Journal of Critical Reviews

ISSN- 2394-5125 Vol 7, Issue 11, 2020

SUSTAINABLE CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY PRACTICES OF

BUSINESS ESTABLISHMENTS IN REGION 2, PHILIPPINES
Dahlee S. Pascua
Isabela State University, Philippines
pascuadahlee@gmail.com

Received: 08.03.2020 Revised: 18.04.2020 Accepted: 06.05.2020

Abstract
Corporate social responsibility is a way to encourage business firms to perform in a manner appropriate to the desires of the
stakeholders, thus causing them to act responsibly for the benefit of the business and society through creating a sustainable social,
environmental, and economic development that could, in turn, gain positive image and reputation. This study aimed to evaluate the
Corporate Social Responsibility practices of business establishments in Region 02, Philippines, which were recipients of the Department
of Trade and Industry’s Bagwis Award. Qualitative research approach was employed through a semi-structured interview among the
selected respondents, after which recorded interviews were transcribed and analyzed thematically. Findings revealed that CSR practices
among business establishments in Region 2 were still developing and that the philanthropic dimension were found to be less sustainable
and did not gain so much impact to community development, as well as to firm’s reputation. It was also revealed that the identified
practices were focused on schools, community, employee-welfare, and company’s economic responsibility, whilst the possible best
practices contributed to the development of education, entrepreneurs, environment, skills enhancement, and employee-welfare. Result
of the study may be used as benchmark for CSR initiatives of business establishments, banks, hospitals, schools, mining, and other
industries. Future research may also focus on the concerns and issues in the implementation of CSR practices.

Keywords: CSR, CSR best practices, philanthropic, ethical, legal, economic, business establishments

© 2020 by Advance Scientific Research. This is an open-access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.31838/jcr.07.11.08

INTRODUCTION
The European Commission in its renewed EU strategy 2011-14
defined Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as “the
responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society” which
led to a voluntary obligation of companies to serve the economy.
Similarly, in the context of organization’s social responsibility,
Scarborough and Cornwall (2016) described social responsibility
as “social steward” with the expectations that businesses must go
beyond simply earning a profit to becoming a socially
responsible company that lead businesses to a role significant to
society. With this, CSR shows a serious engagement with respect
to environmental concerns, human capital development, as well
as society’s development.
The implementation of CSR activities in the modern days was
continuously developing and evolving and has spread out and
was already adopted by business firms and industries. The
Reputation Institute (2019) announced the World's top 10 Most
Reputable Companies for Corporate Responsibility in 2019, the
Enterprise Asia in its program “Asia Responsible Enterprise
Awards (AREA)”, which aims to recognize and honor Asian
businesses and leaders for championing sustainable and socially
responsible business practices (Business World, 2019), and the
ASEAN Business Awards (ABA) that aims to recognize
outstanding key enterprises that have contributed significantly
to the ASEAN region (ABA, 2019) showed that CSR has been
active and gained recognition to multinational and globalized
companies.
Moreover, several global organizations set guiding principles and
policies to encourage companies to be socially responsible to
gain impact and build image and reputation such as the ASEAN
CSR Network, United Nations Global Compact, OECD, ISO 26000,
and the like. Thus, the study of Infante, Araque, and García
(2019) confirmed that MSMEs that performs social responsibility
targeting economic, social and environmental dimensions
improves performance and builds competitive advantage for the
organization. In like manner, the study of Xia, Olanipekun, Chen,
Xie, and Liu (2018) revealed that the CSR endeavor in the
construction industry contributes effectively to the goal of
sustainable development in the industry. From among the three
dimensions of CSR i.e. social, environmental, and economic, the
social dimension was found to be the most dominant in the
construction industry which encompasses the CSR practices such
as education and skill acquisition, social procurement, social
enterprise and indigenous reconciliation.
The survey of Piasecki and Gudowski (2017) also claimed that
CSR actions were very important in engaging social affairs to
local society from the point of view of small and medium sized
companies. The CSR actions such as supporting local cultural
actions, participation to charity drives, rewarding competitions,
offering assistance in programs for disabled persons, protecting
the environment, and implementing ethical standard for business
are treated as tool of public relations and can improve company’s
image. In this context, top executives and directory boards of
multinational companies commit themselves to CSR with the aim
of improving their profitability as well as to improve the image of
the firm.
