Shital Padhiyar Synopsis for PhD

Synopsis on

“A study of CSR activities in selected companies of Gujarat.”

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Ph.D. Program in Management

Gujarat Technology University

Submitted by: Mrs. Shital Padhiyar (Enrolment Number: 119997392017)

Under the guidance of: Dr. Pravin Bhathawala.

Co-Supervisor: Dr.Vojko Potocan

DPC Members

Dr. Renuka Garg Dr. Vinod B Patel

Head of the MBA Department, Dean and Professor of the MBA Department,

G. H. Bhakta Management Academy G. H. Bhakta Management Academy

DBIM, Surat DBIM, Surat

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A) Abstract:
Corporate Social Responsibility is a bridge to join the corporate and the community.
This research work provides a developmental history of the corporate social
responsibility till Modern Era and different definitions of the corporate social
responsibility. The purpose of a business is obvious to make a profit whereby, the
business can flourish better as well. Business is expected to run betterment of society in
which it operates.
Standing to the factual consideration regarding the importance of CSR, the research has
been undertaken on it for five years, which is presented into the form of thesis on
corporate social responsibility. The doctoral thesis consists of the focus area of
companies with respect to corporate social responsibility activities undertaken by them
and measuring attitude of managers towards practicing and implementation of CSR.
Key Words: CSR, Focus area, Attitude

B) Brief description on the state of the art of the research topic

Various literature reviews has been studied to study the gap and motivation for my
doctoral work

Duangkaew Chaisurivirat (2009) has examined the effect of consumers’ persuasion

knowledge, based on the Persuasion Knowledge Model (PKM), as one variable that can
affect consumers’ attitudes toward CSR initiatives and brands. A post-test only
experiment was conducted using stimulus materials derived from Starbuck Coffee
Company.

Bhargav Joshi( 2009) has studied the CSR activities undertaken by nifty and non-nifty
companies and have measured attitude of managers towards CSR.

Sklair, Leslie; Miller David( 2010) outlines how the twin crises of capitalist
globalization of class polarization and ecological unsustainability combine to produce the

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need for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to attempt to bridge the gap between
the rhetoric and reality of corporate conduct.

Saeed Khan( 2010) has checked FMCG companies CSR performance, Karmayog Rating
is taken. The rating gives good insight on CSR ratings of major FMCG companies of
India. The method of calculating the rating also discussed.

Kim, Jong-Keun(2011) has focused on the role of the corporate ability of stakeholder
management has become more important in the overall performance of corporations. One
of the most effective tools for managing various stakeholder groups is
corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Naom Noked( 2011) in his blog in Harvard law school forum on corporate governance
and financial regulation has come up with a multi-faceted customer value of CSR. An
effective model to examine the potential customer value creation of CSR activities

Mr Kevin Russell ADAMS (2011) has investigated senior management of Australian

companies’ perceptions of which stakeholder group’s influence, and what are the major
motivations for, social information disclosures in organisations in Australia and whether
current financial reporting practices are sufficient to capture the impact of an
organisation’s activities.

Ray, Dr.Sarbapriya; Aditya Ray, Ishita(2012) has made an attempt to make an

objective evaluation of the Corporate Social Responsibility and related ethical business
practices that are being adopted by large corporate houses in India.

According to Aghashahi, Betsabeh ; Abdul Rasid, Siti Zaleha ; Sarli, Majid ; Ah

Mand, Abdollah(2013) examines the extent and tendency
of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting of the large corporations of Food &
Beverages industry. The authors has investigate how information is being reported, and
what is being reported in comparison with indicators outlined in the Global Reporting
Initiative (GRI) guidelines.

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Angel A Jaun(2014) discusses on how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can be

promoted in Logistics and Transportation (L&T) companies by means of Horizontal
Cooperation (HC) practices. The L&T sector is experiencing important changes because
of new trends in markets and society.

