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Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility. Corporate Approaches to Stakeholder Engagement in the Pharmaceutical Industry in the UK and Germany.
O'Riordan, Linda
O'Riordan, Linda
Publication Date
2011-12-21
End of Embargo
Supervisor
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The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.
Peer-Reviewed
Open Access status
Accepted for publication
Institution
University of Bradford
Department
School of Management
Awarded
2010
Embargo end date
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Abstract
This thesis addresses corporate approaches to CSR stakeholder engagement in the
pharmaceutical industry in the UK and Germany. Its objective is to undertake mainly
exploratory qualitative research to investigate how the selected sample manages CSR. The
data was primarily accessed and collected from senior executives within major
pharmaceutical companies. Multiple research methods were employed to gather rich new
empirical evidence which focuses on the CSR practices and perceptions of CSR managers in
both countries. To examine how this ¿sensitive¿ sector responds to what could be termed the
¿CSR Challenge¿, a critical realist perspective and six codes were chosen to map the practices
and to compare similarities and differences between the two countries. This research
contributes to the academic literature in this field by filling significant gaps in an area which
was previously under-investigated. Ultimately, the findings are employed to examine a prespecified
framework which was originally developed by the author based on secondary data in
separate research. Overall, the results inform, re-examine, and improve this recently published
framework. The updated explanatory framework which results from the research is the main
conceptual contribution of the thesis. It serves as a management tool which includes the
contextual factors which influence decision-makers¿ practices and perceptions portrayed as a
set of inter-related management steps. This new conceptualisation is designed to be of
practical use for decision-makers when managing their stakeholder engagement activities. As
a result, this research is essentially applied and normative in nature. In addition, this work
presents an original contribution to the literature in its field which should be of interest to
academics.
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Type
Thesis
Qualification name
PhD