Understanding corporate social responsibility

Abstract

This study explores the phenomenon of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) among micro businesses in Jelutong wet market in Penang, Malaysia. For this qualitative case study, three (3) data gathering instruments are employed namely non-participant observations, semi-structured interviews and participant observations. Over a period of three (3) months, fifteen (15) non-participant observations, thirty-five (35) semi-structured interviews and ten (10) participant observations were conducted. The findings show that current literature on CSR is inadequate to capture and understand CSR in the context of micro businesses in a wet market. Instead, Social Capital Theory from the discipline of sociology is found to be a more suitable theoretical framework as it uses the individual as the unit of analysis. Subsequently, both CSR and Social Capital are deconstructed and analysed revealing their innate relationship. From these findings, conclusions and public policy recommendations are derived.