• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.49-58
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• 2010

Corporate social responsibility has become a very important issue for researchers (Greenfield, 2004; Maignan & Ralston, 2002; McWilliams et al., 2006; Pearce & Doh 2005), and many consider it necessary for businesses to define their role in society and apply social and ethical standards to their businesses (Lichtenstein et al., 2004). As a result, a significant number of retailers have adopted CSR as a strategic tool to promote their businesses. To this end, this study sought to discover U.S. consumers' attitudes and behavior in ethical purchasing and consumption based on their subjective perception and evaluation of a retailer. The objectives of this study include: 1) determine the participants awareness of retailers corporate social responsibility; 2) assess how participants evaluate retailers corporate social responsibility; 3) examine whether participants evaluation process of retailers CSR influence their attitude toward the retailer; and 4) assess if participants attitude toward the retailers CSR influence their purchase behavior. This study does not focus on actual retailers' CSR performance because a consumer's decision making process is based on an individual assessment not an actual fact. This study examines US college students' awareness and evaluations of retailers' corporate social responsibility (CSR). Fifty six college students at a major Southeastern university participated in the study. The age of the participants ranged from 18 to 26 years old. Content analysis was conducted with open coding and focused coding. Over 100 single-spaced pages of written responses were collected and analyzed. Two steps of coding (i.e., open coding and focused coding) were conducted (Esterberg, 2002). Coding results and analytic memos were used to understand participants' awareness of CSR and their ethical purchasing behavior supported through the selection and inclusion of direct quotes that were extracted from the written responses. Names used here are pseudonyms to protect confidentiality of participants. Participants were asked to write about retailers, their aware-ness of CSR issues, and to evaluate a retailer's CSR performance. A majority (n = 28) of respondents indicated their awareness of CSR but have not felt the need to act on this issue. Few (n=8) indicated that they are aware of this issue but not greatly concerned. Findings suggest that when college students evaluate retailers' CSR performance, they use three dimensions of CSR: employee support, community support, and environmental support. Employee treatment and support were found as an important criterion in evaluation of retailers' CSR. Respondents indicated that their good experience with a retailer as an employee made them have a positive perception and attitude toward the retailer. Regarding employee support four themes emerged: employee rewards and incentives based on performance, working environment, employee education and training program, and employee and family discounts. Well organized rewards and incentives were mentioned as an important attribute. The factors related to the working environment included: how well retailers follow the rules related to working hours, lunch time and breaks was also one of the most mentioned attributes. Regarding community support, three themes emerged: contributing a percentage of sales to the local community, financial contribution to charity organizations, and events for community support. Regarding environments, two themes emerged: recycling and selling organic or green products. It was mentioned in the responses that retailers are trying to do what they can to be environmentally friendly. One respondent mentioned that the company is creating stores that have an environmentally friendly design. Information about what the company does to help the environment can easily be found on the company’s website as well. Respondents have also noticed that the stores are starting to offer products that are organic and environmentally friendly. A retailer was also mentioned by a respondent in this category in reference to how the company uses eco-friendly cups and how they are helping to rebuild homes in New Orleans. The respondents noticed that a retailer offers reusable bags for their consumers to purchase. One respondent stated that a retailer uses its products to help the environment, through offering organic cotton. After thorough analysis of responses, we found that a participant's evaluation of a retailers' CSR influenced their attitudes towards retailers. However, there was a significant gap between attitudes and purchasing behavior. Although the participants had positive attitudes toward retailers CSR, the lack of funds and time influenced their purchase behavior. Overall, half (n=28) of the respondents mentioned that CSR performance affects their purchasing decisions making when shopping. Findings from this study provide support for retailers to consider their corporate social responsibility when developing their image with the consumer. This study implied that consumers evaluate retailers based on employee, community and environmental support. The evaluation, attitude and purchase behavior of consumers seem to be intertwined. That is, evaluation is based on the knowledge the consumer has of the retailers CSR. That knowledge may influence their attitude toward the retailer and thus influence their purchase behavior. Participants also indicated that having CSR makes them think highly of the retailer, but it does not influence their purchase behavior. Price and convenience seem to surpass the importance of CSR among the participants. Implications, recommendations for future research, and limitations of the study are also discussed.

