4538980top00left952500-361950-114300center38100000center2562225 MASTER II Management and Business Administrationcenter3552825Issued by:The Lebanese Canadian University, Faculty of Business Administration – Aintouracenter143510Presented and defended by:Larissa Nammour AyoubOn Tuesday September 18th, 2018TitleCorporate Social Responsibility: A mean to strengthen Brand Equity?center4445Tutor5457190-57785005457190-22225005457190203200054571902279650054571907620000ARNAUD Stéphane5457190-12700005457190-100965005457190-5016500545719000054571906413500545719012890500545719018669000545719022288500545719028765500545719034480500545719037401500545719043116500545719048196500545719053911500545719058991500545719063309500545719071247000545719076263500545719080581500545719085598000545719093535500545719010147300054667157620000© 2018Lebanese Canadian University – Faculty of Business Administration – www.lcu.edu.

lb Table of Contents TOC o “1-3” h z u ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS PAGEREF _Toc521265165 h 4OVERVIEW PAGEREF _Toc521265166 h 5I.Introduction PAGEREF _Toc521265167 h 8II.Literature review PAGEREF _Toc521265168 h 101.CSR: Definition & Evolution PAGEREF _Toc521265169 h 102.

CSR vs. the Organization and its Stakeholders PAGEREF _Toc521265170 h 143.CSR vs. Risk Management PAGEREF _Toc521265171 h 194.CSR vs. Brand Management PAGEREF _Toc521265172 h 23III.

The Lebanese territory PAGEREF _Toc521265173 h 261.Lebanon: Overview PAGEREF _Toc521265174 h 262.CSR current situation in Lebanon PAGEREF _Toc521265175 h 28IV.Statistical Analysis: CSR activities in Lebanon PAGEREF _Toc521265176 h 301.Service: CSR Lebanon S.

A.R.L.

PAGEREF _Toc521265177 h 352.Real estate: Trillium Holding Lebanon PAGEREF _Toc521265178 h 373.Trading: IPT PAGEREF _Toc521265179 h 384.Communication & Media: ALFA PAGEREF _Toc521265180 h 405.

Education: Universities PAGEREF _Toc521265181 h 42a.AUB PAGEREF _Toc521265182 h 42b.USEK PAGEREF _Toc521265183 h 436.

Food & Beverages: Restaurants PAGEREF _Toc521265184 h 45a.Shtrumpf PAGEREF _Toc521265185 h 457.Banking and Finance PAGEREF _Toc521265186 h 47a.BankMed PAGEREF _Toc521265187 h 47V.Conclusion & Future Perspectives PAGEREF _Toc521265188 h 51LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS PAGEREF _Toc521265189 h 53LIST OF FIGURES PAGEREF _Toc521265190 h 54LIST OF TABLES PAGEREF _Toc521265191 h 55BIBLIOGRAPHY PAGEREF _Toc521265192 h 56Appendix A: Statistical Analysis PAGEREF _Toc521265193 h 61Appendix B: The UN Global Compact 10 Principles PAGEREF _Toc521265194 h 63ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThis thesis paper was achieved after having completed the curriculum of Management and Business Administration at the Lebanese Canadian University – Faculty of Business Administration – Aintoura, Lebanon, in coordination with Jean Monnet University – IAE Faculty – Saint-Étienne, France.I am grateful for the Lebanese Canadian University Campus and each one of its mentors, alongside Jean Monnet University Campus as well as each one of its Doctors, whom has provided constant support and guidance through the achievement of this Masters’ curriculum. I am thankful for the opportunity I had to complete this Master’s degree within a well-founded and challenging environment.

OVERVIEWSince the early 1960’s, socially responsible behavior has started gaining force as McGuire has supported the expansion of a company in search of community’s development and employees’ satisfaction. Ever since, attention was brought to the Stakeholder Theory, which affirms that companies must have responsibilities not only towards their direct stakeholders, but also their indirect ones, such as the government, the community and the society in which they act.Thus, in its most modern definitions, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) joins the mission, vision and values/principles of an organization, and this is mostly due to the change in customers’ expectations and perceptions of an organization’s main mission.Through the many challenges faced with the environment and society, going from global warming to natural disasters, respectively, the need for CSR has become an opportunity as well as a competitive advantage for companies who abide by it over others who don’t.Thus, as part of their normal business operations, a broad range of corporations started getting engaged into socially responsible behavior, as part of enhancing their brand’s image, building brand awareness, establishing brand credibility, thus eventually creating a sense of brand community and engagement.

Such CSR allows companies to house a publicly positive image, while still creating a healthy work environment, which automatically impacts work productivity and retains stakeholders’ loyalty; and by satisfying its stakeholders, a company is deemed to achieve long-term success.As valuable as a positive business reputation is, a poor reputation can be a business disaster. Accordingly, creating a brand equity (BE) through CSR is deemed to be a win-win situation for both, the Company and its stakeholders, as consumers believe that any organization has an important role in improving social and environmental welfare, aside from the effort brought over the economic performance.The most important question will be: How does CSR impact an organization’s BE?Keywords: Organization, Mission, Vision, Values, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Community, Government, Society, Employees’ satisfaction, Loyalty, Brand equity.Depuis le début des années 1960, le comportement socialement responsable a commencé à prendre de l’ampleur, suite à McGuire qui a soutenu l’expansion d’une entreprise en quête de développement communautaire et de satisfaction des employés. Depuis lors, l’attention a été portée sur la théorie des parties prenantes, qui affirme que les entreprises doivent avoir des responsabilités non seulement envers leurs parties prenantes directes, mais aussi indirectes, telles que le gouvernement, la communauté et la société dans laquelle elles agissent.Ainsi, dans ses définitions les plus modernes, la responsabilité sociale des entreprises (RSE) rejoint la mission, la vision et les valeurs / principes d’une organisation, principalement en raison des changements dans les attentes et les perceptions des clients.Face aux nombreux défis auxquels sont confrontés l’environnement et la société, allant du réchauffement climatique aux catastrophes naturelles, respectivement, le besoin de RSE est devenu une opportunité et un avantage concurrentiel pour les entreprises qui le respectent par rapport à d’autres qui ne s’envisagent pas dans un tel comportement.

Ainsi, dans le cadre de leurs activités commerciales normales, un large éventail d’entreprises a commencé à s’engager dans un comportement socialement responsable, en tant que moyen pour renforcer l’image ainsi que la notoriété de marque de l’entreprise et pour établir la crédibilité de la marque, créant ainsi un sentiment de communauté et d’engagement envers la marque.Ce type de RSE permet aux entreprises d’afficher une image publiquement positive, tout en créant un environnement de travail sain, ce qui affecte automatiquement la productivité du travail et la fidélité des parties prenantes envers l’organisation ; ainsi, ayant satisfaite ses parties, une entreprise est réputée atteindre le succès à long terme.Aussi valable qu’une réputation positive d’une entreprise est, une mauvaise réputation peut être un désastre pour cette entreprise.

Par conséquent, la création d’une image de marque par le biais de la RSE est considérée comme une situation gagnante pour la société ainsi que ses parties prenantes, du fait que les consommateurs estiment que toute organisation joue un rôle important dans l’amélioration du bien-être social et environnemental, en parallèle avec l’effort apporté sur la performance économique de l’entreprise.La question la plus importante sera : Quel serait l’impact de la RSE sur l’équité de la marque ?Mots-clés : Organisation, Mission, Vision, Valeurs, Responsabilité sociale de l’entreprise, Communauté, Gouvernement, Société, Satisfaction des employés, Loyauté, Équité de marque.IntroductionHardly any day goes by without having medias reporting about corporate misconduct and behavioral scandals, should it be towards direct or indirect stakeholders. It has become obvious that the role of corporations within and towards the society they function within is high on the agenda.This has in fact begun with ‘the usual suspects’ such as companies operating in the tobacco, oil, and chemical industries. Following several reported major disasters, and as a result of media pressure and sometimes governmental regulations, concerned companies realized that sustaining oppressive regimes, being part of environmental pollution, misinforming and consciously harming their customers or even being implicated in human rights violation, were practices that had to be reassessed if they wanted to survive and prosper within their own society.Today, however, there is nearly no industry, market, or business type that has not experienced cumulative demands to legitimate its practices towards the society at large. For instance, banking, retailing, tourism, food and beverages, entertainment, and healthcare industries – for long considered to be ‘clean’ and unquestionable – now all face increasing expectations that they institute more responsible practices.

