Abstract

ROOI, Niel; BOTHA, Doret  and  VAN DER WALDT, Gerrit. Corporate social responsibility applications in the retail sector: Lessons from the international experience. JCMAN [online]. 2023, vol.20, n.1, pp.499-535. ISSN 1815-7440.  http://dx.doi.org/10.35683/jcman1023.206.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: The research aimed to uncover potential lessons from the international experience regarding corporate social responsibility (CSR) applications in the retail sector DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: This study followed a qualitative document review approach, employing a literature review and content analysis. The document review focused on empirical work mainly done towards the latter part of the 20^th century on the continents of Asia, the Americas, Europe and Africa. The document review approach allowed for a broad view of CSR applications in the retail sectors of multiple countries, with a specific focus on their maturity level and transformative CSR best practices FINDINGS: The findings suggest that countries have different maturity levels with variant regulatory interventions. Countries such as India and the UK are trend leaders in their explicit CSR regulatory language. This is in stark contrast with the relatively vague CSR articulation in countries such as Poland and Egypt and limited to no regulatory intervention in countries such as the USA, Mozambique and Kenya RECOMMENDATIONS/VALUE: If the reluctance to explicit regulatory intervention in the application of CSR in the international experience persists, the trend to primarily use CSR to advance businesses' public image may prevail. Therefore, the board of directors is recommended to oversee transformative CSR application by setting measurable CSR strategic priorities. Applying the DNA model and lessons learned, businesses should set key CSR indicators that conform to the socio-economic developmental agenda, and third-party oversight structures should enhance their vigilance in monitoring businesses' legislative compliance with socio-economic developmental aspects MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS: The overall result of the study makes a significant contribution to the contemporary field of management in that the trend towards transformative CSR requires greater alignment to the socioeconomic developmental agenda of a country and CSR impact measurement requires additional oversight by authorities and relevant civil society organisations JEL CLASSIFICATION: M14

Keywords : Corporate social responsibility; DNA model; International experience; Lessons learned; Retail sector; Transformative corporate social responsibility.

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