• The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
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• no.48
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• pp.45-92
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• 2016

Corporations report their economical, environmental, social influences and achievements through sustainability reports. Apart from the financial reports, which are subject to legal restrictions, sustainability reports inform non financial achievements of a corporation, thus the reliability of the information is solely dependent on the corporation itself. The current sustainability reports are of types that cannot include proof or source of the index data, thus they are tended to be regarded as means of publicity. The reliability of the reports is often questioned. This research applied the concept of Evidence-Based Accountability, which will allow the confirmation of accountability through records including contents and context of the tasks. Evidence-Based Accountability means producing and accumulating witness records of actions, then managing the records as usable information and use them as accountability information. Index data from sustainability reports of domestic corporations and web based reports of Vodafone was reviewed. Measures to link task records as proof of index data was studied. To make this possible, record production and acquisition system was redesigned in order to secure required records as evidence. Linked build-up of SR system and RMS was proposed. The proposed system will allow collection and management of records as SR accountability information, and provide the data when necessary. Also, corporate infrastructure was proposed. This infrastructure will build a professional records management system in stages, through organizational system and regulations. Cooperation of staff in this infrastructure will support reliable corporate accountability.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.15-25
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• 2016

Purpose - This study examined the effect of perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) on cognitive trust, emotional trust, and loyalty among using Korean food buffet franchises. The result of this study is expected to provide practical implication to industry practitioners in expanding their understanding of the CSR effect in the marketing perspective. Research design, data, and methodology - The data was collected from a panel of online research companies who are over 20 years old and dined in at Korean style buffet franchise outlets more than five times. A total of 370 samples were used after eliminating outliers and missing data. the data were analyzed SEM with SPSS and AMOS. Result - The result of this study showed that: 1) social CSR activities have an effect only on emotional trust; 2) food-related CSR activities influence both cognitive trust and emotional trust; and 3) both cognitive trust and emotional trust have a significant impact on customer loyalty in Korean style buffet franchises. However, it is important to note that this study found no significant causal impact from environmental CSR activities. Furthermore, this study found that food-related CSR activities have the greater influence on the cognitive trust, and cognitive trust is more influential on the customer loyalty than the emotional trust. Conclusions - Based on the findings, this study provides practical implications to industry practitioners. First, that CSR has a significant impact on customer trust suggests that Korean style buffet franchises should focus on CSR activities to improve customer trust. Second, that food-related CSR activities have the greater influence on the cognitive trust implies that industry practitioners should reinforce food-related CSR activities as a marketing tool to enhance emotional trust and the overall credibility of their franchise. Third, we need to find CSR measures at the social level that can secure emotional trust so that customer loyalty can be formed. Fourth, Korean food buffet franchise food service companies should concentrate their efforts on CSR activities at food and social level among the three dimensions suggested by researchers in order to form customer loyalty. For next study, perceived concept of CSR on individual customer should be examined.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.159-168
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to propose a strategy for creating an advertisement for Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) based on the strategy of selecting an advertisement model in order to efficiently execute the advertisement of CSR. Data were analyzed by regression analysis. The results of this study are as follows: First, it is found that the value-relevance factors of the model are important regardless of the theme of CSR. In the economic field, the reliability of the model is important. But, the attractiveness of the model was more important in the environmental field. Second, it is effective to select a model with high value-relevance when selecting CSR advertising model. But, in the case of an expert, it is effective to select not only value addition, but also attractive and reliable models. Third, when producing CSR ads using emotional messages, it is important to consider the value and reliability of the advertising model. But, it is important to select the model considering the importance of the value and attractiveness of the advertisement model when producing the CSR advertisement using the informational message. It was found that it is very important to select a model that has a high relevance to the image of the social responsibility subject and the advertisement model when producing the social responsibility advertisement.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.89-98
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• 2015

