Shifting the Paradigm of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) towards Corporate Social Entrepreneurship (CSE): An Exploratory Study to Develop a Theoretical Framework

Abstract

The main aim of the study is to explore and understand the potential for CSR practices to generate and confer unique benefits to a firm from their involvement in its activities, and exploring the scope to connect CSR and its accompanying benefits with the entrepreneurial practices of the firm. Following social constructionist philosophy this study was conducted to understand the construction of reality at the interface of CSR and entrepreneurship in large exemplary CSR practicing and entrepreneurial firms. Focusing on strategic CSR (SCSR) theories and opportunity based view of entrepreneurship, this study followed corporate entrepreneurship (CE) and social entrepreneurship (SE) theoretical underpinnings to establish a link between CSR and firm entrepreneurship to develop a theoretical framework for corporate social entrepreneurship (CSE) for creating economic, social and shared value.

This is a qualitative exploratory study and the research site was Bangladesh. Case study method was used as the main method in this study and semi structured interviews as the main method for data for case studies. Secondary sources of information, company records, project profiles and other archival data were also used in this study. Four purposively selected case firms which are exemplary CSR and entrepreneurial firms operating in Bangladesh are selected for case study along with other external stakeholders. Two phases of fieldwork were carried out as per the research plan to collect rich and deep data. Data analysis considered 32 usable interviews of first phase of fieldwork and 9 follow-up interviews of second phase of fieldwork. During the first phase of fieldwork after initial purposive sampling, snowballing also followed to capture deep and thick data to generate rich insights. Since this study mainly followed qualitative cross case analysis, four purposively selected case firms comprised main data set which are exemplary CSR and entrepreneurial firms operating in Bangladesh. Cross case analyses were done to draw out the findings. Transcribed interview data were analyzed using Atlas.ti qualitative data analysis software. Open coding was used to analyze data following thematic coding process. Code co-occurrence analyses were used to do cross case analysis. Within the fields of CSR and entrepreneurship, this study explored the interaction between CSR and firm entrepreneurship focusing on corporate entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship domains.

Findings of the study suggest that the interaction of CSR practices with firm entrepreneurship may bring a better climate for exploring and exploiting business opportunities through promoting entrepreneurial behaviour, scope for innovation and better strategic and entrepreneurial practices for creating shared value. Moreover, this interaction along with social oriented vision, strategic management practices, internal environment and value based culture together are conducive for enacting corporate social entrepreneurship (CSE) to promote robust CSR practices and greater value creation.

Due to qualitative cross case analysis involving limited number of cases and primarily dependency on the interview data, generalizability of the findings are limited to theoretical inference. Based on the empirical work, developed CSE theoretical model is the outcome of data analysis in a triangulating fashion which offers validity and reliability. The main implications of this study is that addressing social problems through exploring and exploiting opportunities in the shared value creation space, managers may create an enabling environment and pursue strategies which are conducive for socio-entrepreneurial business practices. Also, CSE theoretical framework is expected to be strategic and entrepreneurial simultaneously which can be effective in bringing competitive advantage for firms.