Taking a closer look at the recent rise of CSR, arguments rise over the fact that this ‘new’ management idea is nothing more than ‘old wine in new bottles’, as the old saying goes. Having corporations donate to charities, ensure right and fair human working conditions and providing decent housing/healthcare are obviously activities engaged in the normal work course of many early industrialists in the US and European countries, without necessarily calling such CSR activities and highlighting them in annual issued reports ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Crane</Author><Year>2013</Year><RecNum>31</RecNum><DisplayText>1</DisplayText><record><rec-number>31</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531577579″>31</key><key app=”ENWeb” db-id=””>0</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Crane</author><author>Andrew</author><author>Matten</author><author>Dirk</author><author>Spence</author><author>Laura J.</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Corporate Social Responsibility in a Global Context</title><secondary-title>Routledge</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Routledge</full-title></periodical><dates><year>2013</year><pub-dates><date>September 1</date></pub-dates></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>1.

Corporations are clearly taking up this challenge.”The usual Business” can no longer be achieved in a constantly changing environment that generates unforeseeable and different types of risks. Holding responsibility going beyond employment and job creation has become compulsory for the survival, well-being and prosperity of any company, as business nowadays undoubtedly rely on the communities within which they operate and cannot grow in isolation.Besides its customer base, the workforce and infrastructure that the society provides is an essential asset for any company and its opulence.

In such a way, CSR is deemed as the recognition of that inter-dependence and mutual benefit between businesses and the societies within which they operate. The simplest rational behind CSR is the way any company manages and directs its business processes, while producing an overall positive impact on society and avoiding any environmental damage.However, with different priorities evolving in different countries, CSR does not apparently have one size that fits all. Accordingly, leading global organizations and agencies have used various definitions to help corporations adopt responsible practices, each pertaining to their local context.

Literature reviewCSR: Definition & EvolutionFor several years, the skyrocketing concept of CSR has been the main subject of much publicity. Until nowadays, the fundamental questions of CSR in a company are as old as the company itself, but still constitute a topic of debate ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Crane</Author><Year>2008</Year><RecNum>59</RecNum><DisplayText>2</DisplayText><record><rec-number>59</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531673427″>59</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Andrew Crane</author><author>Abagail Mcwilliams</author><author>Donald S.

Siegel</author><author>Dirk Matten</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility</title><secondary-title>Oxford University Press</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Oxford University Press</full-title></periodical><dates><year>2008</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>2.As a matter of fact, CSR was first mentioned by Clark in 1926, in his monographs whereby he highlights the fact that any company has obligations towards the society ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>J.</Author><Year>1926</Year><RecNum>60</RecNum><DisplayText>3</DisplayText><record><rec-number>60</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531673732″>60</key><key app=”ENWeb” db-id=””>0</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Clark A. J.

</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>The antagonism of Acetyl Choline by Atropine</title><secondary-title>The Journal of Physiology</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>The Journal of Physiology</full-title></periodical><dates><year>1926</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>3.In 1932, the first article discussing CSR topic was published by Berle ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Jr.</Author><Year>1932</Year><RecNum>61</RecNum><DisplayText>4</DisplayText><record><rec-number>61</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531674063″>61</key><key app=”ENWeb” db-id=””>0</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Adolf A. Berle Jr.</author><author>Gardiner C.

Means</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>The Modern Corporation and Private Property</title><secondary-title>Indiana Law Journal</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Indiana Law Journal</full-title></periodical><volume>8</volume><number>8</number><dates><year>1932</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>4. The latter focuses on managers’ responsibility to provide “security, protection and livelihoods to those who are unable to survive in normal working or commercial conditions”.Afterwards, several other monographs followed and contributed in the introduction of social responsibilities as corporate obligations, such as monographs published by Barnard, 1938 ADDIN EN.CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Barnard;/Author;;Year;1938;/Year;;RecNum;62;/RecNum;;DisplayText;5;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;62;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531674467″;62;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;Barnard, Chester Irving;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;The functions of the executive;/title;;secondary-title;Cambridge: Harvard University Press;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;Cambridge: Harvard University Press;/full-title;;/periodical;;dates;;year;1938;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;5 and Kreps, 1940 ADDIN EN.CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Kreps;/Author;;Year;1940;/Year;;RecNum;63;/RecNum;;DisplayText;6;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;63;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531674619″;63;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;David M. Kreps;/author;;author;Kenneth F. Wallis;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;Advances in Economics and Econometrics;/title;;secondary-title;Cambridge University Press;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;Cambridge University Press;/full-title;;/periodical;;dates;;year;1940;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;6.

In the early 1950s, CSR constituted the main topic for a theoretical elaboration of several researchers. Bowen, in 1953, defined the social responsibilities as “the obligations of managers to pursue policies, make decisions or follow the lines of action that serve the goals and values of our society” ADDIN EN.CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Bowen;/Author;;Year;1953;/Year;;RecNum;64;/RecNum;;DisplayText;7;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;64;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531674799″;64;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;Howard Bowen;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;Social responsibilities of the businessman;/title;;secondary-title;New York: Harper ;amp; Row;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;New York: Harper ;amp; Row;/full-title;;/periodical;;dates;;year;1953;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;7.A few years later, Heald (1957), another CSR expert at the time, stated that “the management that recognizes its obligation towards the society not only helps to achieve maximum economic return, but also to put in place humanitarian and constructive social policies” ADDIN EN.CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Heald;/Author;;Year;1957;/Year;;RecNum;65;/RecNum;;DisplayText;8;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;65;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531675381″;65;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;Morrell Heald;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;Management;apos;s Responsibility to Society: The Growth of an Idea;/title;;secondary-title;The Business History Review;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;The Business History Review;/full-title;;/periodical;;volume;31;/volume;;number;4;/number;;dates;;year;1957;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;8.Even though the origins of CSR can be traced back to the beginning of commerce itself, the nature and scope of corporate responsibility has changed over time, and it wasn’t until the 1960s that the term ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ has been widely used. In the 1960s, research sustained to eventually find a common definition for the concept of CSR.

Davis, one of the greatest writers at the time, affirmed that CSR is defined by the manager’s decisions and actions that go beyond the direct, economic and technical interests of the company ADDIN EN.CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Davis;/Author;;Year;1960;/Year;;RecNum;66;/RecNum;;DisplayText;9;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;66;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531677005″;66;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;Keith Davis;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;Can Business Afford to Ignore Social Responsibilities?;/title;;secondary-title;California Management Review;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;California Management Review;/full-title;;/periodical;;volume;2;/volume;;number;3;/number;;dates;;year;1960;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;9. Similarly, William C. Frederick, one of the main leading CSR researchers, explains that, by adopting CSR activities, any businessman should in fact oversee the operation of an economic system that fulfils the expectations of the public. This reflects that the economy’s means of production should be employed in such a way that, both, production and distribution should enhance total socio-economic welfare and being ADDIN EN.

CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Frederick</Author><Year>1960</Year><RecNum>67</RecNum><DisplayText>10</DisplayText><record><rec-number>67</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531677290″>67</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>William C. Frederick</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>The Growing Concern over Social Responsibility</title><secondary-title>California Management Review</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>California Management Review</full-title></periodical><volume>2</volume><dates><year>1960</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>10.In the early 1970s, a different point of view to define CSR was put forward at the time by Milton Friedman: “There is one and only one social responsibility of business – to use its resources and engage in activities designed to improve its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition, without deception and fraud” ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Friedman</Author><Year>1970</Year><RecNum>68</RecNum><DisplayText>11</DisplayText><record><rec-number>68</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531678385″>68</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Milton Friedman</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits</title><secondary-title>The New York Times Magazine</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>The New York Times Magazine</full-title></periodical><volume>33</volume><number>30</number><dates><year>1970</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>11.Subsequently, in 1979, Carroll advanced a well-known definition of CSR that paved the way for relevant research: “CSR involves the conduct of a business so that it is economically profitable, law abiding, ethical and socially supportive” ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Carroll</Author><Year>1979</Year><RecNum>69</RecNum><DisplayText>12</DisplayText><record><rec-number>69</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531679133″>69</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Archie B Carroll</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>A Three-Dimensional Conceptual Model of Social Performance</title><secondary-title>The Academy of Management Review</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>The Academy of Management Review</full-title></periodical><volume>4</volume><number>4</number><dates><year>1979</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>12.

The concept of CSR progressed well in the 1970s. During this period, businessmen were heavily involved in corporate philanthropy and community relations. Throughout this same period, four aspects of social performance emerged and became well known: Social Responsibility, Social Accounting, Social Indicators and Social Auditing ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Backman</Author><Year>1975</Year><RecNum>70</RecNum><DisplayText>13</DisplayText><record><rec-number>70</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531758397″>70</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Jules Backman</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Social responsibility and accountability</title><secondary-title>New York : New York University Press</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>New York : New York University Press</full-title></periodical><dates><year>1975</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>13.In 1980, Thomas M.

Jones added that CSR is a set of standards of behaviour by which a corporation abides in order to have a positive effect and productive impact on its society, representing by such a framework for the role of business in society ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Jones</Author><Year>1980</Year><RecNum>71</RecNum><DisplayText>14</DisplayText><record><rec-number>71</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531759225″>71</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Thomas M. Jones</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Corporate Social Responsibility Revisited, Redefined</title><secondary-title>California Management Review</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>California Management Review</full-title></periodical><volume>22</volume><number>2</number><dates><year>1980</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>14.Afterwards, during the 1990s, Elkington introduced the triple bottom-line principle, which assesses the company’s overall performance from three main angles: Social (People), Environmental (Planet) and Economic (Profit) ADDIN EN.

CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Elkington;/Author;;Year;1997;/Year;;RecNum;72;/RecNum;;DisplayText;15;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;72;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531760627″;72;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;John Elkington;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;Cannibals with Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business;/title;;secondary-title;Stoney Creek, CT: New Society Publishers;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;Stoney Creek, CT: New Society Publishers;/full-title;;/periodical;;dates;;year;1997;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;15. Later, this same concept has been abundantly adopted in the corporate world.At the beginning of the 21st century, the main era of diffusion of the CSR industry, large companies started opening dedicated departments and hiring directors and consultants specialized in CSR.At that time, the European Commission (2002) highlighted a close relation between the company and the society, by defining CSR as “a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis” ADDIN EN.

CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Commission;/Author;;Year;2002;/Year;;RecNum;73;/RecNum;;DisplayText;16;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;73;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531761040″;73;/key;;key app=”ENWeb” db-id=””;0;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;European Commission;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;Corporate Social Responsibility: a new definition, a new agenda for action;/title;;/titles;;dates;;year;2002;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;16. After which, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (2008) defined CSR as “the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large” ADDIN EN.CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Development;/Author;;Year;2008;/Year;;RecNum;74;/RecNum;;DisplayText;17;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;74;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531761434″;74;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;World Business Council for Sustainable Development;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;CSR in Action;/title;;/titles;;dates;;year;2008;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;17.Up until 2016, whereby Aline Al Am, a researcher in Management, specified that CSR enhances the company’s reputation which automatically increases the loyalty of its products and services and therefore, its profitability ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Am</Author><Year>2016</Year><RecNum>57</RecNum><DisplayText>18</DisplayText><record><rec-number>57</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531670752″>57</key><key app=”ENWeb” db-id=””>0</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Aline Al Am</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Corporate social responsibility and sustainability: theory and practice in Lebanon </title><secondary-title>Int. J. Environment and Health</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Int.

J. Environment and Health</full-title></periodical><volume>8</volume><number>1</number><dates><year>2016</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>18.Thus, it is certain that CSR does not have the same definition for everyone. Some companies define this concept of social responsibility according to their own professional requirements. Others measure and evaluate CSR initiatives according to the budget allocated for its implementation ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Am</Author><Year>2016</Year><RecNum>57</RecNum><DisplayText>18</DisplayText><record><rec-number>57</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531670752″>57</key><key app=”ENWeb” db-id=””>0</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Aline Al Am</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Corporate social responsibility and sustainability: theory and practice in Lebanon </title><secondary-title>Int. J. Environment and Health</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Int.

J. Environment and Health</full-title></periodical><volume>8</volume><number>1</number><dates><year>2016</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>18.However, despite the variety of advanced definitions of CSR, all of them at once refer to five main dimensions ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Dahlsrud</Author><Year>2008</Year><RecNum>9</RecNum><DisplayText>19</DisplayText><record><rec-number>9</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531575698″>9</key><key app=”ENWeb” db-id=””>0</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Dahlsrud, Alexander</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>How corporate social responsibility is defined: an analysis of 37 definitions</title><secondary-title>Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management</full-title></periodical><pages>1-13</pages><volume>15</volume><number>1</number><section>1</section><dates><year>2008</year></dates><isbn>15353958 15353966</isbn><urls></urls><electronic-resource-num>10.1002/csr.132</electronic-resource-num></record></Cite></EndNote>19:Table SEQ Table * ARABIC 1: The five dimensions, the applied coding scheme and example phrasesDimensions The definition is coded to the dimension if it refers to Example phrasesThe environmental dimension The natural environment “a cleaner environment””environmental stewardship””environmental concerns in business operations”The social dimension The relationship between business and society “contribute to a better society””integrate social concerns in their business operations””consider the full scope of their impact on communities”The economic dimension Socio-economic or financial aspects, including describing CSR in terms of a business operation “contribute to economic development””preserving the profitability””business operations”The stakeholder dimension Stakeholders or stakeholder groups “interaction with their stakeholders””how organizations interact with their employees, suppliers, customers and communities””treating the stakeholders of the firm”The voluntariness dimension Actions not prescribed by low “based on ethical values””beyond legal obligations””voluntary” (Dahlsrud, A., How corporate social responsibility is defined: an analysis of 37 definitions. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 2008.

15(1): p. 1-13)While voluntary in nature, a typical CSR framework allows corporations to widen their commitment scope towards society by engaging their direct and indirect surroundings into their everyday business operations, understanding their communities’ needs, and assisting in offering long-term solutions to tackle these needs effectively, while still making profit.Today, the connection between what companies think of their social responsibility and what they practically do is the main interest of the community. According to Phillip Kotler and Nancy Lee ADDIN EN.CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Kotler;/Author;;Year;2005;/Year;;RecNum;75;/RecNum;;DisplayText;20;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;75;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531762383″;75;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;Philip Kotler;/author;;author;Nancy Lee;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;Corporate Social Responsibility: Doing the Most Good for Your Company and Your Cause;/title;;secondary-title;New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons;/full-title;;/periodical;;dates;;year;2005;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;20, all the CSR definitions that have been brought up by research can be simply grouped into two broad categories: “The traditional approach” and “The new approach”.Companies no longer considered CSR to be a voluntary activity nor an obligation, but rather a strategic tool to strengthen their business activities and thus, improve the company’s image and reputation and contribute to the achievement of its objectives.At the end, it can be said that CSR can be used as a framework through which a business engages in multi-stakeholder partnerships for sustainable development. Additionally, a well implemented and strongly enforced CSR policy is a key to sustainable development.

