Assessment of the Effectiveness and the Adaption of CSR Management System in Food Industry: The Case of the South Asian versus the Western Food Companies

Abstract

The purpose of this empirical study is to undertake a comparative analysis of the South Asian and Western food companies based on their corporate social responsibility (CSR) adoption and impact on firm performance. We conducted a survey of 24 South Asian and 20 Western companies. Later, we performed independent samples t-tests and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. Furthermore, we applied Kingdon’s agenda and green consumer theories to explain how CSR in Western food companies could be advanced than the food companies in South Asia. Based on the aforementioned tests, the Western food companies obtained better scores than their counterparts in South Asia. This result was obvious as the West has a developed CSR management system compared to South Asia. However, this is interesting that we found a weak CSR performance link between the Western and the South Asian food companies. The lower CSR adoption levels of South Asian food companies show their greedy nature as these companies are hesitant to spend the portion of their profits on promoting CSR. South Asian governments with a vested interest in improving CSR performance provide tax breaks and other motivations for increasing CSR adoption among food companies. These findings have theoretical and practical implication for future research.