Many more literature has been review where it was found that there is lot of research in
the field of CSR, which has focused on various aspects of CSR.

The gap has been identified from the above literature review that research has not
been undertaken to study CSR activities of companies by using Text analytics to
generate high quality information, and their has not been any research done on
comparison of attitude of managers towards CSR with special context to Oil &Gas
sector and Textile sector.

C) Definition of Problem:

1) Companies highlight CSR activities undertaken by them but do really companies follow it
and what is the focus area of companies in doing corporate social responsibility.

2) What is the attitude of managers towards practicing CSR?

D) Objective of the study

1) To study the CSR activities adopted by selected companies.
2) To study the focus area of CSR done by selected companies.

3) To develop systematic information about attitude of managers towards accepting need for
and rational of social responsibility.

4) To know the attitude of managers towards approaches for practicing social responsibility.

5) To know the attitude of managers towards implementation and practicing social

responsibility.

Scope of the study

The scope for the study is in two sectors namely Oil &Gas and Textile sector under
which 4 units per sector were taken.

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For qualitative analysis of CSR Practices in these selected companies, text mining and
text analytics of sustainability and annual reports was resorted to.
For quantitative analysis Chi-square independence test was used to test various
hypothesis for measuring attitude of manager. Where by attitude of managers is measured
sector wise and hierarchy wise towards various aspects of implementation and practicing
corporate social responsibility and their approaches for practicing social responsibility.
E) Original contribution by the Thesis
The CSR activities of the selected companies are studied by doing text analytics of
sustainability reports and annual reports of the selected companies in both sector (Oil
&Gas sector and Textile sector). The focus area of CSR activities are identified by text
analytics and comparison is made based on it between the sectors.

Another aspect of the research is based on measuring attitude of managers towards CSR.
Attitude of managers is measured sectored wise and hierarchy wise both based on which
comparison is done to arrive at a conclusion.

 The original contribution is shown by various national and international publications by

the author which is emerged out from the thesis.
 Term paper on “Holistic View of Corporate social responsibility: A case study of Indian
Oil Corporation” has been published in peer review International Journal of Asia Pacific
journal of management & Entrepreneurship research (APJMER), 2012.
 A paper on “Role of corporate governance as a tool for sustainable growth: A case study
of Alok industries limited.” Presented at national conference organized by Auro
University, Surat. (14-15 November 2014).
 The paper “Mapping of personal social responsibility quotient of employees of an
organisaton and its linkage with CSR and government social initiative “was awarded
the best paper award in the International conference organized by GTU at 6-7th
February 2015.
 A research paper “A comparative study on measuring attitude of managers towards CSR
special context with Textile and Oil and Gas sector has been presented in National

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conference at DBIM (Department of Business Management), Surat on 3rd December,

2016.

 From the above sub sectional study the research tries to unfold the penetration level of
CSR implementation in its true spirit in the sector taken for the studies.

F) Methodology of Research

Research design used is descriptive research design as detail study of various activities
of CSR is done and attitude of managers towards CSR are measured in detail.

Sampling method used is non probability sampling method. Whereby snowball

sampling method is used.

Area of sampling is Gujarat state.

Sample of unit:

1) Oil and Gas Sector companies: BPCL, IOCL, ONGC, Reliance industries petroleum
Limited.
2) Textile sector companies: Alok Industries ltd, Welspun Private limited, Raymond
private limited and Reliance Textiles Limited.
Sample Size: Total 104 managers are taken as a sample size out of which 16 top level
managers and 88 middle level managers.

Instrument of data collection: Structured Questionnaire.

Method of data collection: Personal and E-mail interview for primary data and
secondary data has been collected from annual reports, sustainability reports, research
papers and articles.

Type of data: Primary and Secondary data

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Data Analysis is divided into qualitative and quantitative analysis

Qualitative analysis is done for study CSR Activities: Data is analyzed qualitatively by
the information collected from Annual reports, sustainability reports, various sources and
personal interview of managers for CSR activities.

