Does Business Model Affect CSR Involvement? A Survey of Polish Manufacturing and Service Companies

Marzanna Katarzyna Witek-Hajduk and Piotr Zaborek
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Marzanna Katarzyna Witek-Hajduk: Institute of International Marketing and Management, Collegium of World Economy, Warsaw School of Economics, 162 Niepodległości Ave., Warsaw 02-554, Poland
Piotr Zaborek: Institute of International Marketing and Management, Collegium of World Economy, Warsaw School of Economics, 162 Niepodległości Ave., Warsaw 02-554, Poland

Sustainability, 2016, vol. 8, issue 2, 1-20

Abstract: The study explores links between types of business models used by companies and their involvement in CSR. As the main part of our conceptual framework we used a business model taxonomy developed by Dudzik and Witek-Hajduk, which identifies five types of models: traditionalists, market players, contractors, distributors, and integrators. From shared characteristics of the business model profiles, we proposed that market players and integrators will show significantly higher levels of involvement in CSR than the three other classes of companies. Among other things, both market players and integrators relied strongly on building own brand value and fostering harmonious supply channel relations, which served as a rationale for our hypothesis. The data for the study were obtained through a combined CATI and CAWI survey on a group of 385 managers of medium and large enterprises. The sample was representative for the three Polish industries of chemical manufacturing, food production, and retailing. Statistical methods included confirmatory factor analysis and one-way ANOVA with contrasts and post hoc tests. The findings supported our hypothesis, showing that market players and integrators were indeed more engaged in CSR than other groups of firms. This may suggest that managers in control of these companies could bolster the integrity of their business models by increasing CSR involvement. Another important contribution of the study was to propose and validate a versatile scale for assessing CSR involvement, which showed measurement invariance for all involved industries.

Keywords: business models; CSR; sustainable development; medium and large companies; Poland (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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