Theses for Project Management

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Browsing Theses for Project Management by Subject "Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)"

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    The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on the firms’ Financial Performance and Value Creation: the case of Publicly Listed firms in the United Arab Emirates
    (The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2017-05) ABDULLAH, SAHAR MANSOUR
    CSR is the Corporate Social Responsibility of a business which includes the economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary expectations that society has of corporate at a given point in time. Several studies have sprung out to develop investment criteria in relation to a spectrum of CSR practices, such as corporate governance, environmental and societal ethical issues. Empirical analyses of the relationship among corporate social responsibility (CSR) and financial performance (FP) initiated before about thirty years ago, and the findings of these analyses still in contention. These studies suffer from several limitations in the sense they were unable to view CRS as a vehicle for a high financial performance (FP) and also value creation. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to extend our understanding of the CSR determinants those contribute to financial performance and value creation of the firms publicly listed in United Arab Emirates (UAE). This research carried out an exhaustive literature research with a focus on contemporary academic research in the field of CSR practices and financial performance and value creation in order to examine the main theories and seminal authors from the following aspects: origins of CSR notion, classification and development of its definition, determinants of CSR, evolution of studies examining the relationship among CSR and financial performance. This research was able to advance the existing literature by classifying the CSR practices into 4 groups and identify 97 CSR determinants/questions; these groups are including: Corporate Governance (CG) CSR practices; Economic (EC) CSR practices; Environment (ENV) CSR practices; and Social (S) CSR practices. The study also put forward an integrated framework for assessing the financial performance and the value creation of the firms through CSR practices. The most important CSR practices were evaluated for their potential to value creation through questionnaires in the firms studied. Several statistical methods were used to analyze the data. The results demonstrated that only “Economic Value - ECN1” is associated with “Stakeholder Relationships - VC2”, while “Wealth Distribution - ECN2” is associated with “Reputation of the firm - VC1”. On the other hand, “Environmental Practices - ENV1” is associated with “Price to Book Ratio -PB”, while “Environmental Policies - ENV2” is associated with both “Price to Book Ratio - PB” and with “Reputation of the firm - VC1”. Also, “Reputation of the firm - VC1” is associated with “Share Price - SP”. The study observed that the CSR practices of the UAE firms in their current structure are not the significant predictor of their profits with comparing to other important variables such as debt ratio, origin of the firm, firm growth and firm size. However, involvement in CSR activities should be happened in simultaneous with other variables that have a major influence on firms’ Financial Performance. This study found a positive association between UAE firms’ CSR practices and their Financial Performance “Share Price (SP)”. The results of this research have important practical and theoretical implications. In practical, the research results revealed that decision makers should put more resources and efforts on their CSR practices as their firms will be rewarded by their stakeholders and the long-term profitability. In theoretical, further research should aim to develop further CSR determinants and confirm the association proposed this study framework.
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    Managing CSR projects and programmes in the UAE
    (The British University in Dubai (BUiD), 2017-09) Al-Reyaysa, Meera
    Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an increasingly influential concept, which is usually claimed to be implemented more in the West than in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and MENA region, where it is portrayed as less developed and philanthropic. This research investigates developments of CSR in the UAE revealing different levels of awareness, engagement, and implementation. The study consists of data analysed from 29 interviews with CSR representatives of UAE-based organisations from 2011 to 2016, and a case study of a strategic youth engagement CSR programme. The varying degrees of sophistication and programmification of CSR activities in the UAE reveals a more developed stage of maturity than is implied in the literature. The use of project management to organise, implement, align and monitor CSR activity provides knowledge relevant to the UAE but also other countries. The study shows organisations with project management skills and governmental links are in a better position and under more pressure to undertake strategic CSR activity that is sustainable. Organisations linked to governmental organisations or leadership seem more aligned to national goals and so are more influenced to undertake strategic CSR activity that will contribute to these goals. CSR activity that is strategic seems to be projectised to achieve these goals as well. The research addresses a lack of knowledge on developments of CSR in the UAE, including the use of project management as a means to implement strategic CSR activity. Strategic CSR itself has not been associated with the region before, however the examination of CSR projects and programmes in the UAE has revealed that there are cases of CSR being strategically managed to achieve and contribute to organisational and not only social goals. Implications for project management theory drawn from the study include the application of project management to CSR activity, the CSR and PM theories are somewhat linked in the available literature, however not to the degree of which is presented in this study. The study provides an example of CSR and PM directly integrated to maximize success and achievement of organizational goals. Pellegrinelli (2002, p. 229) states that “Emergent thinking on programme management best practice has focused on the internal context, namely the marshalling of projects and resources to achieve the desired strategic and/or synergy benefits.” Most importantly, this research demonstrates the positive influence project management can have on implementation of CSR. The study sheds light on the institutional factors such as government pressure and peer pressure that influence the way CSR is perceived and managed in organisations in the UAE. Studying these factors in more depth will allow us to understand more on the way CSR in the UAE is developing and how it might be expedited further towards sustainable development. This area is recommended for future research; to produce more specific theory on institutional drivers that could further develop the CSR landscape.