Role of public policies in promoting CSR: empirical evidence from business and civil society of UAE

• Published date: 03 December 2018
• Date: 03 December 2018
• Pages: 1107-1123
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/CG-08-2017-0175
• Author: Saeed Almatrooshi,Matloub Hussain,Mian Ajmal,Muhammad Tehsin
• Subject Matter: Strategy,Corporate governance

Role of public policies in promoting CSR:

empirical evidence from business and

civil society of UAE

Saeed Almatrooshi, Matloub Hussain, Mian Ajmal and Muhammad Tehsin

Abstract

Purpose –This paper aims to explore the intermediary roles that public policies play in stimulating

government agencies,businesses and civil society to engage in a corporate socialresponsibility (CSR)

agenda.

Design/methodology/approach –Issues related to decision-making of public policiesare increasingly

complex. Therefore, analytical hierarchy process has beenused to prioritize public policy practices for

CSR in the UAE.Data were collected from experts workingin businesses and civil society organizations.

Findings –Findings suggest that businesses and the civil society confirm the importance of

standardization and law enforcement public policy practices in issues related to CSR in developing

countries. The endorsingstyle of public policies was the least important approach to encouragingCSR

implementationin the UAE.

Research limitations/implications –Results are derivedfrom a limited amount of empirical data only in

one country;therefore, these cannot be generalized. Futureresearch from other countries is needed.

Practical implications –Outcomesfrom this study will help the governmentenhance its role as mediator

among all agents and help with designing publicpolicies that encourage adoption of CSR by business

firms whilemaintaining competitivenessin the economy.

Originality/value –A framework consisting of five public policy categories –mandating, facilitating,

partnering, endorsing and empowering roles –and 29 sub-policy practices is introduced. This study

provides an important technique for analyzing the importance of public policies in promoting CSR. It

offers insightsinto a population that shapesa CSR agenda.

Keywords Public policy, Government, Corporate social responsibility

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

Governments worldwide have shown interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a

soft-law instrument to encourage, rather than force, corporations to interact with

sustainability goals –to move away from hierarchical or top-down regulations and toward

cooperative partnership attitudes that constitute modern governance approaches (Steurer,

2013). Modern governance has two features. First, it is built on partnerships with the private

sector and community during public policy-making and implementation, and second, it

relies on approaches such as dialogue, knowledge-sharing and volunteerism (Lepoutre

et al., 2007). Exposure of local communities to global CSR public policy practices led to

greater demand from society for public policies that impose locally tailored CSR practices.

This in turn means that there is scope for the government to play a greater role in mediating

the relationship between business and people. The relationship between businesses and

civil society, often plagued by conflict, and intervention by a third party might constitute an

opportunity to move to collaborativeinteractions between them (Arenas et al., 2013).

Saeed Almatrooshi is

based at Abu Dhabi

University, Abu Dhabi,

United Arab Emirates.

Matloub Hussain and Mian

Ajmal are Associate

Professor at Abu Dhabi

University, Abu Dhabi,

United Arab Emirates.

Muhammad Tehsin is

Assistant Professor at

Quaid-i-Azam University,

Islamabad, Pakistan.

Received 13 August 2017

Revised 11 March 2018

Accepted 22 April 2018

DOI 10.1108/CG-08-2017-0175 VOL. 18 NO. 6 2018, pp. 1107-1123, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1472-0701 jCORPORATE GOVERNANCE jPAGE 1107

Although CSR is a useful tool for creation of better platforms for collaboration among

governments, corporations and civil society for the benefit of all parties (Albareda et al.,

2008;Steurer, 2010), extant literature suggests that corporate planningfor CSR practices is

conducted in isolation from other stakeholders (Amran et al., 2013). A major drawback

regarding application of CSR in developing countries is limited participation from

stakeholders during decision-making, a feature that is apparent in micro-institutions, which

constitute the majority of the market (Utting, 2007). Most workers, producers and

enterprises in developing countries are experiencing misrepresentation and lack of

influence (Utting, 2007), and discussions on public policies related to CSR have not

addressed stakeholder rightsto participation and empowerment (Yu, 2009).

CSR and its relationship with therole of government policies still need to be explored further

(Gond et al., 2011;Hussain et al.,2017;Knudsen et al., 2015;Rajagopal and Bansal, 2015).

Literature on the role of public policies in promoting CSR focuses on Western contexts, and

few researchers have assessed the issue in Arab contexts, especially in the UAE (Gao,

2011). Most extant studies of CSR in Arab contexts investigate CSR practices in

businesses, but do not consider other stakeholders, such as government bodies and non-

governmental organizations(NGOs), that influence CSR application (Rajagopal and Bansal,

2015). Therefore, it is important to investigate the role of government policies in stimulating

CSR from the perspectives of business and civil society. Thus, this study is designed to

measure the role of government policies in promoting CSR by answering the following

questions:

Q1. What are the key government roles that encourage CSR practices in the business

and civil society of UAE?

Q2. Which of thesegovernmental roles are most or least preferred by business and civil

society of UAE?

This paper expands the public policy roles for CSR from Fox et al. (2002) and consists of

five public policy categories –mandating, facilitating, partnering, endorsing and

empowering roles –and 29 sub-policy practices, and this study seeks to prioritize these

factors. To prioritize the factors, the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) approach was

adopted. AHP is a useful tool designed to solve complex multi-criteria decision-making

(MCDM) problems (Drake et al., 2013;Hussain et al., 2015;Ahmad and Hussain, 2016).

AHP provides a means of prioritizing the various elements in the hierarchy, thereby

assisting the government, business and civil society in focusing on the most important

issues related to role of governmentpolicies in promoting CSR.

The study makes major contributions by satisfying the two research questions. First, this

study presents the role of empowerment as one of the key roles of public policy to promote

CSR in the context of UAE. This will allow academia and practitioners to examine and

evaluate nine practices that are aspects of empowerment in fostering CSR, following the

adoption of modern governance applications in a non-Western context. Second, the

framework presented in this studytakes into account a diversified public policy scheme that

targets two main agents (i.e. businesses and civil society). The study also uses a

methodology to extrapolate the views of those agents to provide a comparative analysis of

the relative weights of thepublic policies presented in this study.

Finally, previous studies have shown the ignorance about CSR in developing countries and

emerging markets, especially those of the Middle East. Although many Western countries

have public policies for CSR, the question is whether these practices can be applied in

different political, social and economic contexts. The literature indicates tha t the CSR concept

in Arab and Islamic countries is still associated with philanthropy. However, CSR i n the UAE is

beginning to extend beyond the stereotypes prevailing in the region, which s uggest that CSR

is linked with philanthropy (Goby and Nickerson, 2016). A clear trend in the UAE comes from

the recent momentum of reforms related to government regulations, legislation and practices

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