Browsing by Subject "Corporate Social Responsibility"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Open Access
    Exploring the relationships between Corporate Social Performance (CSP) and institutional shareholding for JSE-listed companies
    (2017) Maliwa, Bonga; Toerien, Francois
    Globally institutional investors are taking an increased interest in companies' environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure and their corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. Although the relationship between a company's Corporate Social Performance (CSP) and its institutional shareholding has been studied in a number of developed economies, this study fills a gap in the literature by investigating this link for JSE listed companies. Using Bloomberg's ESG and individual environmental, social, and governance disclosure scores as proxies for CSP, panel data regression methodologies are applied to a sample of 98 companies (254 company years) listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange from 2013 to 2016 to investigate the link between the different forms of CSP and institutional shareholding in South Africa. The study fails to establish a relationship between institutional shareholding and environmental and social based CSP, but finds a statistically significant positive relationship for governance based CSP. The results imply that, of the three CSP components, South African institutional shareholders in the studied sample mainly consider the governance component in their investment decisions, possibly because good corporate governance is associated with improved financial performance and the adoption of sustainability policies by the company.
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    Open Access
    Exploring the social innovation orientation of corporate social responsibility practitioners
    (2014) Wilson,UnaTessSade; Nilsson, Warren
    The purpose of this study was to conduct a qualitative examination which explored the Social Innovation Orientation (SIO) of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practitioners as part of a broader contribution towards developing an augmenting and or an alternative mechanism to address the challenges faced by CSR practitioners and companies in fulfilling societal expectations in developing countries. The study sought to answer the question: In what ways are CSR practitioners building an SIO? The study also aimed to answer questions on whether any profound change or challenge was posed by CSR practitioners to the current systems through basic routines, authority flows, beliefs and resources (Westley and Antadze, 2010). The status of CSR advancement by companies was also explored. These questions were answered in the context of a developing country, more specifically South Africa. In order to set a relevant contextual background, the literature review covered two main broad variables, CSR and social innovation, as well as a detailed description of an SIO through four facets, namely: social experimentation, collaboration and inclusivity, scale mind-set, and institutional impact. The sample comprised CSR practitioners who met the sampling criteria. Information was gathered from these CSR practitioners using a semi-structured interview protocol. An analysis of the data gathered led to the description of the patterns which emerged, which presented across a continuum both narratively and graphically those CSR practitioners who were making the strides on the SIO continuum and those that were not. The study found that even with the CSR practitioners' strong desire to be viewed as delivering results, they needed to manage the expectations of stakeholders, particularly within their own companies, regarding what success was and what it was not. It was discovered that being more deliberate contributes to the building of an SIO. Through a focus on not repeating past mistakes while still working together with stakeholders in a manner which is proactive instead of defensive, CSR practitioners could be building an SIO. The results showed that fostering a participatory and inclusive environment from an early stage was beneficial in the development of an SIO. Another discovery was that the size of an intervention was of less importance than the significance of its potential impact. Practical contributions are proposed for companies and CSR practitioners as a result of this research, some of which are: a support approach to existing mechanisms, a component to be used in recruitment and performance appraisal, and a view to understanding social innovation and what it can mean for the company-centric perspective. Overall, the study revealed that CSR practitioners are building an SIO. Social experimentation, and collaboration and inclusivity were found to be more prevalent than the scale mind-set and institutional impact. SIOs were not void of the latter elements. These two elements should not be discarded. Whilst the SIO elements have been positioned as non-linear, it was revealed that some categorical features and linearity did exist.
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    Open Access
    Investigating the relationship between corporate tax avoidance and corporate culture in large South African companies
    (2022) Van Der Spuy, Pieter van Aardt; de Jager, Phillip
    Not all companies are equally aggressive in their pursuit of corporate tax avoidance, which explains intensive research on the determinants of tax avoidance. Many determinants have been investigated, but the process of tax avoidance, and the relationships between corporate tax avoidance, longtermism (indicative of a stakeholder-orientated corporate culture), and CEO characteristics (informed by upper-echelon theory), are not yet fully understood. Much of previous research is conceptualised from theories such as principal-agent theory. This study investigates the influence of stakeholder orientation, using corporate culture, on corporate tax avoidance, in response to calls for more research using stakeholder theory. A mixed-method approach is used. The quantitative stream uses regressions to investigate the relationship between corporate tax avoidance, corporate culture, and tax-knowledgeable CEOs, based on a sample of 112 large, listed South African companies, studied over a period of 15 years. The South African setting allows the operationalisation of a tax-knowledgeable CEO, based the homogenous nature of CEOs' qualifications in South Africa, where many are chartered accountants. The results suggest that long-term oriented companies pay more tax on average. The results further suggest that tax knowledgeable CEOs are associated with more tax avoidance. The qualitative stream conducts eleven interviews with corporate tax advisors, showing the influence of corporate culture and CEO characteristics on corporate tax avoidance processes, but also how corporate culture and CEO-characteristics mutually inform each other. Altogether, the evidence indicates that the effect of corporate culture is less static than expected, and that the influence of corporate culture on tax avoidance can transcend the influence of CEO-characteristics, as an upperechelon effect. The interviews suggest mechanisms used by CEOs to influence tax culture, such as the creation of a company-wide awareness of the strategic importance of low effective tax rates. These results also indicate the ethical dilemma faced by executives of large companies when considering the use of tax-deductible corporate social responsibility initiatives, not to benefit shareholders or agents, but rather to benefit society as a corporate stakeholder, when governments would not.