In the Philippines, the concept of CSR has been revealed from
different multinational and local companies. In fact, the present
manager of the Centre for Corporate Citizenship of the
Philippines Business for Social Progress (PBSP) explained that
“the pursuit of CSR means companies are giving something back
to the community using a portion of the earnings they generate,”
and added that “aside from inclusive business, CSR in the
Philippines has progressed into something that involves greater
participation of communities in the business of companies that
eventually creates incomes and improves livelihood” (Mendoza,
2015). Furthermore, the report of UNDP (2017) specified that

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 SUSTAINABLE CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY PRACTICES OF BUSINESS ESTABLISHMENTS IN REGION 2,
PHILIPPINES
the Philippines private sector’s traditional response to our
country’s development challenges has generally been through
corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities – specifically
philanthropic CSR. Corporate philanthropy has been a strategy of
choice for Filipino family firms due to its straightforward nature
and relatively flexible funding commitment. In addition, the
research conducted by the CSO-SEED Project Implementing
Agencies (2018) found that the social enterprises in the
Philippines had multiple objectives and the top three objectives
were employment generation, poverty alleviation, and
community development. For the ARMM, the most common
objectives of social enterprises were creating employment and
supporting vulnerable people. For Luzon, Visayas and the rest of
Mindanao, the most common objective was creating employment
whilst in NCR, majority of the social enterprises aimed to
improve a community.
The study of Habaradas (2013) also described that philanthropic
activity in the Philippines evolved from simply transferring
resources (i.e., corporate giving) to being directly involved in
community-based programs. He found that philanthropic activity
of Jollibee helped improved the lives of poor farmers by
providing them skills that conform to the company’s supply chain
while Shell provided training programs for skills enhancement to
the community and hired skilled workers. In a similar way, Ayala
collaborated with different sectors to build additional businesses
which created employment, and SM involved their stakeholders
in its philanthropic activities that resulted to increased company
reputation and image. Thus, Habaradas (2013) concluded that
meaningful CSR activities created value for both business and
society. Thus, CSR in the Philippines should not be viewed as dole
out or charity or hand out to the society. It is what business
establishments do to solve social problems that help create a
sustainable society that in turn increases business and profits.
Based on the abovementioned findings about CSR endeavor,
specifically in the Philippine context, the researcher aimed to
analyze the different CSR practices implemented by business
establishments in Region 2, since there were no studies
conducted yet about the practices of CSR to business
establishments in the region. The CSR best practices were also
identified such as those activities that have the possibility for
sustainability, can create impact on social and economic
development of the community, and can increase positive image
and reputation of the company as a benchmark to guide business
establishments in developing a sustainable CSR endeavor. It must
be stressed that ASEAN envisions a responsible business
community that promotes a sustainable, equitable, and inclusive
social, environmental, and economic development (ACN, 2015)
and that the DTI aims to give due recognition to retail
establishments that promote and foster the highest level of
business ethics by adopting responsible business practices
through its “Bagwis” program.
RESEARCH METHODS
The pure qualitative research method was used which examined
the various CSR practices of the selected business establishments
in Region 2 as basis in developing a sustainable CSR best
practices. A total of 14 business establishments registered in the
DTI “Bagwis” program for the year 2018 were chosen because
they were the ones who performed Corporate Social
Responsibility as a requirement of the DTI “Bagwis” awards. The
2 establishments located in Batanes Province had been excluded
from the study due to its far geographical location. To meet the
purpose of the study, the managers or employee representatives
who were knowledgeable on the existence of their CSR activity
were interviewed since they were in a better position to share
their ideas, experiences, and documentary records.
