Statistics and Business Research Method CSR Activities

Question: Discuss about the Statistics and Business Research Method for CSR Activities. Answer: Introduction: The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has predominantly emerged over the past few decades. The concept of CSR is gaining more importance in this evolving business environment. As the competition is increasing in the market, organizations are becoming more conscious about their social responsibilities. Since, it can have great impact on the overall image of an organization. As a result, corporate managers are introducing different unique strategies so that it can able to perform all the social responsibilities properly. In Australia, CSR is considered as one of the vibrant topic for discussion. Since, Australian government is based on the Federal government aspects, the rules and regulations are defined accordingly. In this study, the focus will be on the concept CSR practiced by the Australian organizations and its impact on the market value. Literature review: Background information: Since the 1960s, CSR and its related terms like corporate social responses, corporate social responsiveness, corporate citizenship, corporate social performance and corporate philanthropy have been conceptualized. Thereafter, the concept has continuously able to grow regarding its significance on the business. Chomvilailuk and Butcher (2013) mentioned CSR as a social obligation that will have to perform by every organization in order to become a good corporate citizen. The article has also mentioned that over the years several theories has made on the concept of CSR. According to the Carroll theory, every organization will have to focus on the four factors in order to represent in self as a good corporate citizen. The four factors are economic responsibilities, legal responsibilities, ethical responsibilities and philanthropic responsibilities. However, Lock and Seele (2015) highlighted these factors are not at all mutually exclusive. It highlighted that economic responsibilities rep resented that organizations are supposed to provide high quality services and goods so that the society can able to have benefit from it. In case of Legal responsibility, organizations will have to focus on the social laws and regulations that are imposed on the organization by the host country government. Ethical responsibility in CSR reflects the expectation of the society from an organization. Since, Chan, Watson and Woodliff (2014) mentioned that organizations are now considered as one of the important member of any community or society. Therefore, it had to perform more than just to concentrate on its business perspectives. Philanthropic responsibility represents additional responsibilities of the organization for the well-being of the society, which not mentioned in any rules and regulations. As per the article by Low and Ang (2013) organizations will have to perform its social responsibilities not only to become as good member of the society but also it can have major impact on the business perspectives as well. With increasing amount of competition, every organization is looking to utilize several strategies, which will help the organization to increase its present level of revenue. However, the article also mentioned that organizations would have to perform from the perspectives of social responsibilities. It contradicted with the comment made by an famous economist Milton Friedman over the concept of CSR. In Friedman theory, it was mentioned that organizations only responsibility was to increase its revenue level. However, this theory regarding the social responsibility of CSR has faced several types of criticisms, as many studies have contradicted with this comment. According to Rao and Tilt (2016) stakeholder theory is one of the important foundation of CSR. The article highlighted two prime motivational factors that induce organizations to perform its CSR activities properly. Firstly, performance of social responsibility helps the organizations to develop a strong stakeholder relationship. It is important, as it will help organizations to maintain its sustainable growth of long time. It will also help the organizations to overcome the tuff market challenges in a much effective way, as strong stakeholder relationship will provide continues support to the organization. Another factor that Stakeholder theory highlighted is the moral perspective of the organization (Wilson 2012). As organizations considered as a member of the society, it induces organizations to perform more social work that can influence the overall growth of the society. However, Lucas, Cunningham and Lamberton (2013) mentioned that organizations acts in a socially responsible manner when they align their behavior with demand and norms embraced by their major stakeholders. Since, it helps the organization to increase its value in the market. In addition, studies have also found that maintaining social responsibilities properly allows the organizations to maintain its internal work environment properly. As per the article Thirarungrueang (2013) ethical responsibility influences organization to provide higher benefit to its employees. In fact, in present business environment, employees expected to receive more such as health insurance, training and skill development program from the organization. Therefore, if an organization able to perform its social and ethical responsibilities properly, it will help to increase the motivational level of the employees. However, Young (2013) mentioned that providing additional benefits to the