Corporate Social Responsibility Understanding and Practice in Non-Western Contexts

This study investigates how institutional entrepreneurs operating in non-Western contexts shape the understanding and practice of CSR, focusing on three Middle Eastern countries. Drawing on qualitative data and employing an exploratory research design within a range of public and private sector organisations, we explore how CSR understanding and practice is designed by institutional entrepreneurs, whose CSR agenda is in turn shaped by their neighbouring institutional environment. The findings evidence a set of distinct set of patchwork institutions that have a main impact on governments, who are the most salient institutional entrepreneurs that shapes the CSR understanding and practice of companies. The identified forms of CSR practiced by companies reveal governmental attempts to adapt to a patchwork of institutional dynamics, mainly focusing on societal welfare and establishing social order. Therefore, our work provides important contributions to the institutionalization of CSR debate by outlining how a patchwork of institutional forces influence governmental CSR priorities, which in turn shape the understanding and practice of CSR.