CSR vs. the Organization and its StakeholdersSocial and environmental responsibility is becoming a topic of legal and political documentation and is beginning to spread internationally. Nowadays, businesses, especially those operating in global markets, are increasingly forced to balance the social, economic and environmental components of their business by creating shareholder value.In such respect, a dramatic shift in the private sector’s relations with the state and civil society has been witnessed throughout the past thirty years.Companies have been increasingly called upon to adopt strategies beyond their operations’ financial aspects, and to start considering the social and environmental impact of their business and commercial activities. A significant majority of companies have started adopting CSR strategies, which have been carried out using a variety of practices aiming to improve the company’s social and environmental performance.

Examples of CSR practices are abundantly mentioned across the literature, such as ADDIN EN.CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Vogel;/Author;;Year;2005;/Year;;RecNum;35;/RecNum;;DisplayText;21;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;35;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531578934″;35;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;David Vogel;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;The Market for virtue: The potential and limits of Corporate Social Responsibility;/title;;secondary-title;Brookins Institution Press;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;Brookins Institution Press;/full-title;;/periodical;;dates;;year;2005;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;21:”IKEA”, a furniture retail company, requires its suppliers to ban child labour;”Vodafone”, a telecommunications company, applies a series of programs to reduce its CO? emissions;”Unilever”, a consumer-goods company, treats healthcare and security problems in its local workplace;”Total”, a petroleum refining company, abides by a series of policies addressing human rights and environmental abuses related to its operations.Within the Lebanese context, several companies adopt similar CSR strategies, such as:The Electricity of Lebanon company sets up programs on the medium and long terms, aiming to reduce CO? emissions in its thermal power centers in “Jounieh” and “Jiyeh”;The national cement center abides by a series of policies targeting the reduction of pollution in “Chekka” area.Hence, current research fails to address these issues as it focuses primarily on speculations related to the real and perceived advantages and disadvantages of CSR’s implementation ADDIN EN.

CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Frederick</Author><Year>2006</Year><RecNum>36</RecNum><DisplayText>22</DisplayText><record><rec-number>36</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531580748″>36</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>William Crittenden Frederick</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Corporation Be Good! The story of Corporate Social Responsibility</title><secondary-title>Dog Ear Publishing</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Dog Ear Publishing</full-title></periodical><dates><year>2006</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>22.Whenever the formal presence of environmental managements systems is deemed to be equivalent and coherent with CSR activities, the latter are often evaluated in a simplified and superficial way ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Bondy</Author><Year>2008</Year><RecNum>37</RecNum><DisplayText>23, 24</DisplayText><record><rec-number>37</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531582366″>37</key><key app=”ENWeb” db-id=””>0</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Bondy, Krista</author><author>Matten, Dirk</author><author>Moon, Jeremy</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Multinational Corporation Codes of Conduct: Governance Tools for Corporate Social Responsibility?</title><secondary-title>Corporate Governance: An International Review</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Corporate Governance: An International Review</full-title></periodical><pages>294-311</pages><volume>16</volume><number>4</number><section>294</section><dates><year>2008</year></dates><isbn>09648410 14678683</isbn><urls></urls><electronic-resource-num>10.1111/j.1467-8683.2008.

00694.x</electronic-resource-num></record></Cite><Cite><Author>Rodríguez</Author><Year>2007</Year><RecNum>38</RecNum><record><rec-number>38</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531582519″>38</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Linda C. Rodríguez</author><author>Jane LeMaster</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Voluntary Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure. SEC “CSR Seal of Approval”</title><secondary-title>Business and Society</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Business and Society</full-title></periodical><volume>46</volume><number>3</number><dates><year>2007</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>23, 24.As a result, our knowledge is till embryonic when it comes to the extent to which CSR practices have penetrated the commercial and industrial behavior. For such, research needs to focus on the specific policies and activities by which management attempts the implementation of a theoretical as well as practical commitment towards social, environmental and governmental objectives ADDIN EN.

CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Wood</Author><Year>2010</Year><RecNum>39</RecNum><DisplayText>25, 26</DisplayText><record><rec-number>39</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531583461″>39</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Donna J. Wood</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Measuring Corporate Social Performance: A Review</title><secondary-title>International Journal of Management Reviews</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>International Journal of Management Reviews</full-title></periodical><volume>12</volume><number>1</number><dates><year>2010</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite><Cite><Author>Godfrey</Author><Year>2006</Year><RecNum>40</RecNum><record><rec-number>40</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531583556″>40</key><key app=”ENWeb” db-id=””>0</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Godfrey, Paul C.</author><author>Hatch, Nile W.</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Researching Corporate Social Responsibility: An Agenda for the 21st Century</title><secondary-title>Journal of Business Ethics</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Journal of Business Ethics</full-title></periodical><pages>87-98</pages><volume>70</volume><number>1</number><section>87</section><dates><year>2006</year></dates><isbn>0167-4544 1573-0697</isbn><urls></urls><electronic-resource-num>10.1007/s10551-006-9080-y</electronic-resource-num></record></Cite></EndNote>25, 26.Traditionally, an organization’s success was linked to its respect for time, cost and goal attainment ADDIN EN.CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Shenhar;/Author;;Year;2001;/Year;;RecNum;53;/RecNum;;DisplayText;27;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;53;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531659675″;53;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;Aaron Shenhar;/author;;author;Dov Dvir;/author;;author;Alan C.

Maltz;/author;;author;Ofer Levy;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;Project Success: A Multidimensional Strategic Concept;/title;;secondary-title;Long Range Planning;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;Long Range Planning;/full-title;;/periodical;;volume;34;/volume;;number;6;/number;;dates;;year;2001;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;27. For its part, the “Project Management Book Of Knowledge” states that the success of an organization is measured in terms of the “Triple Constraint”: time, cost, scope, quality and customer satisfaction ADDIN EN.CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Year;2004;/Year;;RecNum;54;/RecNum;;DisplayText;28;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;54;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531660166″;54;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;PMBOK: Project Management Book Of Knowledge;/title;;secondary-title;Project Management Institute;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;Project Management Institute;/full-title;;/periodical;;dates;;year;2004;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;28.Thus, sometimes, the measurement of an organization’s success according to time and cost is inefficient, especially when it comes to a long period of time following the start of an organization. As Shenhar and his colleagues stated: “Most of the time, organizations that seem to have trouble, delays and cost overruns at the beginning, eventually end up becoming real business successes” ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Shenhar</Author><Year>2001</Year><RecNum>53</RecNum><DisplayText>27</DisplayText><record><rec-number>53</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531659675″>53</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Aaron Shenhar</author><author>Dov Dvir</author><author>Alan C. Maltz</author><author>Ofer Levy</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Project Success: A Multidimensional Strategic Concept</title><secondary-title>Long Range Planning</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Long Range Planning</full-title></periodical><volume>34</volume><number>6</number><dates><year>2001</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>27.

Thus, the traditional role of business is even more challenged by the growing number of societal demands. Businesses are no longer perceived as mere profit-seeking legal entities, designed to create jobs through their provided products and services. They need to better understand and redefine their role in fulfilling their social responsibilities and should not be limited to government development programs but rather, be interested in developing initiatives to improve their community’s standard of living. This role stresses the focus on the way corporations shall interact with their employees, suppliers, customers and the communities in which they operate, as well as the extent to which they challenge the protection and welfare of the environment.