As qualitative data from reports are in the form of text, text analytics by using text
mining was resorted to for deriving high quality information from the reports.
Following is the method for getting HQI.

• Identify Source document - corpus

• Stop word elimination – removing a, the, an & so on..

• Stemming – reduction by combining words of same root

• Tokenizing – counting the word counts of unique words

• Extraction of Relevant terms from tokens

• High Quality Information from the report

Quantitative analysis is done for Measuring attitude of managers towards CSR:

Another part of the research is about measuring attitude of managers towards CSR is
analyzed by percentage. This is cross tabulated and analyzed with respect to sector and
hierarchy wise.

Hypothesis

There are major three hypotheses.

 H1: There is no significance difference between CSR activities of Oil and Gas Sector and
Textile sector companies

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 H2: There is no significance difference between attitude of managers of Oil and Gas
Sector and Textile sector companies.

 H3: There is no significance difference between the attitude of top level managers and
middle level managers with corporate social responsibility.

 Hypothesis is tested with respect to chi-square independent test.

G) Achievement with respect to objectives

Part I: A study of CSR activities of Oil and Gas sector and Textile sector companies
All CSR activities has been studied by using text analytics
Key focus areas which emerged out of the sustainability reports and annual reports
Name of the sector Textile sector Oil and Gas sector
Key Focus Area 1. Energy 1. Development
2. Water 2. Economic
3. Development 3. Employees
4. Economic 4. Energy
5. Initiatives 5. Safety
6. Safety 6. Sustainability
7. Social 7. Water
8. Sustainability 8. Environmental
9. Training 9. Performance
10. Value 10. Health
11. Balance 11. Human
12. Community 12. Performance
13. Conservation 13. Health
14. Education 14. Human
15. Efficiency 15. Social

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16. Employees 16. Training

17. Environment 17. Waste
18. Growth 18. Customer
19. Health 19. Environment
20. Human 20. Foundation
21. Innovative 21. GRI
22. Waste 22. Initiatives
23. Leadership
24. Natural
25. Policy
26. Products
27. Rights
28. Stakeholders
29. Transformational
30. Value

All CSR activities are compared with respect to two sectors companies. It was derived
that the difference between two sector companies is with respect to their key areas are
community, education, foundation, leadership, natural, policy, rights, stakeholders and
transformational. Common focus area are Energy, Water, Development, Economic,
Initiatives, Safety, Social, Sustainability, Training, Value, Community, Education,
Efficiency, Employees, Environment, Growth, Health, Human, Innovative, Waste.
Part II : Measuring attitude of managers towards CSR

Various variables have been identified for measuring attitude of managers. Hypothesis is
framed based on the variables and it is tested by chi-independent test. The findings are as
follows.

Sr. Null Hypothesis frame ( Sector wise) Chi- Null

No. square hypothesis
Accepted/

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value rejected

1 There is no significant difference between the 0.02 Rejected

attitude of managers in textile sector and Oil & Gas
Sector towards criticisms against industry.

2 There is no significant difference between the 0.06 Accepted

attitudes of managers sector wise about the demand
of public for socially responsible behavior by
industry is on increase.
3 There is no significant difference between the 0.140 Accepted
attitudes of managers towards the expectations of
society from industry.
4 There is a no significant difference between the 0.0437 Rejected
managers sector wise in favor of social
responsibility.

5 There is no significant difference between the 0.1204 Accepted

Opinions of managers sector wise against favor of
social responsibility.

6 There is no significant difference between the 0.1358 Accepted

attitudes of managers sector wise with respect to
views on social areas of effort.

7 There is no significant difference between the 0.1541 Accepted

attitudes of managers sector wise with respect to the
outside hurdles in actively involving in social
action programs.

8 There is no significant difference between the 0.0097 Rejected

attitudes of managers sector wise with respect to the
inside hurdles in actively involving in social action

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programs.

