Riassunto analitico
Background and objectives: The rise of globalization and international trade has brought attention to the worldwide notion of corporate social responsibility (CSR), and pharmaceutical companies are increasingly considering the importance of this field given the nature of their business. Nonetheless, there could be differences in how high-context and low-context cultures engage in CSR activities. Therefore, the analysis investigates the global CSR webpages of pharmaceutical companies based in culturally different countries to discover how cultural context affects CSR engagement.
Methodology: It consists of a content analysis of eight pharmaceutical companies’ CSR webpages. The companies subject to analysis have their main headquarters in high-context and low-context cultures, namely, in Japan (high-context), India (high-context), the United States (low-context), and the United Kingdom (low-context). As an analytical framework for the analysis, Lerbinger's CSR pyramid was used, and for each of the five levels of the pyramid, a panel of four keywords was created. Thereafter, the final steps involved counting the number of times each keyword appeared on the CSR webpages of each company and, ultimately, calculating the relative frequencies to determine which CSR levels each country prioritizes.
Findings: Even though both high-context and low-context companies are strongly focused on the first two levels of the pyramid, the results reveal that Takeda (Japan) and Cipla Pharmaceutical (India) place higher value on patient satisfaction and R&D activities compared to low-context companies, while Chugai Pharmaceutical (Japan) and Eli Lilly (USA) mainly prioritize minimizing social costs and environmental impact. Additionally, the findings indicate that mainly the two American companies and Cipla Pharmaceutical (India) give prominence to the third level of the pyramid, which consists of identifying and helping to solve social problems. Moreover, the results of Indian companies in the fourth level of the pyramid confirm their engagement with communities and wider societal values. Finally, mainly Takeda (Japan), Chugai Pharmaceutical (Japan), and AstraZeneca (UK) place value on ethics, transparency, and the ideals of diversity, equity, and inclusion, indicating a more individualistic approach to CSR that encourages stakeholder participation and transparency. Conclusions: The results show that the cultural context of the companies analyzed partially impacts on their CSR goals and activities and, therefore, on how companies prioritize CSR levels. In fact, the CSR activities of Japanese companies are in part more similar to those displayed by low-context companies. Thus, it is plausible to conclude that the necessity to adopt a global business communication and to provide the basis for easier mutual understating shapes the CSR priorities of companies. However, the analysis presents some limitations, such as the fact that with a sample of just two companies for each country, caution should be taken when generalizing the findings.
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Abstract
Background and objectives: The rise of globalization and international trade has brought attention to the worldwide notion of corporate social responsibility (CSR), and pharmaceutical companies are increasingly considering the importance of this field given the nature of their business. Nonetheless, there could be differences in how high-context and low-context cultures engage in CSR activities. Therefore, the analysis investigates the global CSR webpages of pharmaceutical companies based in culturally different countries to discover how cultural context affects CSR engagement.
Methodology: It consists of a content analysis of eight pharmaceutical companies’ CSR webpages. The companies subject to analysis have their main headquarters in high-context and low-context cultures, namely, in Japan (high-context), India (high-context), the United States (low-context), and the United Kingdom (low-context). As an analytical framework for the analysis, Lerbinger's CSR pyramid was used, and for each of the five levels of the pyramid, a panel of four keywords was created. Thereafter, the final steps involved counting the number of times each keyword appeared on the CSR webpages of each company and, ultimately, calculating the relative frequencies to determine which CSR levels each country prioritizes.
Findings: Even though both high-context and low-context companies are strongly focused on the first two levels of the pyramid, the results reveal that Takeda (Japan) and Cipla Pharmaceutical (India) place higher value on patient satisfaction and R&D activities compared to low-context companies, while Chugai Pharmaceutical (Japan) and Eli Lilly (USA) mainly prioritize minimizing social costs and environmental impact. Additionally, the findings indicate that mainly the two American companies and Cipla Pharmaceutical (India) give prominence to the third level of the pyramid, which consists of identifying and helping to solve social problems. Moreover, the results of Indian companies in the fourth level of the pyramid confirm their engagement with communities and wider societal values. Finally, mainly Takeda (Japan), Chugai Pharmaceutical (Japan), and AstraZeneca (UK) place value on ethics, transparency, and the ideals of diversity, equity, and inclusion, indicating a more individualistic approach to CSR that encourages stakeholder participation and transparency.
Conclusions: The results show that the cultural context of the companies analyzed partially impacts on their CSR goals and activities and, therefore, on how companies prioritize CSR levels. In fact, the CSR activities of Japanese companies are in part more similar to those displayed by low-context companies. Thus, it is plausible to conclude that the necessity to adopt a global business communication and to provide the basis for easier mutual understating shapes the CSR priorities of companies. However, the analysis presents some limitations, such as the fact that with a sample of just two companies for each country, caution should be taken when generalizing the findings.
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