Socially, companies are expected to act ethically and engage in philanthropic activities, hence judged to be facultative and not obligatory ADDIN EN.CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Ihlen;/Author;;Year;2011;/Year;;RecNum;55;/RecNum;;DisplayText;29;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;55;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531669051″;55;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;Øyvind Ihlen;/author;;author;Jennifer L. Bartlett;/author;;author;Steve May;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;The Handbook of Communication and Corporate Social Responsibility;/title;;secondary-title;A John Wiley ;amp; Sons, Ltd., Publication;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;A John Wiley ;amp; Sons, Ltd., Publication;/full-title;;/periodical;;dates;;year;2011;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;29.Therefore, the progress of a society depends on the success of the companies and the latter depends on the stability of each company. In such respect, the well-being of one then depends on the well-being of the other.

Hence, there is a clear correlation between the two ADDIN EN.CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Maignan;/Author;;Year;2002;/Year;;RecNum;56;/RecNum;;DisplayText;30;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;56;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531670069″;56;/key;;key app=”ENWeb” db-id=””;0;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;Isabelle Maignan;/author;;author;David A. Ralston;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;Corporate Social Responsibility in Europe and the U.S.: Insights from Businesses;apos; Self-Presentations;/title;;secondary-title;Journal of International Business Studies;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;Journal of International Business Studies;/full-title;;/periodical;;volume;33;/volume;;number;3;/number;;dates;;year;2002;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;30.

Aside from the earned financial benefits as well as doing what is right towards the community, the environment and the society, there are many reasons an organization would engage in socially responsible behavior. The most prominent may be earning a positive reputation, helping the environment, assisting local communities, improving employee job satisfaction, and most importantly, stakeholder theory: a theory of organizational management and business ethics that addresses morals and values in managing an organization ADDIN EN.CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Lopez;/Author;;Year;2007;/Year;;RecNum;99;/RecNum;;DisplayText;31;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;99;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1532778628″;99;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;Victoria Lopez;/author;;author;Armina Garcia;/author;;author;Lazaro Rodriquez;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;Sustainable Development and Corporate Performance: A Study Based on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index;/title;;secondary-title;Journal of Business Ethics;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;Journal of Business Ethics;/full-title;;/periodical;;dates;;year;2007;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;31.Several aspects related to the environment support this theory and end up creating cost savings, such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, that abundant companies pursue. LEED certification is known as a designation developed by U.S.

Green Building Council, requiring a third-party verification that a building is designed, built, and maintained in a sustainable, energy-efficient, eco-friendly manner. Such manners will undoubtedly affect the organization’s financial performance (FP) and reputation. In fact, in their respective studies, Wu and Shen ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Wu</Author><Year>2013</Year><RecNum>79</RecNum><DisplayText>32</DisplayText><record><rec-number>79</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531771078″>79</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Meng-Wen Wu</author><author>Chung-Hua Shen</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Corporate social responsibility in the banking industry: Motives and financial performance</title><secondary-title>Journal of Banking &amp; Finance</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Journal of Banking &amp; Finance</full-title></periodical><volume>37</volume><number>9</number><dates><year>2013</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>32, Cochran and Wood ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Cochran</Author><Year>2017</Year><RecNum>82</RecNum><DisplayText>33</DisplayText><record><rec-number>82</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531773238″>82</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Philip L. Cochran</author><author>Robert A. Wood</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performance</title><secondary-title>Academy of Management Journal</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Academy of Management Journal</full-title></periodical><volume>27</volume><number>1</number><dates><year>2017</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>33 and McGuire and his colleagues ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>McGuire</Author><Year>2017</Year><RecNum>83</RecNum><DisplayText>34</DisplayText><record><rec-number>83</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531773293″>83</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Jean B.

McGuire</author><author>Alison Sundgren</author><author>Thomas Schneeweis</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Financial Performance</title><secondary-title>Academy of Management Journal</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Academy of Management Journal</full-title></periodical><volume>31</volume><number>4</number><dates><year>2017</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>34, affirmed that CSR positively associates with the organization’s FP, in terms of return on assets and equity, net interest and non-interest income, and Vallens found that 75% of a company’s value is the result of its reputation ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Vallens</Author><Year>2008</Year><RecNum>100</RecNum><DisplayText>35</DisplayText><record><rec-number>100</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1532778734″>100</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Ansi Vallens</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>The Importance of Reputation</title><secondary-title>Risk Management</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Risk Management</full-title></periodical><dates><year>2008</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>35. The latter has been afterwards further highlighted by Servaes and his colleagues, whom confirmed that CSR and a firm’s value are positively correlated, when it comes to a firm with high customer awareness ADDIN EN.CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Servaes;/Author;;Year;2013;/Year;;RecNum;85;/RecNum;;DisplayText;36;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;85;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531939178″;85;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;Henri Servaes;/author;;author;Ane Tamayo;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Firm Value: The Role of Customer Awareness;/title;;secondary-title;Management Science Journal;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;Management Science Journal;/full-title;;/periodical;;volume;59;/volume;;number;5;/number;;dates;;year;2013;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;36.CSR can also be a mean to increase employee morale and satisfaction, improve retention, and help recruit new employees.

By such, greater employee morale can lead to increased productivity. Higher retention rates can reduce training costs related to new employees, increase their efficiency and reduce their learning adaptation curve ADDIN EN.CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Vallens;/Author;;Year;2008;/Year;;RecNum;101;/RecNum;;DisplayText;37;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;101;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1532778891″;101;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;Vallens;/author;;author;Lance Moir;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;”What Do We Mean by Corporate Social Responsibility?”;/title;;secondary-title;Corporate Governance: An International Review;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;Corporate Governance: An International Review;/full-title;;/periodical;;volume;1;/volume;;number;2;/number;;dates;;year;2008;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;37. Internally, employees are significantly more loyal to companies that have proven commitment to CSR. An April 2010 study by Hewitt ; Associates looked at 230 workplaces with more than 100,000 employees and found that the more a company actively pursues worthy environmental and social efforts, the more engaged its employees are ADDIN EN.CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Associates;/Author;;Year;2010;/Year;;RecNum;109;/RecNum;;DisplayText;38;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;109;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1533064590″;109;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;Hewitt ;amp; Associates;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;Trends in Global Employee Engagement;/title;;secondary-title;AON Hewitt, Consulting: Talent ;amp; Organization;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;AON Hewitt, Consulting: Talent ;amp; Organization;/full-title;;/periodical;;dates;;year;2010;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;38.

Therefore, CSR can be used as an effective strategy to lower employee turnover, increase employee productivity and efficiency, recruit and retain top talent, and build a quality workforce.Other strategic benefits for CSR initiatives can be reaped in the form of intangible assets such as the company’s corporate reputation, the value of its brand identity, the relationships it has built on trust, and its business partnerships. Aside from its internal stakeholders, an organization’s practice of social responsibility is believed to influence its consumers and differentiate its product offerings in the market, whenever brought within the right timing margin. A considerable body of literature focused on the effect of CSR initiatives towards consumers’ perceptions, one of which evidenced that consumers consider the social initiative’s timing (proactive versus reactive) as an informational cue, and only the proactive initiatives will lead to an improvement in consumers beliefs, attitudes, and intentions ADDIN EN.CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Becker-Olsen;/Author;;Year;2006;/Year;;RecNum;78;/RecNum;;DisplayText;39;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;78;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531769869″;78;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;Karen L. Becker-Olsen;/author;;author;B.

