Resumen de Ecological systems theory approach to corporate social responsibility: contextual perspectives from meeting planners

James Musgrave, Simon Woodward

• Business reputation, competitive advantage, differentiation, and regulatory adherence are all factors that are pushing corporate social responsibility ( CSR) center within the international meetings industry. However, attempts to simplify what is essentially a complex and contextual driven movement through certification and guides has created an incomplete understanding of the salient issues; contemporaneously ignoring contextual variables rather than acknowledging these and the impact these variables have on CSR practice and acceptance. The purpose of this article is to explore the contextual debat of CSR adaptation and practice within the meetings sector within a framework of an ecological systems theory. The authors applied a constant comparison process across 90 interview transcripts in order to establish a rigorous audit trail of analysis. Eight practices were identified:Green Technology, Legislation, Transparency and Reliability, Nonfinancial Donations, Workforce, Community Engagement, Supply Chain Management, and Volunteer Labor. These eight practices were then applied to the constructs of an ecological systems model and an exploration of contextual factors was considered. In recognizing a systems approach to CSR there is an acceptance that there is not one best method and that different values, implementation approaches, and evaluation mechanisms of CSR can lead to similar results.