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Introduction
The idea that organisations have a responsibility towards society is something not entirely new in the world of business. This idea can be traced back to centuries ago although the relationship between organisations and society has seen significant alterations. According to Ahmed et al. (2020), corporate social responsibility (CSR) practice has seen many changes over a period of time and this can be attributed to the fact that stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, employees, etc. have become discerning on issues of CSR. The economic, social and environmental challenges of society is evolving, presenting more complex issues such as climate change, unemployment, poverty, migration and demographic changes. These prevailing issues of society can hardly be mitigated without the active participation of business organisations which has amassed massive economic and political power throughout this century and driving technological changes and innovations (Li et al., 2016). Globally, the relationship between organisations and society is experiencing significant changes which have influenced the definition of the role and responsibility of organisations with firms being called upon to play a part and participate in the sustainable development of society.
Organisations and managers are no longer preoccupied with acting in ways that minimise the adverse impact of their operations on the social, economic and natural environment because it is no longer adequate to define CSR in these terms. Rather than seeing business as part of the problem, organisations are increasingly been seen as part of the solution (Rodríguez Bolívar et al., 2015; Shirodkar et al., 2018; Sui et al., 2019). Accordingly, the development agenda has shifted from the question of how business causes poverty, to portraying the private sector as part of the solution. Stakeholders are expecting organisations to address the challenges that are prevalent in the environment and to maximise their positive impacts on society. This has created the need for various policies and strategies and has given rise to collaborative efforts between society and organisations.
CSR has become a dominant feature of business dealings and is driving various discourses globally. CSR is a widespread trend across mainstream businesses such as the financial and marketing sectors (Awaysheh et al., 2020) as well as academia arenas (Ahmad et al., 2020) because of their common desire...