دانلود رایگان مقاله بحران شرکت بزرگ در دوران مسئولیت اجتماعی شرکت ها

Abstract

Many companies today believe that corporate social responsibility (CSR) acts as a reservoir of goodwill, insulating the firm from the negative impacts of a crisis. Yet, the impact of CSR on public reaction to corporate crises is more complex. Drawing on research on stakeholder reactions to CSR and—more specifically—corporate crises, we present a contingent framework for understanding the roles of CSR in corporate crises and how to manage it. This framework posits that CSR plays four important roles: it (1) increases stakeholders’ attention to crises, (2) affects blame attributions, (3) raises expectations, and (4) changes stakeholders’ evaluations of crisis situations. Several factors underlying these roles are also discussed. Overall, this article underscores that while CSR may insulate companies and mitigate stakeholders’ negative responses in some cases, in others it may actually lead to the opposite effect, amplifying the negative impact of a crisis. The article ends with a brief discussion of the implications of our framework for effective crisis management strategies in the age of CSR.

5. Implications for crisis management in the age of CSR

Corporate crises threaten the most important assets of a company. With increasing and widespread corporate commitment to CSR, understanding whether and how CSR intertwines with corporate crises is an issue of mounting importance. In this article, we offer a contingent framework for understanding the role a company’s CSR record may play when a crisis hits (see Figure 1). This framework underscores that companies cannot assume their CSR engagement will automatically protect them against crises. CSR increases stakeholders’ attention to crises, affects their attributions of crisis responsibility,raises their expectations, and changes their evaluations of the crisis situations they come across. These four roles of CSR influence stakeholder responses to crises, and thus the ultimate outcome of the crisis for the company. To fully understand whether and how their CSR activities might lead to more favorable outcomes, companies must integrate the careful assessment and consideration of these roles and their underlying drivers into crisis management strategy.