Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Corporate Social Responsibility in Colombia: Making Sense of Social Strategies

  • Published:
Journal of Business Ethics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

As corporate social responsibility (CSR) grows increasingly well known and accepted worldwide, organizations attempt to make sense of their social strategies bridge the gap between their current situation and what their stakeholders expect of them. If social strategies represent a potential stepping stone to more sophisticated forms of CSR, then research must investigate the strategies that organizations have adopted. After defining a framework for classifying and analyzing organizations’ social strategies, this article considers empirical evidence from 10 case studies in Colombia to reveal how organizations might build on their social involvement to engage in more sophisticated CSR practices. The framework also suggests some different trajectories that organizations might follow.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aguilera, R., Rupp, D., Williams, C., and Ganapathi, J.: 2007, ‘Putting the S Back in Corporate Social Responsibility: A Multilevel Theory of Social Change in Organizations’, Academy of Management Review 32(3): 836-863.

    Google Scholar 

  • Andriof, J. and M. McIntosh: 2001, Perspectives on Corporate Citizenship (Greenleaf Publishing, Sheffield).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bedicks, H., and C. Arruda: 2005, ‘Business Ethics and Corporate Governance in Latin America’, Business and Society 44(2): 218-228.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beverland, M.B., and A.. Lindgreen: 2010, ‘What Makes a Good Case Study? A Positivist Review of Qualitative Case Research Published in Industrial Marketing Management, 1971–2006’, Industrial Marketing Management 39(1): 56-63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bhattacharya, C.B. and S. Sen: 2004, ‘Doing Better at Doing Good: When, Why, and How Consumers Respond to Corporate Social Initiatives’, California Management Review 47(1), 9-24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blowfield, M.: 2007, ‘Reasons to be Cheerful? What We Know about CSR’s Impact’, Third World Quarterly 28(4), 683-695.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brammer, S., and A. Millington: 2003, ‘The Effect of Stakeholder Preferences, Organizational Structure and Industry Type on Corporate Community Involvement’, Journal of Business Ethics 45(3): 213-226.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burton, B., Farh, J.-L., and Hegarty, W.: 2000, ‘A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Corporate Social Responsibility Orientation: Hong Kong vs. United States Students’, Teaching Business Ethics 4(2), 151-167.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carroll, A.: 1999, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility: Evolution of a Definitional Construct’, Business and Society 38(3): 268-295.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chapple, W. and Moon, J.: 2005, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Asia: A Seven-Country Study of CSR’, Business and Society 44(4), 415-441.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crane, A and Matten, D.: 2007, Business Ethics, 2nd ed. (Oxford University Press, Oxford).

    Google Scholar 

  • Crane, A., D. Matten, and J. Moon: 2008a, Corporations and Citizenship: Business, Responsibility and Society (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge).

    Google Scholar 

  • Crane, A., D. Matten, and L. Spence (Eds.): 2008b, Corporate Social Responsibility: Readings and Cases in a Global Context (Routledge, Abingdon).

    Google Scholar 

  • Dávila, C., and H.G. Samper: 1994, ‘Innovative Management and Organizational Development in Latin America’, The International Executive 36(6): 671-688.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Oliveira, J.: 2006, ‘Corporate Citizenship in Latin America: New Challenges for Businesses’, Journal of Corporate Citizenship 21(1): 17-20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunphy, D., A. Griffiths, and S. Benn: 2003, Organizational Change for Corporate Sustainability (Routledge, London).

    Google Scholar 

  • Egri, C., and D. Ralston: 2008, ‘Corporate Responsibility: A Review of International Management Research from 1998 to 2007’, Journal of International Management 14(4): 319-339.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eisenhardt, Kathleen M.: 1989. ‘Building Theories from Case Study Research’, Academy of Management Review 14(4), 532-550.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fox, T.: 2004, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility and Development: In Quest of an Agenda’, Development 47(3), 29-36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garriga, E. and D. Melé: 2004, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility Theories: Mapping the Territory’, Journal of Business Ethics 53(1/2), 51-71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gutierrez, R. and A. Jones: 2004, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility in Latin America: An Overview of Its Characteristics and Effects on Local Communities’, Workshop on Corporate Social Responsibility in the Promotion of Social Development: Experiences from Latin America and Asia, Tokyo.

  • Haslam, P.: 2004, The Corporate Social Responsibility System in Latin America and the Caribbean (Canadian Foundation for the Americas, Ontario, CA).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawkins, D.: 2006, Corporate Social Responsibility: Balancing Tomorrow’s Sustainability and Today’s Profitability (Palgrave, Basingstoke).

    Google Scholar 

  • Ibarra-Colado, E.: 2006, ‘Organization Studies and Epistemic Coloniality in Latin America: Thinking Otherness from the Margins’, Organization 13(4): 463-488.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kotler, P. and N. Lee: 2005, Corporate Social Responsibility: Doing the Most Good for Your Company and Your Cause (John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ).

    Google Scholar 

  • Kusku, F. and Zarkada-Fraser, A.: 2004, ‘An Empirical Investigation of Corporate Citizenship in Australia and Turkey’, British Journal of Management 15, 57-72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, M. D. P.: 2008, ‘A Review of the Theories of Corporate Social Responsibility: Its Evolutionary Path and the Road Ahead’, International Journal of Management Reviews 10(1): 53-73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lichtenstein, D. R., M. E. Drumwright, and B. M. Braig: 2004. ‘The Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility on Customer Donations to Corporate-supported Nonprofits’, Journal of Marketing 68(4), 16-32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lincoln, Y. S. and E. Guba: 1985, Naturalistic Inquiry (Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, CA).

