Review of Articles Journal About Corporate Social Responsibility

Coporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a self-regulating business model that helps a company be socially accountable — to itself, its stakeholders, and the public. CSR has the impact of the organization’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities internally on employee engagement. The qualitative research method, with the help of statistical data, clearly indicates that committing to CSR boost the morale and commitment of workers in a positive way, satisfied employees present more commitment, engagement and productivity. Collier and Esteban from 2007, stated that unless the companies manage to gain employees’ willingness to collaborate towards a social responsible business profile, they will be unable to achieve their goals. This is where CSR can do its job to motivate the employees themselves, given a study by Donaldson and Preston in 1995, then preceded by Freeman in 1984. A further study by Bryman and Bell also conducted in 2007, it defined the relationship between CSR and employee engagement is like a set of techniques which takes people’s experiences and their verbal expression seriously, while checking their value, meaningfulness and applicability. In the same year, which is 2007 a study by Greenwood followed by Jamali in 2008 underline the employee engagement imperative and they also recognize the strategic value of relationships with external stakeholders, such as local nonprofit community organizations, as a means of securing competitive success. CSR initiatives, cross-sector alliances in particular, may provide an innovate approach for supporting business success as they can be used to simultaneously adress employee engagement challenges as well as address the collective voice of varied external stakeholders. For a better understanding on how CSR influence the employees in the company, the study presents the analysis of three Italian companies where CSR is particularly consequential for employees.

The first company is Luxottica, it produces and distributes sun glasses and prescription eyewear of high technical and stylistic quality to improve the well-being and satisfaction of its customers and at the same time create value for employees and the communities in which the group operates. Luxottica on the basis of CSR also listens to the needs of its staff and distributed goods and services not only to the most deserving but to everyone in the company. The actions made by Luxottica give the employees courages to involve in the operation of the company wholeheartedly. The impacts examined from the CSR practice adopted by companies, on employee companies’ engagement are started with the concept of quality that joined welfare to create the quality of life, which is something the workers will get if they feel like a part of a family, workers will definitely work better and more stimulated. The quality of process, because process is made by people. Then CSR also shows the result from employee on the reduction of absenteeism and the orientation to quality work that increases.

The second company is Brunello Cucinelli. Brunello Cucinelli is a President and Managing Director of Brunello Cucinelli SpA, a famous company over the world for its production of cashmere apparel. The contribution of CSR encourages the creativity of each worker and simultaneously develops within them a sense of profound participation in the group’s success and goals. Furthermore, it creates a strategic competitive advantage through nurturing a human advantage. A very positive impact on the CSR practice adopted by Brunello Cucinelli is that there is no traditional hierarchy and no distinction between management and non-management. Employees also earn higher wages than the average. This CSR approach has paid off beautifully in the market terms, since the company has managed to grow during the crisis.

The last company is Ferrero, the Italian chocolate and confectionery manufacturer. In Ferrero company, CSR vision sharing values to create value has been deeply embedded in their mindset, and it implemented into every aspect of the entire business operation. CSR also has an impact on customers’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on their loyalty. There are some survey conducted with mobile telecommunications’ customers as participants. Most consumers expecting companies to engage in CSR, and taking this engagement into consideration when purchase decisions are made. Several relevant and specific studies regarding the relationship between customers’ perceptions of CSR and brand loyalty in the mobile telecommunication industry have been identified. Thus, Salmones et al. in 2005 studied the impact of perceived CSR and he concluded that there isn’t any direct relation between CSR perceptions and consumer loyalty towards the firm, but perceived CSR influences loyalty indirectly via the overall valuation the user makes of the service received. Vlachos et al. in 2009 surveyed 830 randomly selected mobile telecom customers from Greece in order to investigate whether consumers’ perceptions of CSR motives influence their evaluation of CSR efforts, revealing that appropriately motivated CSR actions positively affect trust, and indirectly, customer loyalty, regardless of the performance of the firm on service quality provision.

Ali et al. in 2010 investigated 250 young customers of mobile telecommunication companies from Pakistan in order to analyze the linkage between perceived CSR and service quality and, respectively, customer satisfaction, purchase intention and retention. Surprisingly, the authors found no linkage between perceived CSR and customer purchase intentions and retention. A more recent survey conducted by He and Li in 2011 among 268 customers of mobile telecommunication services from Taiwan revealed that both CSR and service quality have direct effects on brand identification and customer satisfaction, and, respectively, indirect effects on service brand loyalty (via brand identification and customer satisfaction). Moreover, Stanaland et al. in 2011, after investigating 443 US customers of companies from several industries, found that perceived CSR (measured as commitment to ethics principles, respect to employees, long-term success, and playing a role in our society that goes beyond the mere generation of profits) impacts perceptions of corporate reputation, consumer trust, and loyalty.

Last but not least, Lee et al. in 2012, after conducting a survey among 250 young female customers of companies from several industries from Korea and focusing on the philanthropic side of CSR, showed that the perceived fit between consumers’ lifestyles/values and CSR activities influences the actual perceptions of CSR activities which, in turn, positively impact customer loyalty, both directly and indirectly.

In conclusion, the article has given how CSR relates to employees and how CSR changes the employees’ point of view of the companies. The three Italian companies given in the article are running the CSR values in their companies with some satisfying results from the contributions. The motivations given are mostly based on employees themselves in order to make every workers humanized, living at the happiest, helping their life become more easier, organized and welfare. The impact of the CSR practice is more directed into the company welfare. Companies themselves are the connoisseur of the impacts presents in the article after employees. Employees become comfortable on working at their workplaces and it make companies gain more from all of the thing that are profitable. Lastly, the main limitations of this paper are given by the fact that potential mediating factors of the relationship between customers’ perceptions of CSR and customer loyalty were not included in the proposed and tested mode.