Andrew Cudmore;/author;;author;Ronald Paul Hill;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;The impact of perceived corporate social responsibility on consumer behavior;/title;;secondary-title;Journal of Business Research;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;Journal of Business Research;/full-title;;/periodical;;volume;59;/volume;;number;1;/number;;dates;;year;2006;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;39. Moreover, other studies indicated that CSR had a direct positive impact on the customer’s purchase intent ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Mohr</Author><Year>2005</Year><RecNum>87</RecNum><DisplayText>40</DisplayText><record><rec-number>87</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531939648″>87</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Lois A. Mohr</author><author>Deborah J. Webb</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>The effects of corporate social responsibility and price on consumer responses</title><secondary-title>The Journal of Consumer Affairs</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>The Journal of Consumer Affairs</full-title></periodical><volume>39</volume><number>1</number><dates><year>2005</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>40 and loyalty ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Raman</Author><Year>2012</Year><RecNum>28</RecNum><DisplayText>41</DisplayText><record><rec-number>28</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531576930″>28</key><key app=”ENWeb” db-id=””>0</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Murali Raman</author><author>Wayne Lim</author><author>Sumitra Nair</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>The impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Consumer Loyalty</title><secondary-title>Multimedia University, Faculty of Management</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Multimedia University, Faculty of Management</full-title></periodical><volume>30</volume><number>2</number><dates><year>2012</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>41 towards the firm.

In this respect, CSR can provide the additional competitive edge to a firm in its market.As illustrated in Figure 1, Baker stated that an organization’s CSR efforts can impact the society in four main areas, namely: the environment, the community, the workplace and the marketplace. Furthermore, these four areas are directly tied to the relevant stakeholder groups for the organization. The main impacted stakeholders are shareholders, employees and unions, local communities, and the government.Figure SEQ Figure * ARABIC 1: Baker’s Model 2001(Baker, J., Remarks of Jim Baker, International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Paper presented at the Conference on Corporate Social Responsibilities, Paris, France. 19 June., 2001)Baker’s model asserts that in terms of business quality, a company needs to stamp its impact on the marketplace, workplace, environment, and community.

This is in addition to its traditional focus on its FP. Thus, a company should carefully develop and execute CSR initiatives to distinguish itself as a leader in terms of being a responsible business entity ADDIN EN.CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Baker;/Author;;Year;2001;/Year;;RecNum;105;/RecNum;;DisplayText;42;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;105;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1532779936″;105;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;Baker, J.

;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;Remarks of Jim Baker, International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development;/title;;secondary-title;Paper presented at the Conference on Corporate Social Responsibilities, Paris, France. 19 June.;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;Paper presented at the Conference on Corporate Social Responsibilities, Paris, France. 19 June.;/full-title;;/periodical;;dates;;year;2001;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;42.Consequently, CSR practices should be consistent with the organization’s corporate strategy.

The latter concentrates on the overall purpose and scope of the business to meet stakeholder expectations and is seen as fundamental as it helps lead strategic decision-making throughout a company as well as uncertainty and risk management ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Gerry</Author><Year>2008</Year><RecNum>92</RecNum><DisplayText>43</DisplayText><record><rec-number>92</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1532719488″>92</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Johnson Gerry</author><author>Scholes Kevan</author><author>Whittington Richard</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Exploring Corporate Strategy</title><secondary-title>Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall</full-title></periodical><volume>8</volume><dates><year>2008</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>43.CSR vs. Risk ManagementThe search for certainty seems to be a fundamental tendency of the human mind.

Yet, many situations show that the human capacity to effectively manage uncertainty is sorely lacking, despite any remarkable progress in this domain ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Gigerenzer</Author><Year>2002</Year><RecNum>41</RecNum><DisplayText>44</DisplayText><record><rec-number>41</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531646819″>41</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Gerd Gigerenzer</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Calculated Risks: How to Know When Numbers Deceive You</title><secondary-title>Simon &amp; Schuster</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Simon &amp; Schuster</full-title></periodical><dates><year>2002</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>44. “For over a century, all “social scientists” have operated under the false belief that their tools could measure uncertainty” states Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan, 2007 ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Taleb</Author><Year>2007</Year><RecNum>42</RecNum><DisplayText>45</DisplayText><record><rec-number>42</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531647356″>42</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Nassim Nicholas Taleb</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable</title><secondary-title>Golman Sachs Business Book</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Golman Sachs Business Book</full-title></periodical><dates><year>2007</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>45.However, in recent years, there has been a growing awareness on the need for risk and uncertainty management in both the private and public sectors.

This awareness has emerged following the financial collapse of large companies and banking institutions and is linked to many disasters mediated by their extent, such as the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, which has been recognized as the worst oil spill in the U.S.’ history. An estimated 3.19 million barrels of oil had leaked into the Gulf and resulted in the death of 11 people.Such an awareness has also been taken in action after many catastrophes, judged less spectacular and more diffuse in the bowels of the economic activity with high rate of social irresponsibility, as it is the case for the Southern countries, such as Lebanon. As an example, during July 2006′ war, the bombing of the “Jiyeh” Power Central Station resulted in the spilling of 15 000 tons of oil into the sea and polluted 150 kilometres of the Lebanese coast, as well as several areas of the Syrian coast.

Furthermore, continuous failures in several projects highlights the need for CSR and risk management:The construction of the Channel Tunnel cost 4650 million euros, although the expected cost was 2600 million euros, thus making a cost overrun of 80% ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Flyvbjerg</Author><Year>2003</Year><RecNum>43</RecNum><DisplayText>46</DisplayText><record><rec-number>43</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531649820″>43</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Bent Flyvbjerg</author><author>Werner Rothengatter</author><author>Nils Bruzelius</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>MegaProjects and Risk: An Anatomy of Ambition</title><secondary-title>Cambridge University Press</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Cambridge University Press</full-title></periodical><dates><year>2003</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>46;The partial collapse of Terminal 2E at Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle airport, in 2004, less than 4 years after its opening, left four dead and three wounded ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Starossek</Author><Year>2006</Year><RecNum>45</RecNum><DisplayText>47</DisplayText><record><rec-number>45</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531650672″>45</key><key app=”ENWeb” db-id=””>0</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Uwe Starossek</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Progressive collapse of structures – Nomenclature and Procedures</title><secondary-title>Structural Engineering International</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Structural Engineering International</full-title></periodical><volume>16</volume><number>2</number><dates><year>2006</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>47;The Airbus A380 project was launched in 2000. In 2006, while the aircraft was still in the assembly phase in Toulouse, France, an error having occurred in the insertion of a wiring harness produced in Germany caused a total production shutdown ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Shore</Author><Year>2008</Year><RecNum>46</RecNum><DisplayText>48</DisplayText><record><rec-number>46</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531651068″>46</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Barry Shore</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Project Culture and Systematic Biases in Project Failures</title><secondary-title>Project Management Journal</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Project Management Journal</full-title></periodical><volume>39</volume><number>4</number><dates><year>2008</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>48.Henceforth, based on a research conducted by the New England Complex Systems Institute, Smith & Irwin note that “indirect effects lie at the heart of effective risk analysis and management. Our abilities to identify and “control” the range of indirect effects within a complex socio-technical system have been challenged in the face of numerous catastrophic failures, policy-related hazards, and environmental impacts 49.

