is the CSR activity of global marketing firms related to the development of country of origin perceptions, country image or consumer ethnocentrism?
• Do MNEs in developed and emerging markets differ with respect to their CSR activity, and if so, why? Does it matter in terms of marketing success?
• Multinational CSR activity: what is it and how should it be measured?
• What is the impact of CSR communications on employee citizenship behavior across different markets?
• Do consumers, employees and investors in different countries respond differently to CSR activities and communications?

Submission Instructions

The deadline for submissions is 31 March 2014. Submissions should be made via ScholarOne Manuscripts: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/imrev

All submissions will be subject to the regular double-blind peer review process at the International Marketing Review. The guest editors are seeking reviewers for this issue and are soliciting nominations and volunteers to participate as reviewers. Please contact the guest editors to volunteer or nominate a reviewer.

More Information

To obtain additional information, please contact the guest editors:

Pervez N. Ghauri, King’s College, London (pervez.ghauri@kcl.ac.uk)
Byung Il Park, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (leedspark@hufs.ac.kr)
Chang Hoon Oh, Simon Fraser University (coh@sfu.ca)

References

Adams, R. B., Licht, A. N., and Sagiv, L. (2011), “Shareholders and stakeholders: how do directors decide?”, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 32, pp. 1331-1355.
Du, S., Bhattacharya, C. B. and Sen, S. (2010). “Maximizing business returns to corporate social responsibility (CSR): The role of CSR communication”, International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 8-19.
Freeman, R. E. (1984), Strategic Management: A stakeholder approach. Boston, MA: Pitman.
Lai, C. S., Chiu, C. J., Yang, C. F., and Pai, D. C. (2010), “The effects of corporate social responsibility on brand performance: the mediating effect of industrial brand equity and corporate reputation”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 95, pp. 457-469.
Luo, X., and Bhattacharya, B. (2006), “Corporate social responsibility, customer satisfaction, and market value”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 70, pp. 1-18.
Muller, A., and Kräussl, R. (2011), “Doing good deeds in times of need: a strategic perspective on corporate disaster donations”, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 32, pp. 911-929.
O’Shaughnessy, K. C., Gedajlovic, E. and Reinmoeller, P. (2007), “The influence of firm, industry and network on the corporate social performance of Japanese firms”, Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Vol. 24, pp. 283-303.
Orlitzky, M., Schmidt, F., and Rynes, S. (2003). “Corporate Social and Financial Performance: A Meta-Analysis”, Organization Studies, Vol. 24, pp. 403–441.
Torres, A., Bijmolt, T. H. A., Tribo, J. A., and Verhoef, P. (2012), “Generating global brand equity through corporate social responsibility to key stakeholders”, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Vol. 29, pp. 13-24.
Turker, D. (2009), “How corporate social responsibility influences organizational commitment”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 89, pp. 189-204.
Udayasankar, K. (2008), “Corporate social responsibility and firm size”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 83, pp. 167-175.
Waddock, S. A., and Graves, S. B: (1997). “The Corporate Social Performance – Financial Performance Link”, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 303–320.