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An approved letter from the DTI Region 02 was given to business
establishments who are “Bagwis” awardees, along with a request
letter to conduct a scheduled interview to the selected managers
or employee representatives. The participants were given a copy
of the consent form along with contact information of the
researcher. The purpose of the undertaking was explained to the
participants, after which the signed consent form was collected,
and started the interview. The respondents were asked on the
set of guide questions based on the objectives of the study. The
interviews conducted were audiotaped and lasted between 30 to
45 minutes, and had been transcribed. With all the results of the
interview transcripts, the coding categories were established and
meanings were analyzed and processed thematically (Braun and
Clarke, 2006).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The business establishments were expected to be socially
responsible to their stakeholders especially the community,
employees, environment, customers, and the society at large to
gain corporate image and reputation, as well as to participate on
the social and economic growth and development of the country.
Thus, this study had identified the CSR activities of business
establishments in the region in line with the four responsibilities
of the CSR pyramid coined by Carroll (1999) i.e. philanthropic,
ethical, legal and economic dimensions, as parameters of the CSR
activities, anticipating that Carroll’s theory was applied in the
CSR endeavor of the business establishments, particularly the
retail establishments in Region 02. Analysis of the interview
transcripts revealed main themes patterned on the four
dimensions of the CSR pyramid.
3.1 Theme 1: Philanthropic – (a) Sponsorship to public schools, (b)
Scholarship for students, (c) Calamity Assistance Program, (d)
Environmental Greening Program, (e) Skills Enhancement
Program, and (f) Donations to government or other agencies.
Business establishments’ charitable activities emphasized their
commitment to society, and in return, gain benefit in the form of
advertisement of their company as sponsors. Business
establishments under study were willing to support schools’
needs and activities through donations and employee
volunteerism as their way to give back to the society and felt part
of the community. As one of the interviewed managers pointed
that, “Our targets are students and community, because our peg
is “community department store”. We always participate in
barangay activities like cleaning and fiestas. If they need dancers,
we let our employees participate” (BE9). An additional benefit is
that of having positive affiliation to the charity that has an
opportunity to promote itself with image branding and good
reputation. For instance, establishments 1, 8, 9 and 10 conducted
Brigada Eskwela in Dep Ed schools and establishments 1, 2 and 9
conducted Back-to-school activities where schools can request
for sponsorship and be affiliated with the business
establishments selling school supplies. In elaborating further, a
manager explained, “For us, we felt that schools were already
coming here in xxx. xxx already welcomed them” (BE10).
To encourage poor but deserving students to enter school and
enjoy quality education, business establishments helped through
selecting students in high schools or colleges, subsidized their
tuition fees and allowances and provided opportunity to work in
the organization after graduation. Establishments 2 and 7 had
this practice and were considered helpful for the development of
individual in the community. The respondents stated that, “We
also have a college student scholarship in ISU Cauayan. HR
provides the allowance” (BE2); “Based on CSR responsibilities,
we have scholars who are high school seniors. There are 10
students, but some dropped out... we provide weekly allowance
and tuition fees. They can be employed after graduation if they
like, since the other Senior High students are in carpentry in
Roxas National High School. There are 8 senior high scholars plus
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PHILIPPINES
one college in Roxas ISU. Grades 11 and 12 are the current”
(BE7).
Selected business establishments in Region 2 also expressed
their way of contributing to the community through donation, as
this is the easiest way for busy retail establishments to
participate in philanthropic activities. The common theme
amongst business establishments is that they were active in
contributing financial or in-kind donation or solicitation. For
instance, establishments 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 12
contributed financial and in-kind donations to the activities
during fiestas and festivals, and in LGU community projects such
as fire prevention month activity, fun run, sports fest, mass
weddings, and the like. Donation to hospitals such as hospital
beds with mattresses and toy-giving to admitted children in
hospitals were also sponsored by establishments 7 and 9.
Outreach programs such as donations of clothing and basic needs
for children in orphanages and also feeding programs in selected
barangays were done by establishments 2, 3, 5, 8, 9 and 12.
Bloodletting activity was also done by establishments 3, 9, and
11. The respondents explained that employees were willing to
donate as they stated, “In bloodletting, they are almost always
willing to donate blood” (BE3); “For the previous year, we joined
the bloodletting activity which is a project of Bombo Radio. We
sponsor them” (BE9).
