Experiencing CSR in asia: A social media perspective from the outside in

Abstract

This paper focuses on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as strongly linked to expectations for corporations in the cultural contexts in which they operate. Using an approach based in a macro-level for socio-technical design, it examines the interaction between digital activist efforts to (re)define CSR and corporate responses to these efforts. Two cases of interaction between stakeholders and corporations with activist interventions are examined. Findings demonstrate that this interaction around CSR is often indirect, and misses a critical interaction around contesting knowledge. This calls into question the viability of CSR practices mediated by policy and NGOs, because businesses appear to be simply adopting mediators' perspectives to avoid a crisis rather than building a strategy based on critical engagement with the issues. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.