Managerial Attitudes to Social Responsibility: A Comparative Study in India and Britain

Changes in the understanding of the relationship between business and society have led to increased interest in and discussion of the notion of corporate social responsibility. This paper offers an empirical analysis of the perceptions of top executives in the West Midlands, U.K., and in Delhi, District Ghaziabad, India, of the notion of corporate social responsibility. Organisational changes and involvement in social action programmes, and problems of implementing and monitoring Social Responsibility in two cultures, India and Britain, were explored. The results of this study are compared with results obtained from studies on American companies and some significant similarities and differences are noted. Finally, some of the implications of the acceptance of the relevance of social responsibility to industry and the social involvement of industry are discussed.