“Due to the ineffectiveness of traditional risk management standards in dealing with complexity and irrationality, some researchers suggest that risk management will need to move towards a linear cause-to-effect approach and take into account the knowledge brought by the Complexity Theory ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Fischbacher-Smith</Author><Year>2006</Year><RecNum>47</RecNum><DisplayText>49, 50</DisplayText><record><rec-number>47</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531652276″>47</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Denis Fischbacher-Smith</author><author>Alan Irwin</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Complexity, Risk and Emergence: Elements of a “Management” Dilemma</title><secondary-title>Risk Management</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Risk Management</full-title></periodical><volume>8</volume><number>4</number><dates><year>2006</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite><Cite><Author>Cooke-Davies</Author><Year>2007</Year><RecNum>49</RecNum><record><rec-number>49</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531653273″>49</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Terry J. Cooke-Davies</author><author>Svetlana J. K. Cicmil</author><author>Lynn H. Crawford, Bond</author><author>Kurt Richardson</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>We&apos;re not in Kansas anymore, Toto: Mapping the strange landscape of complexity theory, and its relationship to project management</title><secondary-title>Project Management Journal</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Project Management Journal</full-title></periodical><volume>38</volume><number>2</number><dates><year>2007</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>49, 50.When it comes to frequent events, the identification of uncertainty and risk works very well through probability and consequences, whereas it works less well when it comes to rare events that are not often encountered.

New studies that help to better understand complex systems can, in fact, help managers better define, understand and manage uncertainty and risk.To treat uncertainty and manage risk, Chapman & Ward developed the “Six W” model: Who, Why, What, Which Way, When ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Chapman</Author><Year>2003</Year><RecNum>50</RecNum><DisplayText>51</DisplayText><record><rec-number>50</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531656375″>50</key><key app=”ENWeb” db-id=””>0</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Chris Chapman</author><author>Stephen Ward</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Project Risk Management: Processes, Techniques and Insights, 2nd Edition</title><secondary-title>Risk Management</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Risk Management</full-title></periodical><dates><year>2003</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>51:Figure SEQ Figure * ARABIC 2: The project definition process(Chapman, C. and S. Ward, Project Risk Management: Processes, Techniques and Insights, 2nd Edition. Risk Management, 2003)Chapman & Ward state that lines represent sources of uncertainty and arrows illustrate interdependence and feedback. The authors confirm that “to effectively realize the benefits of this perspective, it is necessary to view organizational risk management as an important extension of organizational planning” ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Chapman</Author><Year>2003</Year><RecNum>50</RecNum><DisplayText>51</DisplayText><record><rec-number>50</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531656375″>50</key><key app=”ENWeb” db-id=””>0</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Chris Chapman</author><author>Stephen Ward</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Project Risk Management: Processes, Techniques and Insights, 2nd Edition</title><secondary-title>Risk Management</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Risk Management</full-title></periodical><dates><year>2003</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>51.

Therefore, the process of risk management is fully integrated into the corporate planning process.In addition, it has been stated that it is individuals’ and organizations’ attitudes that decide whether uncertainty and risk management succeed or not ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Smallman</Author><Year>2003</Year><RecNum>51</RecNum><DisplayText>52</DisplayText><record><rec-number>51</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531658812″>51</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Clive Smallman</author><author>Denis Smith</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Patterns of Managerial Risk Perceptions: Exploring the Dimensions of Managers&apos; Accepted Risks</title><secondary-title>Risk Management</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Risk Management</full-title></periodical><dates><year>2003</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>52. It is therefore essential to understand the effects of individual attitudes towards the risk process ADDIN EN.

CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Hillson</Author><Year>2005</Year><RecNum>52</RecNum><DisplayText>53</DisplayText><record><rec-number>52</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531659114″>52</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>David Hillson</author><author>Ruth Murray-Webster</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Understanding and Managing Risk Attitude</title><secondary-title>Gower Publishing</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Gower Publishing</full-title></periodical><dates><year>2005</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>53. These attitudes range from “opposition to risk” (those who feel comfortable in the presence of uncertainty) to “risk-seeking” (those who welcome uncertainty for change).Figure SEQ Figure * ARABIC 3: Spectrum of risk attitudes(Hillson, D. and R. Murray-Webster, Understanding and Managing Risk Attitude. Gower Publishing, 2005)Each attitude can be thus evaluated and described, allowing to diagnose the prejudices’ sources and to expose their influence on the risk process ADDIN EN.CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Hillson;/Author;;Year;2005;/Year;;RecNum;52;/RecNum;;DisplayText;53;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;52;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531659114″;52;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;David Hillson;/author;;author;Ruth Murray-Webster;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;Understanding and Managing Risk Attitude;/title;;secondary-title;Gower Publishing;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;Gower Publishing;/full-title;;/periodical;;dates;;year;2005;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;53.In this respect, social risk is known as the risk of an empowered stakeholder taking up a social or environmental issue and applying pressure on a corporation, while sometimes exploiting its reputation and corporate image, so that the company will change policies or approaches in the marketplace.

Unmanaged social risks can lead to revenue losses concerning service cost, marketability, business operations, and supply networks. CSR, through integrated information flows between stakeholders and companies, can be used as a corporate risk management tool by providing intelligence about what the risks are and offering effective means to respond to them, allowing an organization by such to maintain its reputation and manage its risk factor as well as its brand image in the market where it operates.CSR vs. Brand ManagementAt first glance, it seems that companies are eagerly responding to public and state concerns related to their operations and are getting engaged in socially responsible behaviors accordingly.

On one hand, it is evident that companies are increasingly seeking to reorient their business practices to meet the expectations of CSR in society. On another hand, the sincerity and effectiveness of these actions often raise doubts and companies get often accused of using CSR as a business strategy as well as a tactical plan to improve communications, public relations and the community’s branding.The 1980s marked a turning point in the conception of brands. Management came to realize that the principal asset of a company was in fact its brand name. Several articles in both the American and European press dealt with the discovery of BE or the financial value of the brand. In simple words, high BE produce a degree of difference, high consumer response and a higher and large level of brand knowledge, which usually leads to better performance of brand, both from company and a customer perspective ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Schwartz</Author><Year>2003</Year><RecNum>107</RecNum><DisplayText>54</DisplayText><record><rec-number>107</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1532781181″>107</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Schwartz, M. S.

</author><author>A. B. Carroll </author></authors></contributors><titles><title> &quot;Corporate social responsibility: A three-domain approach.&quot;</title><secondary-title>Business Ethics Quarterly</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Business Ethics Quarterly</full-title></periodical><dates><year>2003</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>54.

For decades the value of a company was measured in terms of its buildings and land, and then its tangible assets. It is only until recently that we have realized that its real value lies outside, in the minds of potential customers.In July 1990, Robert Louis-Dreyfus, the man who bought the Adidas company, summarized his reasons in one sentence: After Coca-Cola and Marlboro, Adidas was the best-known brand in the world ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Kapferer</Author><Year>2008</Year><RecNum>96</RecNum><DisplayText>55</DisplayText><record><rec-number>96</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1532726880″>96</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Kapferer, J.

</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>The New Strategic Brand Management</title><secondary-title>Kong Page, Philadelphia and London</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Kong Page, Philadelphia and London</full-title></periodical><dates><year>2008</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>55.A recent study by Hoeffler and Keller stated that the socially responsible behaviour is deemed to strengthen building BE through the following means: building brand awareness, enhancing brand image, establishing brand credibility, evoking brand feelings, creating a sense of brand community and eliciting brand engagement ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Hoeffler</Author><Year>2002</Year><RecNum>98</RecNum><DisplayText>56</DisplayText><record><rec-number>98</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1532778427″>98</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Steve Hoeffler</author><author>Kevin Keller</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Building Brand Equity through Corporate Societal Marketing</title><secondary-title>Journal of Public Policy &amp; Marketing</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Journal of Public Policy &amp; Marketing</full-title></periodical><dates><year>2002</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>56. Afterwards, Han-MinWang and his colleagues provided additional useful insights by demonstrating that CSR and BE are positively interrelated and positively affect the firm’s performance ADDIN EN.CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Han-MinWang;/Author;;Year;2015;/Year;;RecNum;34;/RecNum;;DisplayText;57;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;34;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531578184″;34;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;David Han-MinWang;/author;;author;Pei-HuaChen;/author;;author;Tiffany Hui-KuangYu;/author;;author;Chih-YiHsiao;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;The effects of corporate social responsibility on brand equity and firm performance;/title;;secondary-title;Journal of Business Research;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;Journal of Business Research;/full-title;;/periodical;;volume;68;/volume;;number;11;/number;;dates;;year;2015;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;57.To his turn, Keller further proved that BE falls in line with many elements of CSR.