employees and society wi ll require additional investment from the organization. Therefore, it highly depends on the leadership or management decision of the company. As a result, many studies have tried to incorporate the concept of CSR in to the leadership theory. Leadership approach based on the concept of CSR is named as responsible leadership and it is evaluated as the ability and art in developing, cultivating and maintain a trustful relationships with all the stakeholders of the company, which will eventually help the organization to maintain its sustainable growth for a longer periods. As per the article by Wesley (2013) CSR theory helps organization to develop a strong goodwill that can have major impact on the future businesses as well. Hence, performing and maintaining social responsibility also has major impact on the business aspect of organizations. Therefore, it is up to the organizations to utilize it properly not only for the well-being of the society but also for the enhancement of the revenue level as well. Conceptual framework: Conceptual framework of the study allows the researcher to utilize different theories and models that can help to identify the affect CSR practices in the organizational performances. Figure 1: Corporate social responsibility impact on the market value; Source: Sarker 2015) Literature gap: The significance of CSR is continuously growing in the present business environment. Therefore, many aspects of CSR are yet to evaluate to its fullest. However, many studies have identified that CSR practiced properly by fewer organizations in Australia as compared to other countries like USA and UK. Different studies have highlighted different factors for this lower level of CSR practice. For instance, many studies have identified Federal government has huge influence on this minimum level of CSR practice in Australia, as companies have to deal with many rule and regulations. Therefore, it eventually increases the operational cost of the companies, which does not allow them to invest huge amount in the social responsibility perspectives. However, many studies also heighted other factor as a major cause of this minimum practice, Therefore, in this study the researcher will focus on all the factors related to CSR so that the study can able depict actual result. Research questions: The researcher formulates researcher questions for evaluating the research topic of CSR practice by Australian organization in a systematic manner. The research questions described as follows: What is the prime reason for the lack of CSR practices in Australia? What is the significance of CSR in the present business environment? How CSR practices can able to help Australian organizations to emerge as a good corporate citizen? Which approach can be the most appropriate way for the adaptation of CSR in Australia? Research methodology: Research methodology is a very important factor for evaluation of any research topic. It reflects several tools and techniques to capture information related to the topic of the study. It also assists the researcher in the analysis part of the study so that the research study can able to fulfill its objective successfully (Kaine and Wright 2013). The selection of research methodology highly depends on the nature of the research. Normally, research design divided under three categories such as explanatory, exploratory and descriptive research design (Tench, Sun and Jones 2014). For t6his particular study, the researcher will select exploratory research design, as it will help to explore the research topic in a much more detail way. Exploratory research design will also help the researcher to gain in-depth knowledge about the topic of the study that will eventually create a positive impact on the outcome of the study. In this study, the researcher will select quantitative method to ana lyze the topic of the study. Since, CSR is a broad concept, quantitative research method will help the researcher to identify a trend regarding the objective of the study. On the other hand, the researcher will not focus on the qualitative research method, as it will require additional time and money. The researcher also selected the exploratory research design, as it will allow implementing combination of data collection procedure in this particular study. Therefore, the researcher can collect both secondary and primary data for the successful completion of the study. Furthermore, it will also help the researcher to interpret the captured data in an effective way. Research approach is another important factor that the researcher will have to consider in order to fulfill the requirement of the study. Research approach has two parts such as deductive research approach and inductive research approach (Sen and Cowley 2013). In this study, the researcher will select the inductive approach, as it will help the researcher to evaluate and interpret capture data. In addition, this research approach includes several theories and concepts for investing the impact of CSR on the Australian organizations. The researcher will utilize inductive approach by the help of three processes such as observations, theory and pattern. Since, these steps will allow the researcher to evaluate the topic of the study in an effective manner. Furthermore, inductive approach has high data intensity. Therefore, it will help the researcher to enhance the quality of the study. In this particular study, the researcher will accumulate relevant information and raw data on the conce pt of CSR in the Australian business so that the study can able to identify the exact reason for