Establishments 1, 2, 4, 8, and 10 also donated construction
materials and relief goods to calamity victims as their social
responsibility practice. Employees in establishment 10 joined in
the renovation of school buildings due to typhoons as explained
by their manager, “There is a cash donation; there is also a
request for materials. We are also helping schools like victims of
storms as a calamity assistance program. We gave construction
materials to schools”. Employees in establishment 3 participated
in “paglilinis sa baybay” project while establishments 3, 5, and 10
also participated in the tree planting projects and community
clean-up drive. Both were government projects as a solution to
environmental problems. The manager of establishment 10
indicated that, “There are tree planting activities at Nueva
Vizcaya. It is a government project in the DENR in the
mountainous area. We collaborated with them.”
Among the business establishments, only establishment 10
conducted a free workshop-seminar for teachers, students, and
orphans. This activity can be a great help for the beneficiaries
because it will enhance their skills which can be used to look for
additional income. The seminar-workshop is about art works,
alkansya house, gift wrapping, making of Christmas décor, flower
arrangement, and the like. The manager stated that, “There is a
free workshop seminar for MAPEH teachers. We teach art works.
We also have other seminar workshops. Last December, we
helped the foundation in Aparri, to the children without parents.
We conducted free workshops such as building a piggy bank.” If
being monitored for sustainability, the beneficiaries can be
followed-up through their income from these learned skills. At
the same time, the finished product produced can also be sold by
the business establishments if the product passed their quality
standards, thus this can create entrepreneurs in the region. This
CSR practice conformed to the study of Kumari, Ratnesh, and
Eguruze (2020) who revealed that the tribal handicrafts of
Jharkhand via their CSR projects provides sustainable livelihood
to the local communities. This CSR initiative preserved and
promoted the local craft practices, as well as, encouraged women
empowerment. It also helped the local handicraft sector
especially the women artisans in their skill development and
socio-economic development. Thus, this promotion of arts as a
way of CSR projects can change the lives of the unprivileged parts
of society.
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The business establishments under study performed more on
philanthropic activities in terms of community participation. The
practice of donations to government and other agencies were
often conducted among the philanthropic activities which is just
a minor activity that indicates little significance in terms of the
impact to society and cannot be analyzed as sustainable CSR that
can help economic growth and development. However, the CSR
activities such as sponsorship to public schools, scholarship for
student, calamity assistance program, environmental greening
program, and skills enhancement projects were rarely practiced
but considered important CSR activities that can further
developed to contribute greater impact to society. With this,
Bovee and Thill (2015) encouraged organizations to shift from
the common philanthropy to strategic CSR. This involves a direct
alignment of company’s strategies and approaches to social
contributions in order to understand the need of various
stakeholders while developing the company’s competitive
advantage. To make strategic CSR possible, there is a need to
have an effective and responsible leadership that would
spearhead the CSR strategy. The study of Mishra and Schmidt
(2018) discussed that leaders play a crucial role in influencing a
group or organization in engaging to CSR. Though MNEs were
not design for the good of the society and the environment, its
leadership intervention may bring impact to CSR practice
specifically on the societal and environmental impact. The
leaders’ attitudes and behaviors can significantly influence the
extent and nature of CSR practice.
3.2. Theme 2: Ethical – (a) Code of Ethics/Conduct, and (b)
Environmental Ethic. One of the basic needs of a business
establishment to be successful is its guidelines or rules and
regulations to be carried throughout the operation of business. In
practice, the workers in establishments 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 , and
12 were very much aware of the existence of a code of conduct
because it was being discussed upon hiring, during their
orientation and meetings, and they have also their own copy of
the code so that they will be continuously reminded on proper
conduct. The code of conduct was also reflected during the
handling of employee problems and concerns in the workplace,
and they see to it that they abide by the code with flexibility as
shared by managers as follows: “There is a code of conduct, but
sometimes there is an exception to the rule especially if the
reason is valid. We are particularly flexible with today's
employees because they are sensitive, if they are upset they will
resign” (BE10); “In the relationship between employees we are
like a family here, because everybody goes through the code of
ethics” (BE7). “Fair treatment is part of our code of ethics. We
have no retaliation policy” (BE3). A code of ethics was put in
place by business establishment as part of their social
responsibility, ensuring that all employees were protected with
their safety, rights, and privileges for them to be motivated and
committed, and quality service will be achieved. This was
revealed in the study of Kim, Rhou, Uysal, and Kwon (2017)
stating that employees’ perception regarding CSR has a positive
influence on their QWL, affective commitment, and
organizational citizenship behavior. This predicts that
employees’ quality working life increases job performance which
will eventually attract and retain more talented and committed
employees. Thus, the serious approach of business
establishments in their code of ethics/conducts was very
valuable and functional in managing the human resources in
their organization. It provides ease in settling disputes and
difficulties in their operation and encourages harmonious
employer-employee relationship.
