Corporate social responsibility as an augmented corporate heritage identity trait - a case study of the Jordanian banking sector

Abstract

This phenomenological study advances the theoretical notion of augmented corporate heritage role identities through the introduction of the substantive and analytically generalisable theory of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) augmented corporate heritage identity trait. This theory identifies the CSR philosophy as an augmented role identity. The contributions of the thesis are derived from an empirical, theory-building, qualitative case study conducted within three Jordanian banks. This theory shows that the early corporate adoption of the CSR philosophy, which entails a desire to have a broad positive impact on a socio-spatial context, drives the corporate CSR philosophy and practice to become infused with non-institutional, socio-spatial identities. Moreover, this infusion shapes the philosophy and the practice into specific CSR heritage identity traits. The theoretical contribution of the study is significant in that it empirically confirms the existence of the CSR augmented corporate heritage identity trait phenomenon within relatively nascent contexts. Moreover, it also reveals a high interdependence between the nature of an institution’s corporate heritage identity and the identities and characteristics of that institution's social-spatial contexts. This interdependence is shown to be a natural selector which determines which corporate identity traits become imbued with corporate heritage augmented role identity significance. This contribution is achieved through a study which adopts a corporate heritage identity perspective on the CSR practices of three Jordanian banks. The adoption of this perspective on CSR practices was found to be justifiable on the basis of a critical literature review. Additionally, the study is of instrumental relevance to the developing world’s corporate institutions as it shows that despite their nascent nature they may be incubating corporate heritage identities which are firmly anchored through their extended developmental impact within their surroundings. Furthermore, the thesis identifies several avenues for future research which pave the way towards a CSR augmented corporate heritage identity theory specific to the developing world’s corporate institutions.