Akbar, Muhammad Usman (2019) The Enhancement of Corporate Social Responsibilities in Pakistan. Research Master thesis, Victoria University.

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility is an approach used in corporations and enterprises where the rights of stakeholders are addressed. The main focus of a business is to make a profit and a major duty of corporate governance is to maximise the profit. A problem arises when an organization makes a profit only for its shareholders and does not care about responsibilities to its other stakeholders. This is one reason why the concept of CSR originated, to encourage companies to incorporate social and environmental concerns within their business activities. This should be a voluntary act of the companies, but few studies show that organizations in developing countries are less concerned about their stakeholders than businesses in developed countries which practice CSR. This is because of some external factors such as public pressures, social background and the legal requirements of those countries. This study compared the CSR rules and regulations and practices between Pakistan and Australia. It aimed to draw some conclusions and offer some suggestions that could enhance CSR practices in Pakistan. This research is the first study of CSR regulations and CSR practices in Pakistan. A comparative legal research approach has been used. This research adopted a qualitative methodology. Two consecutive years of annual reports of ten companies in Australia and Pakistan have been considered and analysed with NVivo 12; then case law related to CSR has been compared and discussed to find the differences in the practices of corporate responsibilities in real life between Australian and Pakistani organizations. The findings of this research showed that there are some similarities and differences in CSR practices by organizations in Australia and Pakistan. A dearth of CSR rules and regulations and a poor law enforcement system in Pakistan is the main reason that companies in this country are not practicing CSR. This study recommends that the government of Pakistan should give more attention to the importance of CSR practices by businesses and update the CSR rules, regulations and guidelines. Attention to some specific laws in this country, and consideration of CSR Acts in Australia, could assist in developing and ensuring the adoption of CSR practices in Pakistan.

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