Critical Success Factors for Corporate Social Responsibility implementation: An Exploratory Evidence from India

The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has captivated the attention of business, academia, civil society, and governments and has gained a new dominance within the world economy. The concept is deep rooted within the Indian ethos, evolving over a period of time to gain strategic role within the organisations. India made CSR mandatory for profit making companies by introducing the Companies Act, 2013. Despite the enormous studies around various aspects of CSR, there is limited understanding of how the current business environment and mandatory administrative mechanism together with the managerial dynamics shape the critical success factors (CSFs) imminent for the CSR success of any organisation within the Indian context. This exploratory research based on meaning making of the managers utilizes semi-structured interviews of 37 CSR executives from Indian corporations, NGOs and consulting domains. Thematic analysis has been utilized to analyse the data which provides five unique CSFs that ensures a firm’s success for CSR activities thereby further putting forth a conceptual framework for development of sustainable CSR project. It is one of the first studies to explore the CSFs necessary for CSR implementation in India thereby integrating CSR implementation with organisational CSR performance.