Moreover, business establishments are expected to practice
environmental ethics in their workplace as this is crucial in the
operation of their business. All of the interviewed business
establishments were very much aware of the risk relating to
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PHILIPPINES
environmental issues and the significance of reduction targets in
energy, water and paper consumption, as well as waste
management such as waste segregation, recycling, and reuse
measures. However, since they are in a retail establishment, they
only have a few CSR activities for environmental ethics, i.e. (1)
selling of used oil, cartons and plastic bottles, (2) re-use or
repackage of bond paper, folders or other office supplies, (3) use
of eco-bag or paper bag, (4) rejecting products with lead content
from suppliers, (5) the use of LED light bulbs to lessen energy
consumption as monitored by DTI, and (6) compliance to waste
segregation (biodegradable and non-biodegradable) but they
quarterly submitted their compliance to Environment
Management Bureau of DENR with regards to the adherence of
Republic Act No. 8749: Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999. Thus,
laws and regulations on the top environmental concerns were
monitored by regulatory bodies. This was further explained by
the following statements, “Our electricity consumption is from 8
to 5pm. In terms of the recycling measure, we sell used oil and
then plastic and scraps. We re-use office papers and we recycle
everything” (BE2); “In recycling, we sell used cardboard boxes
and those that can be recycled were recycled (BE3); “We have
waste separation. We also recycle, and scrap plastic are sold or
reused. Our plastic is reusable. The local government also
conducts seminars about that” (BE4); “We submit quarterly in
compliance to the DENR's Environment Management Bureau
about Air Pollution Control such as generators. We are compliant
with DTI's Green Measures for using electricity like LED, which
has lower heat emission rates. We do not sell materials with lead
content especially in toys. If it fails to meet the criteria, we reject
it. We are also compliant with the ICC and PS mark. The DTI and
the internal department monitor it” (BE9); “In recycling
measures, we are compliant to classifying materials such as
biodegradable and non-biodegradable etc. Our cartons and
plastic are recyclables” (BE10).
Since there were few and simple CSR practices among business
establishments in environmental ethics that gave little influence
on environmental protection, Schmidt, Zanini, Korzenowski,
Schmidt, and Nascimento (2018) in their recent study suggested
to look for ways that contribute to economic returns of the
organization in terms of environmental preservation. These are
separate garbage, waste collection, reduction of the expenses
with paper, installation of taps with automatic closing,
installation of discharges with reduced flow, and use of rainwater
for industrial activities, among others. This is to ensure that
employees’ expectation is being catered by the manager since
concern for environment such as initiatives to reduce materials,
energy and water consumption is one of the perceived reasons
for being ethically responsible business. Similarly, the study of
Sari, Ratnadi, Lydia, Shankar, and Wiflihani (2020)
conceptualized that the responsibility of companies to take part
in CSR endeavor was to improve the society and the earth rather
than contributing adversely to them. Thus, the authors identified
types of corporate responsibility that businesses can practice as
follows: (1) efforts to environment, (2) ethical labor practices,
(3) volunteering, and (4) philanthropy. These practices showed
the concern and commitment of the companies in taking care of
its society and the environment.
3.3. Theme 3: Legal – (a) Adherence to governmental laws and
regulations. All interviewed business establishments in this study
said their respective businesses had been obedient and
compliant with the laws and were strictly monitored by the DTI.
