HomeEducationDoctorate (PhD & EngD)For current candidatesPhD infoUpcoming public defencesFULLY DIGITAL (UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE) : PhD Defence Satish Kumar Damodar | A comparative study of corporate sustainability, strategic corporate social responsibility & market value creation among companies operating in India

FULLY DIGITAL (UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE) : PhD Defence Satish Kumar Damodar | A comparative study of corporate sustainability, strategic corporate social responsibility & market value creation among companies operating in India

A comparative study of corporate sustainability, strategic corporate social responsibility & market value creation among companies operating in India

Due to the COVID-19 crisis the PhD defence of Satish Kumar Damodar will take place online (until further notice).

The PhD defence can be followed by a live stream.

Satish Kumar Damodar is a PhD student in the research group Industrial Engineering & Business Information Systems (IEBES). His supervisor is prof.dr. J. van Hillegersberg from the Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences (BMS).

‘A comparative study of corporate sustainability, strategic corporate social responsibility and market value creation among companies operating in India’ is an original research carried out in India. The study consists of two parts-qualitative and quantitative. The qualitative part includes practice-oriented study on corporate sustainability (CS) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives undertaken by multinational companies, Indian private companies and public sector enterprises operating in India. The quantitative part includes study on five dimensions of strategic CSR (Burke & Logsdon 1996); the pyramid of CSR (Carroll 1991); three components of CSR, namely principles of charity, stewardship (Lawrence, Weber & Post 2005), and environmental friendliness for market value creation among enterprises operating in India. The research design is a mixed sequential exploratory model (Tashakkori & Teddlie 2003) wherein qualitative research followed by quantitative research for theory development and testing.

The qualitative research involves information gathered through author’s own two decades of industry experience; gathering information and interacting with senior management professionals practicing CS and/or CSR in 43 companies (multinationals, Indian private and public sector enterprises) operating in India. The validity of data gathered through qualitative research is determined through triangulation, pattern matching and member checking. The analysis of qualitative data was undertaken using thematic analysis- coding, data reduction, categorization, and theme development. The themes derived from clusters of companies analyzed, compared in terms of CS and CSR initiatives. The qualitative study reflects relative performance of CS and CSR per company in descending order as: PSE (2.70), Indian private (2.18) and MNC (1.00).

The quantitative research formulates hypotheses based on the Burke & Logsdon’s (1996) five dimensions of strategic CSR; four corporate responsibilities- Carroll’s pyramid of CSR, Lawrence et al.’s principle of charity & stewardship, and environmental responsibility. Questionnaires 2 & 3 (Annexure I) on quantitative study were administered to 520 organizations in the above categories using probability (simple random) sampling method. 93 companies responded with completed questionnaires. The results obtained from the samples were analyzed using SPSS. Reliability test using Cronbach’s alpha suggest a value greater than 0.70 meeting the requirements of reliability.

The quantitative research involves descriptive statistics, correlation analyses, regression analysis 1 followed by factor analysis (factor reduction), and subsequently regression 2. The results of the quantitative study confirm the following:

  • Only the three dimensions of strategic CSR (centrality, proactivity and visibility), two categories of corporate responsibilities (legal and philanthropy) and all the three components of CSR (charity, stewardship and environmental friendliness) create value for the multinational companies operating in India.
  • All the five dimensions of strategic CSR (centrality, specificity, proactivity, voluntarism and visibility), all the four categories of corporate responsibilities (economic, legal, ethical and philanthropy) and the three components of CSR (charity, stewardship and environmental friendliness) create value for the Indian private companies operating in India.
  • Only three dimensions of strategic CSR (proactivity, visibility, and voluntarism), all the four categories of corporate responsibilities (economic, legal, ethical and philanthropy) create value for the public sector enterprises operating in India.