The role of corporate identity in CSR implementation: An integrative framework

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between corporate identity (CI) and CSR and describes how CI can underpin the development and implementation of CSR initiatives; thus helping to clarify how best to implement CSR in business practice. Empirical findings derived from interviews with senior executives in leading UK-based companies reveal the steps that firms take to develop and implement CSR initiatives. The study provides a framework which directs management attention to key CI elements and practices, both strategic and operational, required to sustain different stages of CSR implementation. Using CI as a unifying platform, the framework clarifies how CSR originates strategically from CI values and founder's vision as explicated in mission statements, which legitimize CSR and develop a shared culture. CI plays a role in implementing CSR via communication and senior management behavior which impact employee identification with organizational values and goals and behavior, which relate to voluntary participation in CSR.