Does Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting/ Communication Matter? Employees’ Perception of the Corporate Social Responsibility and Competitive Advantage of Banking Corporations

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become an area of research in strategic communication management. However, most studies are focused on CSR practices, but the perception of internal stakeholders (employees) on how they perceived CSR practices by the company as well as the study of CSR reporting/ communication were sparse in the literature. Thus, this study aims to examine the mediating role of CSR reporting/ communication on the relationship between employees’ perception of the CSR and competitive advantage of banking companies in Malaysia. The study applied Resource-Based Views (RBV) theory to guide the study. A quantitative (survey) design was utilized and 174 useful responses were obtained from the employees of the banking corporations understudied. The findings found that perception of CSR influences the competitive advantage and CSR reporting/communication positively. Besides, the linkage between CSR reporting/ communication and competitive advantage was also found significantly related, and the study empirically established that CSR reporting/ communication is a significant mediator in the relationship between perceived CSR and competitive advantage. The study has urged the management of the banking corporations to actively publish their CSR initiatives through the annual reports, official company website, and social media as a way to communicate the company's sustainable initiatives to their stakeholders which makes them distinctive compared to their rivals. Conclusion, implications, and future study suggestions were discussed