Sr. Null Hypothesis frame ( hierarchy wise) Chi- Accepted/

No. square rejected
value

9 There is no significant difference between the 0.411 Accepted

attitudes of managers’ hierarchy wise towards
criticisms against industry.

10 There is no significant difference between the 0.417 Accepted

attitudes of managers hierarchy wise about the
demand of public for socially responsible behavior
by industry is on increase.
11 There is no significant difference between the 0.458 Accepted
attitudes of managers hierarchy wise towards the
expectations of society from industry.
12 There is a no significant difference between the 0.524 Accepted
managers hierarchy wise in favor of social
responsibility.

13 There is no significant difference between the 0.465 Accepted

Opinions of manager’s hierarchy wise against favor
of social responsibility.

14 There is no significant difference between the 0.405 Accepted

attitudes of manager’s hierarchy wise with respect
to views on social areas of effort.

15 There is no significant difference between the 0.527 Accepted

attitudes of manager’s hierarchy wise with respect
to the outside hurdles in actively involving in social

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action programs.

16 There is no significant difference between the 0.317 Accepted

attitudes of manager’s hierarchy wise with respect
to the inside hurdles in actively involving in social
action programs.

H) Conclusion
From the above analysis, it could be concluded that all companies perform various CSR
activities in one or other way. All activities are compared with respect to two sectors
companies. It was derived that the difference between two sector companies with respect
to their key areas are community education foundation, leadership, natural, policy,
rights, stakeholders and transformational. Common focus area are Energy, Water,
Development, Economic, Initiatives, Safety, Social, Sustainability, Training, Value,
Community, Education, Efficiency, Employees, Environment, Growth, Health, Human,
Innovative, Waste
Still in India, companies do not follow any standards for institutionalization of CSR.
Another part of the research is on measuring attitude of managers towards CSR whereby,
it was observed that Attitude of both sectors and top level and middle level managers are
similar with respect to accepting need for and rational of social responsibility; towards
approach of the practice of social responsibility; towards implementation and practicing
social responsibility they differ sector wise with respect to Criticism against Industry for
social responsibility and towards favoring social responsibility where as they differ with
respect to Criticism against Industry for social responsibility sector Wise. It was observed
that managers have similar attitude towards CSR irrespective of the hierarchy so, it could
be concluded that sector has impact on attitude of managers on above points.
I) Copies of papers published from the thesis
 Term paper on “Holistic View of Corporate social responsibility: A case study of
Indian Oil Corporation” has been published in peer review International Journal of Asia
Pacific journal of management & Entrepreneurship research (APJMER).
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 A paper on, “A comparative study on CSR activities at Airtel and Vodafone”

published in Protsahan Journal by R.B.Institute of management studies.
 A paper on “A study of social, environmental & economic Corporate Social
Responsibility activities of Hindustan Unilever Corporation in India” presented at
International Conference on Corporate Governance: Contemporary Issues & Challenges
in Indian Economic Environment scheduled on 14-15 March, 2014.
 A paper on “Role of corporate governance as a tool for sustainable growth: A case
study of Alok industries limited.” Presented at national conference organized by Auro
University, Surat. ( 14-15 November 2014).
 Bagged the best paper award on “Mapping of personal social responsibility quotient
of employees of an organisaton and its linkage with CSR and government social
initiative” presented at international conference on business ethics for good
governance at GTU. Published in sankalp journal.
 A research paper “A comparative study on measuring attitude of managers towards
CSR special context with Textile and Oil and Gas sector” has been presented in
National conference at DBIM( Department of Business Management), Surat on 3rd
December, 2016.

J) References
1) Du, S., Bhattacharya, C. B., and Sen, S. 3 (2007) “Reaping Relational Rewards from
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Role of Competitive Positioning.” International
Journal of Research in Marketing 24, pp. 224-241.

