A comparative study of corporate social responsibility in Bangladesh and Pakistan

Making a contribution to sustainable development through good corporate social responsibility presents businesses with a challenge, particularly in developing countries. This paper measures the sensitivity to corporate social responsibility amongst businesses operating in Bangladesh and Pakistan through a review of written policies of both listed local firms and multinational corporations operating there. We use the Global Compact supplemented by relevant parts of the Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Reporting Guidelines to benchmark companies and countries. Significant differences are found between local listed companies and multinational corporations. However, all companies are seen to be failing to engage with many aspects of corporate social responsibility related to sustainable development. Specific deficiencies relate to anti-corruption, gender equality, child labor, community giving and the formal representation of workers. Few differences are found between the approaches taken by companies in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Given the development needs of the region we point to businesses being unwilling or unable to adopt sufficiently robust corporate social responsibility and point to a role for both government and civil society. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.