Corporate social responsibility : a study on the relationship between motivation and CSR activities

Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is not a new phenomenon. However, CSR has received increasing attention in the last decades from both academia and from businesses themselves. The general awareness in society to CSR combined with the complexities of globalization in business has made CSR a topic of high interest and importance. The purpose of this study is to explore the nature of CSR in the maritime industry in Møre and Romsdal (M&R) and to investigate the relationship between motivation and CSR activities. Exploring the orientation of motivation is relevant as it concerns the why of actions. The thesis separates Motivation into Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation. Intrinsic Motivation is understood as engaging in CSR because it is the right thing to do while Extrinsic Motivation is understood as believing in the business case for CSR. Economic theory stresses that Extrinsic Motivation may crowd out Intrinsic Motivation. This implies that regulators must be careful of providing extrinsic incentives to firms in order to get them more engaged in CSR if Intrinsic Motivation is in fact their primary driver. Thus, exploring the orientation of Motivation is highly relevant. The thesis applies a qualitative method in the form of three interviews with key informants from the industry. Additionally a quantitative electronic survey was distributed to all maritime firms in M&R. Overall, the data indicate that the nature of CSR in the maritime industry in M&R consists of firms who have high ethical standards and who perceive CSR as important. Customers, suppliers and employees are important stakeholder groups, which supports the notion of close relationships in the maritime cluster. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation are positively related, implying that high levels of intrinsic motivation correlate with high levels of extrinsic motivation. However, CSR activities are found to have a stronger relationship with Intrinsic Motivation than Extrinsic Motivation. Additionally, Intrinsic Motivation is found to be a very strong predictor for CSR importance (i.e. the firms` rated level of how important CSR is in their firms).