The DOLE was also strictly monitoring them in managing their
human resources. When asked if they comply, the respondents
answered as follows, “The laws of the Consumers Act of the
Philippines have been complied with. In sales promotions, we
produce permits like in Santiago and in Solana. We have a
warranty and we are back-log free. We also have freebies. We
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have ICC, PS product tag from Thailand, or other countries”
(BE2); “We are compliant with DTI requirements, like
consumer’s right act, price tag laws, sales promotions, and
permits. We have already submitted a sample permit to Bagwis.
DOLE became stricter especially when Tulfo came to
Tuguegarao” (BE3); “We are compliant. DTI often visits here
asking for the requirements” (BE6); “We are compliant with
government rules and regulations like “no short changing act”.
Our cents should be complete. There are gift checks and card
certificates for teachers and students, a company card, a privilege
card, a discount card. We also have sales promotion permit.
Before we issue the promotion, the permit must be approved
first” (BE10); “We have complied with the requirements in the
Consumers Act of the Philippines. The Operations Department is
assigned to that. The DTI is inspecting on a regular basis.”
(BE12). Hence, the emphasis of legal responsibility initiatives of
retail business establishments has been in compliance to
Consumer Acts of the Philippines (Republic Act No. 7394), Labor
Code of the Philippines (Presidential Decree No. 442) and the
adherence to mandatory certification of products which affect
life, safety, and health of people and the environment under the
monitoring of the Bureau of Philippine Standards of the
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI-BPS).
In terms of legal responsibilities, the fulfilling of legal obligations
of the business establishments was heading for being socially
responsible corporate citizens. This is conformed to the study of
Ji and Miao (2020) stating that the company’s collaboration with
the government strengthens the impact and effects of
environmental CSR and corporate governance. It was suggested
that policymakers should strategized indirect supporting
programs such as publicity, financial guarantees or building
inter-organizational network and the like to promote
collaborative innovation with the government in a socially
responsible manners.
Moreover, in order to strengthen the CSR impact, a synergized
and thorough involvement of corporations, communities, and the
government roles were needed for community development.
Thus, it is hoped that corporations, through their CSR endeavor
will strived to integrate policies and programs into their
company’s operational system relating to social, environmental,
and human rights commitments. They should also come up with
strategies that build life in order to improve the welfare of the
community (Dulkiah, Sulastri, Irwandi, and Sari, 2019).
3.4. Theme 4: Economic – (a) Cost savings and cost reduction, (b)
Professional growth, (c) Incentives and Benefits. Business
establishments have different strategies in becoming sustainable.
Cost savings and cost-reduction were some of their strategies to
becoming economically responsible. For instance, a manager in
establishment 3 shared, “We have a productivity program such
as cost-reduction from CRT monitors to LED. To save on
marketing expenses, we have our 6:00 morning habit – every
day, every time we have a sales promo, we all give flyers,
regardless of the positions and distribute it, and so we do not
have to pay marketing staff to distribute flyers. Then, we also
have CLAYGO - clean as you go. We gain cost-savings for this
because before CLAYGO, we used to pay for janitorial services.
What we do now is to orient employees on CLAYGO especially in
show room areas.” Additionally, the manager in establishment 9
also indicated that, “We have traineeship program, and because
of that we are not hiring additional staff, for example if there are
vacancies, we promote them than hire new ones. We handle
summer jobs and employment for students. We have many OJTs
and their training is twice a year. In the summer job, we give
60% of regular hourly pay and the 40% will be shouldered by
DOLE. We tied-up with them. We accommodate 3 to 4 students
for summer jobs.” Hence, the responsibility for sustainable
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PHILIPPINES
business practices was seen both with the endeavor of the
managers and the employees to minimize cost and increase sales.
