Motivations for Corporate Social Responsibility: all talk and no walk?

Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can be defined as voluntarily going beyond what the law requires to achieve social and environmental objectives. Present work provides the profile of the firms adopting CSR strategies in Luxembourg focusing on intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for CSR. The analysis is performed using ICT 2011 data representative of the whole economy, including large, medium and small enterprises of the manufacturing and service sectors. Contingency analysis contrasted the adoption of CSR with a set of firms’ features (size, group, exports, sector of economic activity and perceived competition). The econometric analysis explores the link between firm’s features and CSR disclose. The typical firm that adopts CSR practices is a large market leader, part of an international group, with a strong international reputation and operating in the utilities sector. Looking at the reasons behind the CSR, both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are strongly correlated with CSR. Firms choose CSR both as a tool to promote their image and as part of their corporate culture. Some policy implications conclude the research.