2) William B Wer, David Chandler "Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility". Sage

publications India Pvt. Ltd.,New Delhi, 2009

3) C.R.Kothari, (2009). “Research Methodology Methods and techniques” New Age

International (P) Limited, New Delhi,

4) Poroy,N., & Ciftcioglu, A. (2010). Investigate Corporate Social Responsibility and

Segment Reporting Relationship. Business and Economics Research Journal, 1,83-99

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5) S.,L.,M.,& D.(2010). Capitalist globalization, corporate social responsibility and Social

Policy. Critical Social Policy, pp. 472-495. ISSN 0261-0183 ( University of Strathclyde
Glasgow)
6) Ray, Dr.Sarbapriya; Aditya Ray, Ishita. (2012). A Close Look
into Corporate Social Responsibility in India. Journal of Advances in Asian Social
Science, 2(3), 479-488.
7) Jaun, A.A. (2014, March & April). Promoting Corporate Social Responsibility in
Logistics throughout Horizontal Cooperation. Retrieved March & April, 2015. From
Http:// www.fm-kp.si/ZaloZba/ISSN/1581-6311/12_079093.pdf
8) Betsabeh, A., Rasid, A., Zaleha, S., Majid, S., & Abdollah, A. M. (2013). Corporate
social responsibility reporting of food industry major players. Retrieved Nov. & dec.,
2013, from
http://eprints.utm.my/40489/1/SitiZalehaAbdulRasid2013_CorporateSocialResponsibility
ReportingofFo... ; Aghashahi, Betsabeh and Abdul Rasid, Siti Zaleha and Sarli, Majid
and Ah Mand, Abdollah (2013) Corporate social responsibility reporting of food industry
major players. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, 5 (2). pp.
751-761. ISSN 2073-7122
9) Kim, J. K. (2011). Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on BtoB Relational
Performance. International Journal of Business and Management ,6(2).
10) Wadham, H. (2005). How can partnerships between NGOs and business add value to
Corporate Social Responsibility programmes in developing countries (published doctoral
dissertation). Manchester Metropolitan University Business School.
11) Bissacco., Maccarrone, P., Spinelli, C., & Milano, P. D. (n.d.). The strategic approaches
to CSR by large companies: a contingent model. CSR Conference proceedings. Retrieved
from http://www.crrconference.org/Previous_conferences/downloads/bissacco.pdf
12) Joshi, B. (2009). AN EVALUATION OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY PRACTICES IN
SELECTED CORPORATE UNITS (Doctoral dissertation, Saurashtra University, 2009).
Rajkot, Gujarat: Saurashtra University Press.
doi:http://etheses.saurashtrauniversity.edu/id/eprint/51

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13) Khan, S. (2009). Corporate Social Performance of Indian FMCG Companies. Issues in
Social and Environmental Accounting ,3(2), 180-201. Retrieved June 6, 2012. Retrieved
from iiste.org/Journals/index.php/ISEA/article/download/936/857
14) E. (2011, October 2). CSR Companies bill [Web log post]. Retrieved February 9, 2012,
from 16) http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-02-10/india/28545097_1_csr-
companies-bill-coal-ministry.
15) Noked , N. (n.d.). Investing in Corporate Social Responsibility to Enhance Customer
Value [Web log post]. Retrieved February 28, 2011, from 17)
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/corpgov/2011/02/28/investing-in-corporate-social-
responsibility-to-enhance-customer-value/ (viewed on Monday February 28, 2011 at 9:31
am)

16) http://www.pearsoned.co.uk/media/onlinepreview/slack_9780273731603/assets/pdf/9780
273731603_c21.pdf

17) http://www.disas.unisi.it/mat_did/riccaboni/553/THE_INSTITUTIONALIZATION_OF_
SUSTAINABILITY.pdf (viewed on 9th August, 2011)
18) http://www.crrconference.org/downloads/bissacco.pdf (viewed on 9th August, 2011)
19) http://www.aibuma.org/proceedings/downloads/Nkundabanyanga,%20Stephen%20K.doc

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