ABSTRACT
Over the last few decades, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become prominent and evident more than ever because of the social, political and economic pressures on corporate management to pay attention to the creation of social and environmental externalities. In this context, companies have been motivated to participate in a wide range of social welfare activities (Wadhwa & Pansari, 2011) and urged to become accountable to a wider audience than shareholder and creditor groups (Reverte, 2008). In particular, researchers suggest that CSR is seen as an outstanding tool to meet the expectations of different stakeholders who may be adversely affected by company practices or to develop positive social responsibility images (Jackson & Apostolakou, 2010; Sen & Battacharya, 2001). In general, CSR is defi ned as “ fi rm’s obligation to protect and improve social welfare through various business and social actions, ensuring equitable and sustainable benefi ts for the various stakeholders ” (Alon et al., 2009, p. 7).
