Conclusions
If it is deemed desirable for corporations to spend on socially responsible activities, then an important question to ask is whether they are expected to do so voluntarily and in sufficient volume for the appropriate purposes. The Indian government clearly thought otherwise when they legislated in August 2012 to mandate that large Indian companies must spend a minimum of 2% of their profits on CSR activities and then to amend this legislation in February 2014 to more precisely specify the areas where these funds must be allocated. We have used India as a case study of the success or otherwise of taking decisions relating to CSR expenditure largely out of the hands of management. Reports suggest that the legislation has generated a level of CSR spending that has fallen much below expectation (Singh, 2016).This is consistent with our finding that large mandated companies who were already spending on CSR activities actually reduced their spending as a proportion of profits while those who previously were not spending on CSR activities were somewhat reluctant to do so. The smaller companies who were previously spending on CSR activities actually reduced their expenditure once it was determined they were not required to do so. Finally, some of the small Indian companies who previously had not spent on CSR activities began to make minimal allocations.