One of the crucial resources that need serious attention aside
from gaining profit is the responsibilities to company’s human
resources. The respondents in establishments 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9,
10, 11, and 12 ensured that employees were given the needed
trainings to upgrade their skills, as well as seminars for their
personality development. Personality or career development
seminars were usually done once or twice a year to ensure that
employees have built harmonious relationship with their co-
workers and became highly satisfied and well-motivated. Team
building activities were also conducted by establishments 1, 2, 5,
9, 10, and 12 for building harmonious employee-employer
relationship. Responses such as trainings about product
knowledge, customer service, cashiers training, 5s, and plant tour
were mentioned by interviewees when describing their training
topics. Managers discussed their trainings and seminar practices
as follows: “We have trainings. We have scheduled trainers per
branch and the trainings are conducted in our stores. Topics
were on product knowledge, customer service, and personality
development.” (BE1); “We go to every branch, and if there are
new directives, we discuss it with them, and we also have
training for the 5S” (BE3); “We have trainings for about 3 to 5
days on customer service seminars, cashiers training, and work-
related trainings.” (BE8); “The marketing and warehouse
department were assigned on trainings like on how to operate
new features of appliances. We also have seminars on
Personality Development and leadership for managers. In team
building, we do it per area, like Cagayan branches, Isabela
branches. These team building activities are prepared by the HR”
(BE12). Topics for seminars such as leadership, financial literacy,
budgeting, time management, personality development,
efficiency, and work-related topics were common themes to
business establishments.
With regard to benefits and incentives, business establishments
were directed by the DOLE on setting different scheme of
benefits that will attract and retain employees to stay in the
organization. These various benefits offered to employees are
considered as social responsibility of the organizations in taking
care of their employees, since business establishments are
cognizant with the crucial role employees do in their operations.
With this, the benefits and incentives offered by business
establishments appear to be varied depending on the benefits
and incentives plans provided by the HR department or the
manager of the company. All the respondents received the
mandatory benefits (SSS, PhilHealth, PAG-IBIG, 13th month pay,
paid vacation, sick and holiday leave). Voluntary benefits such as
medical/dental, physical examination and Intellicare, clothing,
grocery, and rice allowance, cash gift and the like were received
by employees in establishments 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, and 11 and
incentives such as bonuses, cash incentives, commissions, trip
incentives and the like were given to employees in
establishments 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 for their
exemplary performance as described by the establishments in
the interview. “We have incentives per brand. There are cash
quotas and incentives, bonuses, also anniversary leave and 13th
month pay. We have sick leave, maternity leave, Intellicare for
health, annual physical exam, and responsibility allowance”
(BE1); “Our salary is good and higher than the regional rates,
with incentives, Performance Bonus, 13th and 14th Month pay,
Cash Gift of P5,000.00, groceries every December, then a cavan of
rice, and Incentive Trip - domestic and international” (BE2).
In terms of economic responsibilities, the business
establishments’ eagerness to financially support CSR
implementation was supported by the study of Santhosh and
Ganesh (2020) claiming that CSR activities enhanced the
Journal of critical reviews
financial performance of the Omani companies. It also benefited
the society through employment generation, educational
scholarships, charitable donations, healthcare, environmental
sustainability schemes, etc. Thus, the financial consideration was
the engine to make CSR activities progress and would also be a
way to encouraged the employees to be more committed and
gained self-worth that will improve their work attitudes. This
will make them more responsible and satisfied at work and are
more willing to dedicate themselves to their organizations.
Among the four parameters of CSR, the philanthropic activities
were found to be less sustainable, since each business
establishment had only few activities and had no continuity in
conducting CSR towards the society or the community. This
result was supported by the study of Zhu, Liu, and Lai (2016)
exposing that philanthropic activity might not be a priority
objective of a business sector to gain corporate image and
reputation. The study of Bucur, Moica, Ardelean, and Otel (2019)
also found that the practice of social responsibility concept in
Romania gave greater priority to protecting the reputation of the
company which is more attributed on economic responsibility
such as those represented by ethics, stable and profitable
business relationships, and image growth.
However, the preceding study and findings contrasted with the
findings of Jorge, Madueno, Sancho, and Martinez (2016) who
observed that SMEs were largely devoted to philanthropic and
voluntary practices such as donations to charity, contribution to
local community in the form of education, sports and/or cultural
patronage, sponsorship of schools and/or hospitals, partnership
with NGOs, and marketing activities related to charitable causes.
They concluded that SMEs already developed high amount of CSR
practices, and that the engagement of CSR will improve the
quality of life of a firm and its success, not only in large
companies but also within the scope of SMEs.
