Research Design for Engagement in Corporate Social Responsibility

Research Design

CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) is a company’s responsibility to consider customers’ interests, shareholders, employees, ecology, and community. Companies should also consider the environmental and social impacts of their production activities. To incorporate corporate social responsibility criteria as an element that creates value, companies need to restructure their philosophy (Gallego‐Álvarez, Manuel Prado‐Lorenzo, and García‐Sánchez, 2011). While extensive research and deep analysis indicates that there is little connection between business profitability and green, socially responsible practices, recent findings have shown that corporate social responsibility is crucial for some companies in particular industries such as innovation. Competitiveness in this industry factors in product and process innovation, quality, performance, image, and productivity. Additionally, innovation is defined by the inclusion of services, products, and management practices. Therefore, there is a positive relationship between CSR and research and development innovation because firms must apply CSR practices to their products, processes, and production practices, which need a change in the kind of technology used, which could involve additional costs R&D expenditure.

Proposes Research Design

This part will explain the description of the research design used in the study. This research aims to investigate the level to which corporate social responsibility affects multinational businesses in their innovation processes. The questions for the study and the proposed hypothesis will be developed based on a conceptual framework, meaning that the study will mostly use primary sources of data collection, including surveys and questionnaires. This portion will discuss the design of the research process, the population for study, instrumentation, the plan for sampling, procedures of data collection, and the methods used to analyze collected data. A quantitative study will be developed based on the research questions and the proposed hypothesis, leading to the modified study of the adopted CSR practices, which impact corporate innovation and strengthen the brand of a company.

The research design will be based on an examination of the impacts of CSR practices in innovation. Innovation is considered the dependent variable, while CSR practices, including ethical, developmental, shareholder, and environmental concepts, are considered independent variables. The study employs two different tools, that is the executive and customer instrument (2020). The former involves getting feedback from the executives of the targeted companies, while the latter involves receiving feedback from customers of the targeted firms. The study will include fourteen hypotheses that will be tested using ANOVA and the Linear Regression Analysis. The study employs the T-test among different dimensions of corporate social responsibility during comparative research and its impact on innovation. The T-test application is also found in the comparative analysis of different dimensions of CSR and the effects on innovation through the perception of customers and Executives.

The target population under survey and to whom the questionnaires will be distributed will be comprised of corporate executives in R&D companies and the customers to these companies. Corporate executives will comprise top company officials such as CEOs, CFOs, technical engineers, marketers, and business owners. These are the officials who are essential in developing innovative products (Crane, Henriques, Husted, and Matten, 2017). For instance, phone companies are examples of R&D companies because they must constantly develop innovative products to maintain their customer base and keep up with the stiff competition. Aspects such as the finances required to fund innovative projects are essential concepts of the innovative process. The company executives’ questionnaires will consist of thirty-five questions ranging from the financial aspect to the social impacts of innovation. A crucial element of assessment will be how the executives measure the level of social responsibility that an innovation achieves. Therefore, the research should derive the social responsibility factors that companies should consider in the innovation of new products (Carroll, 1974). This research study will consider companies in the petroleum, education, construction, manufacturing and production, telecommunication, retail, transportation, hotel, advertisement, and gas industries. As for the customers, the questionnaires and survey were structured to study and identify the impact of corporate social responsibility on their opinions and preferences towards the choices they make for the type of products they purchase. The customer target population will be individuals over the age of eighteen years.

The study will be conducted in R&D companies in the United States, with the following inclusive criteria:

The study population will be sole entrepreneurs, owners, top company executives, and partners working in R & D companies in the United States.
All participants must be of over 18 years of age with the legal capacity to represent a company in an official capacity.
The participants must occupy a senior level position in their company, for instance, CEO, CFO, Business Owner, Marketing Director, Partner, etc.).
The participants will be different consumers of products and services all over the United States.

As for the population that will be excluded from the study, the following criteria will apply:

All the participants from non-profit firms and religious organizations will be excluded.
All the participants who do not answer more than 10% of the questions and those who will not complete the survey will be excluded.
All the participants who do not have the legal capacity to represent their respective businesses will be excluded.

The study will use two instruments to conduct the survey, used individually for the executives and the customers. The instrument used for the survey on the executives was questionnaires with thirty-five items and questionnaires with forty items for the customers. There will be five variables considered in the questionnaires: corporate social responsibility’s concern for ethical, environmental, developmental, shareholder, and innovation perspectives. The independent variables in the questionnaires are ethical, environmental, developmental, and shareholder perspectives. The only dependent variable is an innovation perspective. To assess the perception of customers towards innovation through corporate social responsibility practices, surveymonkey.com will be used to adapt the survey instrument (SurveyMonkey, 2020). The instrument will be restructured, such that it accounts for or the demographic and socio-economic concepts in different regions of the United States. The instrument will constitute three sections comprising forty research questions to understand CSR practices related to ethical, environmental, and shareholder concerns on their purchase preferences, behavior, and decisions.