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindgreen, A.: 2008. Managing Market Relationships (Gower Publishing, Ashgate, Farnham).

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindgreen, A., A. Swaen and T. Campbell: 2010, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility Practices in Developing and Transitional Economies: Botswana and Malawi’, Journal of Business Ethics 90(Suppl. 3), 429–440.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindgreen, A., Swaen, V., and Johnston, W. J.: 2007, ‘Corporate social responsibility: an empirical investigation of U.S. organizations’, Journal of Business Ethics 85(Supplement 2), 303-323.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maon, F., A. Lindgreen, and V. Swaen: 2008, ‘Thinking of the Organization as a System: The Role of Managerial Perceptions in Developing a Corporate Social Responsibility Strategic Agenda’, Systems Research and Behavioral Science 25(3): 413-426.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matten, D. and Moon, J.: 2008, ‘‘Implicit’ and ‘Explicit’ CSR: A Conceptual Framework for a Comparative Understanding of Corporate Social Responsibility’, Academy of Management Review 33(2), 404–424.

    Google Scholar 

  • McWilliams, A., D. S. Siegel, and P. M. Wright: 2006, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility: Strategic Implications’, Journal of Management Studies 43(1), 1-18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mendoza, J. M.: 2006, Innovación por lo Alto: Imaginación y Acción en la Empresa (Asesores del 2000, Santafé de Bogotá).

  • Ospina, A.: 2005. Las Buenas Prácticas: El Nivel Estratégico de la Responsabilidad Social Empresarial (RSE) (Centro Colombiano de Responsabilidad Empresarial [CCRE], Bogotá).

  • Peinado-Vara, E.: 2006, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility in Latin America’, Journal of Corporate Citizenship 21(3): 61-69.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinkston, T. S. and A. B. Carroll: 1996, ‘A Retrospective Examination of CSR Orientations: Have They Changed?’, Journal of Business Ethics 15(2), 199-206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Porter, M.: 1980, The Competitive Strategy (The Free Press, New York, NY).

    Google Scholar 

  • Prieto-Carron, M., Lund-Thomsen, P., Chan, A., Muro, A., and Bhushan, C.: 2006, ‘Critical Perspectives on CSR and Development: What We Know, What We Don’t Know, and What We Need to Know’, International Affairs 82, 977-987.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Revista Dinero: 2006, ‘Responsabilidad Social Empresarial: Los Buenos Valores Valorizan as Marcas’, Revista Dinero, 58–231.

  • Schmidheiny, S.: 2006, ‘A View of Corporate Citizenship in Latin America’, Journal of Corporate Citizenship 21(1), 21-24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz, M. and A. Carroll, A.: 2003, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility: A Three-domain Approach’, Business Ethics Quarterly 13(4), 503-530.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, N.C., and G. Lenssen (Eds.): 2009, Mainstreaming Corporate Responsibility (Wiley, Chichester).

    Google Scholar 

  • Snider, J., R. P. Hill, and D. Martin: 2003, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility in the 21st Century: A View from the World’s Most Successful Firms’, Journal of Business Ethics 48(2), 175-187.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spiggle, Susan: 1994, ‘Analysis and Interpretation of Qualitative Data in Consumer Research’, Journal of Consumer Research 21(3), 491-503.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Strauss, A. and J. Corbin: 1998, Basics of Qualitative Research, 2nd ed. (Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CT).

    Google Scholar 

  • Visser, W.: 2006, ‘Revisiting Carroll’s CSR Pyramid: An African Perspective’, in Pedersen, E.R. and Huniche, M. (Eds.), Corporate Citizenship in Developing Countries (Copenhagen Business School Press, Copenhagen).

    Google Scholar 

  • Vives, A.: 2006, ‘Social and Environmental Responsibility in Small and Medium Enterprises in Latin America’, Journal of Corporate Citizenship 21, 39-50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yin, R.K.: 1994, Case Study Research, Sage Publications (Thousand Oaks, CA).

    Google Scholar 

  • Zadek, S.: 2007, The Civil Corporation: The New Economy of Corporate Citizenship (Earthscan, London).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Business School, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, U.K.

    Adam Lindgreen

  2. IESEG School of Management, Lille, France

    Adam Lindgreen

  3. School of Management, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, U.K.

    José-Rodrigo Córdoba

  4. IESEG School of Management, Catholic University of Lille, 3 rue de la Digue, 59000, Lille, France

    François Maon

  5. School of Business, Universidad del Norte, Km.5 Vía Puerto Colombia, Barranquilla, Colombia

    José María Mendoza

Authors
  1. Adam Lindgreen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. José-Rodrigo Córdoba
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. François Maon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. José María Mendoza
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Adam Lindgreen.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lindgreen, A., Córdoba, JR., Maon, F. et al. Corporate Social Responsibility in Colombia: Making Sense of Social Strategies. J Bus Ethics 91 (Suppl 2), 229–242 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-010-0616-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-010-0616-9

Key words

Search

Navigation