Lean and corporate social responsibility: a systematic literature review

Companies have been adopting corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices to improve their competitiveness and performance. Lean production has been found to be able to boost green and other dimensions of CSR such as health and safety and social responsibility, and there is ever-growing research interest in lean and CSR. The primary purpose of this study is to analyze the current literature related to lean production and CSR, and to propose new avenues of research in this area. Thus, the study employed a systematic literature review approach. Hundred and twenty-one articles were selected, reviewed, and synthesized. The search included all years included in the databases until 2020. It was found that research has generally investigated lean and the environmental dimension of CSR, but only a limited amount of research has examined lean in relation to other CSR dimensions or directly to CSR as a whole. Research has particularly lacked in relation to lean performance, stakeholders, and the effects of lean on CSR at a more complex level. The findings reveal a relatively high degree of compatibility between lean, its tools and methods, and CSR, particularly the environmental and safety dimensions of CSR.