the minimum CSR practice in Australia. Project plan: Calculation of project plan referred to the MS-Excel Figure 2: Gantt chart (Source: As created by the author) Description of research process: For successful completion of the study, the researcher will execute systematic method so that the study regarding CSR practices by Australian organizations can complete within the timeframe. The researcher process includes specific stages that will enable the researcher to investigate effectively the topic of the study (Plewa et al. 2015). In the first stage, the researcher will select will focus on the identification of the major factors regarding the topic of the study. In the second stage, the researcher will develop the aim and objectives of the research topic. It will also help the researcher formulate research questions regarding the topic of the study. In the third stage, the researcher will conduct literature review. Since, it will allow the researcher to include several theoretical approaches regarding the topic of the research study. Therefore, it will help the researcher to understand the significance of the research topic. The researcher will utilize different books, maga zines, journals and websites for executing literature review in a systematic way. In the fourth stage, the researcher will focus on the data collection method so that it can able to capture reliable and valid information regarding the topic of the study. The fifth stage will focus on the data analysis technique so that the study can able to describe actual result. In the final stage, the researcher will compile the entire research work in an appropriate manner so that the research topic can able to come to a conclusion. Figure 2: Research process (Source: Rahim 2015) Description of data collection and data analysis method: Data collection method: Data collection is among the prime factor that helps the researcher investigate the topic of the research. Traditionally, method for data collection divided into primary and secondary data collection method (Rao 2013). In this particular study, the research will include both primary and secondary data collection technique so that the outcome of the research can able to depict actual result. For the primary data collection purpose, the researcher will conduct face-to-face interview process. The researcher will also develop a questionnaire that will only have quantitative questions. The researcher will select quantitative question, as it will help the researcher to identify the trend of the outcome. The researcher will collect primary data so that the study can able to get practical information regarding the topic of the study. For primary data collection purpose, the researcher will select face-to-face interaction because it will help the researcher to evaluate the psychology of the r espondents. On the other hand, the researcher will collect secondary information relevant to the research topic from online platforms. The researcher will also utilize different business magazines, newspapers for secondary data collection. The researcher will consider secondary data, as will help the researcher to have an in-depth analysis regarding the topic of the study. Figure 3: Data collection method (Source: Galbreath and Shum 2012) Data analysis method: Data analysis is an integral part of any research study, as it helps the researcher to evaluate the captured information in an effective way. As mentioned earlier, in this study the researcher will only focus on the quantitative technique. Since, it will allow the researcher to implement several statistical tools for data analysis. In this study, the researcher will also utilize sampling technique. Now, sampling technique divided into two categories probability and non-probability sampling (Young and Marais 2012). In the study, the researcher will focus to collect primary data from the senior personnel of different organization. Hence, the researcher will have to select non-probability sampling, as it will help the researcher to select any group or individual fro the primary data collection purpose. Figure 4: Sampling technique (Source: Haskià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Leventha 2013) In the data analysis part, the researcher will also implement statistical techniques like Mean, Mode, Median and Standard deviation so that the accumulated data can able to represent the objective of the research study. The researcher will also utilize correlation and Regression technique for this particular study. The researcher will implement statistical intervention so that it can able to enhance the quality of the study. In this data analysis part, the researcher will also include different theoretical aspects from the section of literature review in order to investigate the significance of CSR in Australian organizations. Expected research outcomes: It is expected that the research will able to capture a broad range of information regarding to the topic of the research study. Analytical framework engagement will help the researcher to evaluate the rationale of the study. Investigation of the research topic will also help the researcher to identify specific issues related to the concept of CSR. It also will allow the researcher to highlight the future aspects of this particular study. In addition, the research outcome will give information regarding the CSR practices by Australian organization. Thus, the outcome of the research will be reliable for further utilization in future. References: Chan, M.C., Watson, J. and Woodliff, D., 2014. 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