Purpose - In today's globalized and modern business environment, corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities are considered to be essential for the sustainable development of enterprises. In addition, the corporate philanthropy that is related to CSR practices, as well as their being capable of reducing the anti-corporate sentiment of people have facilitated a qualitative forward leap into the quantitative growth phase. This study aims to undertake a comparative evaluation of corporate philanthropy through the Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) method focusing on service and manufacturing industries, and to eventually determine a differentiated approach that is needed for corporate philanthropy. Research design, data, and methodology - The survey responses were collected through online research on specialized companies from consumers nationwide who were aged from 20 to 60 and who are aware of corporate philanthropy. A total of 408 sheets of questionnaire survey were used. Frequency analysis was undertaken in this study. The interviewees had demographic characteristics of gender: 206 males (50.5%) and 202 females (49.5%). They also had demographic characteristics of age: 82 people were over 20 (20.1%), 96 over 30 (23.5%), 105 over 40 (25.7%), and 125 over 50 (30.7%) years of age. The distribution of interviewees' residences is as follows: 154 persons (37.7%) in the Special City, 102 persons (25.0%) in the Metropolitan City, and 152 persons (37.3%) in the Provincial Region. The interviewees have been working for the following companies: 34 persons (8.3%) in LG Display, 80 (19.6%) in KT&G, 49 (12.0%) in Amore Pacific, 42 (10.3%) in KIA Motors, 47 (11.5%) in SBS, 52 (12.8%) in Shinhan Bank, 86 (21.1%) in Asiana Airlines, and 18 (4.4%) in Hyundai Department Store. We applied the paired t-test for the IPA analysis. PASW Statistics 18 was used for statistical analysis. Results - The results of IPA analysis indicated that the importance and performance degrees in both manufacturing and service industries were significantly different. Major empirical results showed that, in consumer, social, economic, philanthropic, and environmental dimensions, in the sub-factors of philanthropy activities in both manufacturing and service industries, the importance degree was found to be higher than performance degree. Further, the average difference between importance degree and performance degree by the sub-factors of philanthropy activities. On the other hand, the average difference of environmental dimension was found to be highest in both service and manufacturing industries. Thus, while consumers consider the philanthropy activities of the environmental dimension as most important, actual companies treat performance of philanthropy activities of the environmental dimension insufficiently or negligibly to some degree. Conclusions - The differentiated approach method that is required for corporate philanthropy may be proposed to uplift corporate accomplishments by analyzing the IPA of the attributes of the sub-factors of corporate philanthropy. This is, to an extent, insufficient in the existing studies related to the use of the IPA technique, and it shows the items that are to be conducted intensively.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.81-93
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• 2013

The study attempted to explain the differences among the willingness of companies to accept the self-regulation. The study exemplified the $CO_2$ emissions record labelling program, as a self-regulation program which is considered as a concrete action for corporate social responsibility and substantiality management movement. The study investigated how companies respond to the request from a government to accept the program, which may be potentially contributed to both higher social and financial performance. It is hypothesized that first the company may decide whether the acceptance decision is strategic or non-strategic issues. when considered as non-strategic, the decision will be made on the basis of short term expected returns and costs comparison. It is hypothesized that when considered as strategic, the decision will be strongly influenced by the type of corporate perceptions toward environmental regulations, which has been accumulated by past experiences. Also, the study investigated the good management theory and the slack resources theory which differently predict the direction between social performances and financial performances. The results identified the significant relationships among most variables and supported the slack resources theory. Further, the ethical perception positively influenced the willingness to accept the self-regulation.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.55-61
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• 2024

