Adoption of Corporate Social Responsibility: Board Competencies and Roles

Abstract

This study aims to discover non-executive directors' (NED) competencies that important to improve their roles towards the adoption of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). To begin with, the review of the existing body of literature on the topic of Corporate Governance (CG) codes and the survey of numerous postulations offered is conducted. A qualitative interpretive approach is adopted, based on in-depth interviews conducted with board and management levels of the two companies operate in Saudi Arabia. The key outcomes of the study suggest that: 1. NEDs' independence represents a typical practice in CG, and 2. NEDs' competencies and roles represent a governance issue which needs to be addressed via CG code to protect the stakeholder groups. The findings imply a shift in the recent focus on developing and reforming CG Codes towards CSR orientation and the growing role of NEDs in stakeholder's protection.