United Arab Emirates

Abstract

The roles of companies as global forces are becoming more urgent and complex, and concepts related to social responsibility and sustainability are gaining recognition as essential elements in business management. More precisely, corporate social responsibility (CSR) management practices are often utilized to attract talented employees. However, knowledge about whether CSR practices are of particular importance to employees are still rare. The lack of theoretical knowledge becomes even more apparent in the context of emerging markets, such as the United Arab Emirates. Also, most empirical works build on simple questionnaires asking for the importance of CSR and other employer characteristics. To bridge this gap in the literature, this chapter refers to relative weight of CSR (compared to other employer attributes) in the utility function of employees and potential applicants and deploys a conjoint analysis to identify the preferences of senior business students. Findings provide empirical evidence that, on average, students value responsibility towards employee more than workplace and company related attributes.