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) management may be one of the recent hot topics in corporate management. The purpose of this paper was to study the level of ESG activities of shipping companies. The shipping industry is known to have low transparency and low favorability (Yun, 2022). This study determined whether ESG activities of shipping companies known to the public or studied qualitatively were consistent with objective facts through quantitative analysis. Analysis was conducted on 8,009 firm-year KOSP I listed companies from 2010 to 2022 using ESG ratings evaluated and published by KCGS. As a result of the analysis, it was found that shipping companies had a lower level of ESG activities than non-shipping companies. Although many research studies have been done on companies' ESG activities, research on corporate social responsibility activities and ESG activities of domestic shipping companies is limited. This paper is significant in that it is the first study to quantitatively analyze ESG management status of domestic shipping companies. Shipping companies should make efforts to improve their images, improve their business performances, and increase corporate sustainability by taking the lead in proactive ESG activities rather than performing passive ESG activities due to external regulations such as IMO 2020 and IMO 2050.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.12
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• pp.1073-1087
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• 2020

The purpose of this paper is to (1) evaluate a proposed conceptual model based on integrated Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR); (2) compare the differences between Vietnam and South Korea regarding the effects of consumer perception of CSR activities and technology acceptance on intention to adopt mobile banking. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was conducted to analyze the data collected from the field survey questionnaires administered to a convenience sample of Vietnamese and Korean banking customers. The results showed that there is a difference between South Korea and Vietnam with regard to intention to use mobile banking services. While the effects of social responsibility and environmental responsibility on trust, trust on perceived usefulness, perceived risk on intention to use, perceived usefulness on intention to use were significant in the context of Vietnam but those effects were not significant in South Korea. Therefore, this study has attempted to fill this gap by empirically examining some of the important factors influencing the adoption of m-banking from the Vietnamese and Korean customers' perspectives. Finally, practical and theoretical implications for both banks and researchers in the m- banking context are also discussed in the concluding section.

• Korean small business review
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.31-57
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• 2021

This study delves into a question as to how the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is internalized across corporations. CSR internalization refers to the process where a corporation incorporates CSR practices into its business practices. Drawn from the institutionalization process of knowledge adoption under environmental pressure, we pay attention to the roles of proximity, defined as the distance between environmental characteristics and organizational characteristics of corporations. And we argue that the extent to which a given firm is situated in the environment knowledgeable will make the firm likely to adopt CSR practices. To test this idea, we figure out when and how corporations participate in the B-Corporation Movement in the U.S., through the lens of proximity. Specifically, we subdivide proximity into geographical proximity, organizational proximity, and overlapped proximity and examine whether proximity can increase the likelihood of adopting CSR practices. With a sample of 536 start-ups which had participated in the B-Corporation Movement between 2007 and 2017, we find that the three types of proximity consistently increase the likelihood of becoming a certified B-Corp. This suggests that a corporation is highly likely to accept the concept of CSR under external pressures, along with its intrinsic motivation, which provide theoretical and practical implications on CSR internalization.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.233-244
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• 2022

One of the most noteworthy topics in recent corporate management is ESG(Environmental, Social, Governance). Although there are many companies that have declared ESG management, KT has declared full-fledged ESG management in 2021 and is sharing its sustainable management strategy with stakeholders. In addition, KT is strengthening ESG management by issuing ESG bonds for the first time in the domestic ICT industry. At a time when the information technology industry became more important due to COVID-19, this study attempted to examine KT's ESG management goals and strategies by dividing them into environmental, social, and governance areas. KT was aiming to achieve environmental integrity through 'environmental management', 'green competence', 'energy resources', and 'eco-friendly projects' in the environmental field. In addition, in the social field, genuine creating social value was pursued through 'social contribution', 'co-growth', and 'human rights management'. Finally, in the governance area, it was aiming for a transparent corporate management system to pursue economic reliability through 'ethics and compliance' and 'risk management'. In particular, KT was promoting its own ESG management by promoting strategies to solve environmental and social problems using AI and BigData technologies based on the characteristics of a digital platform company. This study aims to derive implications for ESG strategy establishment and ESG management development direction through KT's ESG management case in relation to ESG management, which has emerged as a hot topic.