In the last few years, a growing interest had developed between the concepts of social responsibility and the management of business processes to increase performance. These have been witnessed from the academic as well as business areas. In particular, these aspects have been contributed by the building pressure from the society that has become increasingly demanding. Presently, the members of the society are highly sensitive towards irresponsible behavior as is depicted by the organization towards them. In essence, they are very focused on the behavior of the firm that does not seem to consider the effects of their activities on society and the environment (Kamyshnykova & Kalinin, 2016). Thus, there has been pressure from the public institutions at the national and international levels that they use to offer specific guidelines and regulations to help in the development. Besides, there is also a lot of pressure from the other agents that operate within the society. There is an indication that the necessary growth in competition in most of the sectors has enhanced the need to differentiate themselves in more contemporary ways that are different from the traditional ones. This means that they focus on many other aspects of business improvements as opposed to the aspects of product quality, advertising, design, and price to those that are directly related to the community as stakeholders (Pour, Nazari & Emami, 2014). Many of them have learned to embrace the value of the present intangible elements include reputation and the relationship that they have with both the internal and external stakeholders.
Although many studies have been conducted to establish the relationship between social responsibilities, sustainability, and the management of business processes, most of them have not been conclusive. It is for this reason that those people in the academic sector have developed a stronger interest to discover the nature of this relationship better. However, a large number of them indicate the presence of a positive relationship. Some of them suggest a likely zero or negative relationship (Oeyono, Samy, & Bampton, 2011). The differences in ideas and opinions are because of the presence of different concepts around the areas of social responsibility and sustainability and the management of business practices. According to Hasan, Kobeissi, Liu, and Wang (2018), this is mainly related to the difference in measurement methodologies and models that are used to establish these relationships despite the numerous studies that have analyzed the relationship between CSR and business.
As indicated by Stolze, Semmler, and Thomas (2012), despite the differences in the establishment of the relationship between social responsibilities, sustainability, and the management of the business operations to enhance performance, it is clear that the social responsibilities policies greatly impact the business management abilities of a company (Attamimi, & Ameer, 2010). For the companies to develop in the current times, they need to engage in responsible practice and stimulate the need to integrate the social policies and corporate strategies. It is one of the ways through which they can examine their financial expenses as relates to the social programs by considering them as investing items that contribute to the positive strategic advantage (Hasan, Kobeissi, Liu, & Wang, 2018). In particular, the main basis for the modern concept of social responsibility and sustainability is the ability to consider the interests of the other stakeholders. It is for this reason that it is a required component that ensures strategic management within the system. Therefore, it is important to classify the strategies that are employed within the social responsibility and sustainability based on the stakeholders that they target mainly to identify their relationship with the process of business management and their likely impact.
Studies by Mishra and Suar (2010) reveal three different types of strategies that are used in social responsibility and sustainability efforts. They include the ability to focus on internal stakeholders, the external stakeholders who make up the immediate environment, and the other external stakeholders who are members of the local community. Thus, the three categories determine the application of the strategy and thus the approach is taken to manage the business processes. In particular, each of the strategies of CSR is implemented through a different program and a long-term project that involves varied cooperation. They are applied with diverse priority on the stakeholder groups which determines the kind of management applied in the business process according to Pour, Nazari, and Emami (2014). Therefore, they can achieve varied strategic objectives within the social responsibility and sustainability field.
The business processes of a particular company are the means through which it can obtain a positive economic impact on the implementation of policies towards social responsibility. In this case, there is a need to make consideration of the influence of the requirements of the stakeholders on the business process management within the company in a systematic manner that enables the improvement of the business processes (Busch, & Friede, 2018). Thus, from the review of the theoretical evidence, it is apparent that the efforts that are made towards improving the business processes through the use of social responsibilities and sustainability efforts lead to enhanced efficiency. This is evident in improved local operations and the wider consequences that include increased company competitiveness and sustainability.
References
Attamimi, A.A.B. & Ameer, R. (2010). Readability of Corporate Social Responsibility Communication in Malaysia. SSRN Electronic Journal, 18, 50–60.
Busch, T., & Friede, G. (2018). The Robustness of the Corporate Social and Financial Performance Relation: A Second-Order Meta-Analysis. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 25, 583–608.
Hasan, I., Kobeissi, N., Liu, L., & Wang, H. (2018). Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Financial Performance: The Mediating Role of Productivity. Journal of Business Ethics, 149, 671–688.
Kamyshnykova, E., & Kalinin, O. (2016). Influence of CSR strategies on business management. SGEM, 2016, 3rd.
Mishra, S. & Suar, D. (2010). Does Corporate Social Responsibility Influence Firm Performance of Indian Companies? Journal of Business Ethics 2010, 95, 571–601.
Oeyono, J., Samy, M., & Bampton, R. (2011). An examination of corporate social responsibility and financial performance: A study of the top 50 Indonesian listed corporations Positivism to Social Constructivism: An emerging trend for CSR researchers View project. Journal of Global Responsibility, 2, 100–112.
Pour, B. S., Nazari, K., & Emami, M. (2014). Corporate social responsibility: A literature review. African Journal of Business Management, 8(7), 228-234.
Stolze, C., Semmler, G., & Thomas, O. (2012). Sustainability in business process management research–a literature review.
Zairi, M., & Peters, J. (2002). The impact of social responsibility on business performance. Managerial Auditing Journal.
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