The first section of the survey instrument will comprise demographic queries; the second section will have questions that try to elicit the effects of CSR practices on consumer preference regarding purchase decisions. The third section will have queries directed at assessing consumer perception towards the preference of order of importance based on economic, legal, philanthropic, and ethical responsibility towards corporate social responsibility. Questions concerning the participant’s occupation, age, and awareness of corporate social responsibility will also be considered when selecting the best group of participants suitable for the research. Moreover, the questions attempt to assess participants’ perceptions of aspects of corporate social responsibility, such as environmental, stakeholder, and ethical concerns that impact product innovation.

Christopher Noe’s research will be used to develop the survey instrument used to assess company executives’ perceptions of innovation through CSR practice (Noe, 2014). As with the customers’ survey instrument, this instrument will also be restructured to fit the demographic and socio-economic aspects of different American perceptions. This instrument for the executives consists of four sections. The first part represents the demographic and socio-economic questionnaire prepared for the study. The second part attempts to assess the levels of companies’ CSR behavior and their involvement in CSR practices. The third part links companies and their CSR practices with considerations of the importance of shareholders in corporate social responsibility. The fourth section of the survey instrument used for company executives assesses the level to which companies are involved in CSR practices and the extent to which they are socially engaged in innovation. This part also considers the concern for shareholders as it tries to identify companies’ internal practices that encourage employee engagement with the community. A 5-point Likert scale will be used in the questionnaires.

Conclusion

Corporate social responsibility impacts almost every area of business, especially in interaction with consumers. The research design for a study is crucial in researching because it involves selecting the most suitable method of investigation and assessment. Moreover, research in management and business brings about practical and theoretical issues not found in other areas of study (Handbook Responsibility, 2020). This study will use primary data collection methods and qualitative methods of analysis to assess and make sensible conclusions. Qualitative research works best because it is easier to make business calculations with qualitative data, which is non-refutable rather than qualitative, highly elastic.

References

[online] Available at: <https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/136119/2/chapetr6.pdf> [Accessed 6 August 2020].

Carroll, A., 1974. Corporate social responsibility: Its managerial impact and implications. Journal of Business Research, 2(1), pp.75-88.

Crane, A., Henriques, I., Husted, B. and Matten, D., 2017. Measuring Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact: Enhancing Quantitative Research Design and Methods in Business and Society Research. Business & Society, 56(6), pp.787-795.

Gallego‐Álvarez, I., Manuel Prado‐Lorenzo, J. and García‐Sánchez, I., 2011. Corporate social responsibility and innovation: a resource‐based theory. Management Decision, 49(10), pp.1709-1727.

Handbook Responsibility, 2020. Handbook Of Research Methods In Corporate Social Responsibility. [online] E-elgar.com. Available at: <https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/handbook-of-research-methods-in-corporate-social-responsibility-9781784710910.html> [Accessed 6 August 2020].

Noe, C., 2014. Strategic CSR And Value Creation Within Small And Medium Size Businesses. [ebook] Available at: <https://www.academia.edu/24700075/Strategic_CSR_and_Value_Creation_Within_Small_and_Medium_Size_Businesses> [Accessed 6 August 2020].

SurveyMonkey, 2020. Surveymonkey: The World’S Most Popular Free Online Survey Tool. [online] Surveymonkey.com. Available at: <https://www.surveymonkey.com/> [Accessed 6 August 2020].

The incorporation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) criteria as a value-creating

element involves a change of philosophy within companies. While a rigorous

assessment of past research allows us to reject the claim that being green and socially

responsible always pays, more recent evidence shows that CSR can create shareholder

value for some issues, in some industries, with some ﬁrms and for certain management

strategies, such as innovation (Husted and Allen, 2007; Trebucq and Evraert, 2008).

Innovation of processes, products and services is taken into consideration in the

deﬁnition of competitiveness (Mintzberg, 1993), together with performance, quality,

productivity and image (Vilanova et al., 2009). Moreover, innovation is usually deﬁned

by including products and services as well as management processes. In this sense,

Siegel (2001) and Bansal (2005) pointed out a correlation between R&D innovation and

CSR given that companies must apply principles of corporate responsibility to their