With regards to best practice, the CSR activities should be based
on the ones that create value for both business and society, as
stated by Habaradas (2013) in his findings on the philanthropic
activities of Jollibee, Shell, Ayala, and SM. Similarly, the best
practices should also create realized impact to the social
development of the community and can improve the standard of
living of the citizens as found in the study of Hossain and Al-Amin
(2016) in the private commercial banks that were committed on
education, the environmental protection, and support of local
communities.
Hence, based on the aforementioned criteria for CSR best
practices, the conduct of scholarship for students of the business
establishments in Region 2 was sustainable and can create value
for both business and society. It can also create impact to the
social development of the community and improve the standard
of living of the citizens. This is so because the scholarship for
students encourages poor but deserving students to enter school
and enjoy quality education and have an opportunity to be
employed in the sponsored organization after graduation.
Furthermore, the sponsorship to public schools and
environmental greening program can also be considered as best
practices if it becomes sustainable philanthropic activities such
as adopt-a-school and adopt-a-forest program. The skills
enhancement project can also be a livelihood project that
develops entrepreneurs in the region if it becomes a sustainable
activity. Moreover, the presence of code of ethics and the
strategies for economic responsibilities were also considered as
CSR best practices but should be enhanced and strategically
implemented to achieve sustainable and well-defined ethical and
economic responsibilities in the CSR parameters.
57
 SUSTAINABLE CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY PRACTICES OF BUSINESS ESTABLISHMENTS IN REGION 2,
PHILIPPINES
LIMITATIONS
The entire study focused on determining the CSR activities of the
business establishments in Region 02, except those found in the
region such as Batanes which is geographically segregated from
the rest of the provinces, thus, research on other region or
countries are also welcomed to further test the research findings
of this paper. The small sample size of the study was examined
through qualitative research method with the use of semi-
structured interview, thus quantitative research approach may
also be conducted for generalizability of the study targeting
banks, hospitals, schools, mining, and other industries for further
studies.
CONCLUSION
The CSR practices of business establishments along the four
responsibilities (philanthropic, ethical, legal and economic) are
still developing and need further enhancement in terms of its
impact to society and community development as well as to
company’s image and reputation. Moreover, among the four
parameters of CSR, the philanthropic activities are less
sustainable, since each business establishment had only few
activities and had no continuity in conducting CSR towards the
society or the community. The scholarship for students in
philanthropic dimension is considered as best practice because it
demonstrates a sustainable program, creates value for both
business and society and gained impact to the social
development of the community, as well as improves the standard
of living of the citizens. However, the sponsorship to public
schools and environmental greening program can be considered
as best practice especially if it becomes sustainable philanthropic
activity such as adopt-a-school and adopt-a-forest program. In
addition, the skills enhancement project can also be a livelihood
project that develops entrepreneurs in the region if it becomes a
sustainable activity. The presence of code of ethics and the
strategies for economic responsibilities should also be enhanced
and strategically implemented to be considered as CSR best
practice. Thus, the identified best practices contribute to the
development of education, entrepreneurs, environment-related,
skills enhancement, and employee-welfare that can be a
benchmark for CSR practices among business establishments.
Thus, businesses implementing CSR should looked into a
sustainable CSR activities that create impact and value to the
business and society, thus helping in the community
development as well as building company’s’ image and
reputation. In addition, as to the theory of Carroll (1999), the
four dimensions should be performed simultaneously in such a
way that the entire range of business responsibilities to society is
embraced, and in order to balance the function of businesses to
its stakeholders.
Furthermore, business establishments should endeavor to
conduct CSR activities that were identified as best practices in
this research, such as those activities that have the possibility for
sustainability that can help solve problems of the country, can
create impact on social and economic development of the
community, and increase positive image of the company. Also,
the DTI should continue to encourage other business
establishments to conduct CSR activities to help them gain
recognition in upholding the rights of consumers and in
practicing responsible business operations where consumers can
get value for their money. Moreover, the Local and National
Government Agencies, NGOs and Private Organizations should
also be open for continuous collaboration or partnership
(through MOA/MOU) with business establishments’ CSR projects
that are sustainable and have impact to the society. In this way, it
will help minimize the present societal and environment distress
of the country, as well as, helping the country’s economic growth
and development.
Journal of critical reviews
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