As a matter of fact, he stated that creating a sense of brand community could occur through corporate actions within communities, such as sponsoring an exhibit at the local zoo and posting a CSR report on the company’s website, for example. Hence, one of the leading methods of valuing brands is customer-based brand equity (CBBE), which states that BE is created by the customer ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Keller</Author><Year>1993</Year><RecNum>102</RecNum><DisplayText>58</DisplayText><record><rec-number>102</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1532779004″>102</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Kevin Keller</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>”Conceptualizing, Measuring and Managing Customer-based Brand Equity&quot;</title><secondary-title>Journal of Marketing</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Journal of Marketing</full-title></periodical><dates><year>1993</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>58.

Therefore, through CSR initiatives, a firm is deemed to satisfy its customer, which automatically impacts its BE, due to CBBE.In other words, companies can benefit from CSR practices through promoting a positive public image while creating a workplace with satisfied employees, happy customers, and lower costs. It can be a win-win scenario for both the companies and their stakeholders. The creation of BE shares many similar elements. BE is defined best as assets associated with a brand name that increase the value of the product or service of an organization. Strong BE can help an organization distinguish itself from its competitors and provide financial benefits ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Aaker</Author><Year>1996</Year><RecNum>97</RecNum><DisplayText>59</DisplayText><record><rec-number>97</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1532778227″>97</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>David Aaker</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Building Strong Brands</title><secondary-title>Free Press, New York, N.Y.

</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Free Press, New York, N.Y.</full-title></periodical><dates><year>1996</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>59.This was further highlighted by several studies showing the correlation between CSR and BE:Lai and his colleagues supported this hypothesis by indicating that CSR and corporate reputation have positive effects on industrial BE and brand performance.

In addition, the study confirmed that corporate reputation and industrial BE partially mediate the relationship between CSR and brand performance ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Lai</Author><Year>2010</Year><RecNum>76</RecNum><DisplayText>60</DisplayText><record><rec-number>76</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531767276″>76</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Chi-Shiun Lai</author><author>Chih-Jen Chiu</author><author>Chin-Fang Yang</author><author>Da-Chang Pai</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>The Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on Brand Performance: The Mediating Effect of Industrial Brand Equity and Corporate Reputation</title><secondary-title>Journal of Business Ethics</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Journal of Business Ethics</full-title></periodical><volume>95</volume><number>3</number><dates><year>2010</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>60;Another study led by Torres and his colleagues argues the effect of CSR on global BE. The study was held on 57 global brands originating from 10 countries (USA, Japan, South Korea, France, UK, Italy, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, and The Netherlands) for the period from 2002 to 2008.

The study verified that CSR has a positive impact on global BE. In addition, global brands that follow local social responsibility policies in communities obtain strong positive benefits through the generation of BE, enhancing the positive effects of CSR toward other stakeholders, particularly customers ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Torres</Author><Year>2012</Year><RecNum>77</RecNum><DisplayText>61</DisplayText><record><rec-number>77</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531769755″>77</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Anna Torres</author><author>Tammo H.

A. Bijmolt</author><author>Josep A. Tribó</author><author>Peter Verhoef</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Generating global brand equity through corporate social responsibility to key stakeholders</title><secondary-title>International Journal of Research in Marketing</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>International Journal of Research in Marketing</full-title></periodical><volume>29</volume><number>1</number><dates><year>2012</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>61;The relationships between CSR and corporate BE, brand credibility and reputation were further evaluated by Nan and Heo, whose study showed that CSR has a direct positive effect on corporate BE, brand credibility and reputation ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Hur</Author><Year>2014</Year><RecNum>81</RecNum><DisplayText>62</DisplayText><record><rec-number>81</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531772210″>81</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Won-Moo Hur</author><author>Hanna Kim</author><author>Jeong Woo</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>How CSR Leads to Corporate Brand Equity: Mediating Mechanisms of Corporate Brand Credibility and Reputation</title><secondary-title>Journal of Business Ethics</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Journal of Business Ethics</full-title></periodical><volume>125</volume><number>1</number><dates><year>2014</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>62;Further research addressed the effect of CSR on CBBE and verified the significant impact CSR efforts retain on perceived CBBE, while the latter improves customer loyalty towards the firm ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Staudt</Author><Year>2014</Year><RecNum>24</RecNum><DisplayText>63</DisplayText><record><rec-number>24</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531576393″>24</key><key app=”ENWeb” db-id=””>0</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Simone Staudt</author><author>Chris Y. Shao</author><author>Alan J.

Dubinsky</author><author>Phillip H. Wilson</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Corporate Social Responsibility, Perceived Customer Value, and Customer-Based Brand Equity: A Cross-National Comparison</title><secondary-title>Journal of Strategic Innovation and Sustainability</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Journal of Strategic Innovation and Sustainability</full-title></periodical><volume>10</volume><number>1</number><dates><year>2014</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>63;Abdolvand and his colleague Charsetad further highlight this relationship within an industrial setting, proving that CSR positively affects industrial BE. This result is an important extension of the previous literature on CSR and confirms prior studies showing that CSR affects firm performance ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Abdolvand</Author><Year>2013</Year><RecNum>8</RecNum><DisplayText>64</DisplayText><record><rec-number>8</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531575675″>8</key><key app=”ENWeb” db-id=””>0</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Abdolvand, Mohammadali</author><author>Charsetad, Parvaneh</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Corporate Social Responsibility and Brand Equity in Industrial Marketing</title><secondary-title>International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences</full-title></periodical><volume>3</volume><number>9</number><dates><year>2013</year></dates><isbn>2222-6990</isbn><urls></urls><electronic-resource-num>10.6007/IJARBSS/v3-i9/208</electronic-resource-num></record></Cite></EndNote>64.Henceforth, a growing body of literature has highlighted the positive correlation between CSR and BE as well as CBBE, proving that any firm abiding by CSR initiatives will eventually result in the prosperity of its BE in the market, which provides the company a competitive advantage edge over the market.

As a matter of fact, the growing number societal demands is perceived by any firm’s CEO as an opportunity to get differentiated instead of perceiving it as a scourge. Therefore, any CEO is judged to be willing to spend more on attracting and retaining increasingly prosperous, informed, and socially aware customers to eventually improve long-term customer loyalty, legitimacy, trust, and BE ADDIN EN.CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Godfrey;/Author;;Year;2006;/Year;;RecNum;40;/RecNum;;DisplayText;26;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;40;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531583556″;40;/key;;key app=”ENWeb” db-id=””;0;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;Godfrey, Paul C.;/author;;author;Hatch, Nile W.;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;Researching Corporate Social Responsibility: An Agenda for the 21st Century;/title;;secondary-title;Journal of Business Ethics;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;Journal of Business Ethics;/full-title;;/periodical;;pages;87-98;/pages;;volume;70;/volume;;number;1;/number;;section;87;/section;;dates;;year;2006;/year;;/dates;;isbn;0167-4544 1573-0697;/isbn;;urls;;/urls;;electronic-resource-num;10.1007/s10551-006-9080-y;/electronic-resource-num;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;26.Today, corporations know that CSR is linked to their reputation and brand identity.

Stated differently, CSR efforts by a company can enhance its BE and thus the overall consumer satisfaction and loyalty ADDIN EN.CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Manhaimer;/Author;;Year;2007;/Year;;RecNum;106;/RecNum;;DisplayText;65, 66;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;106;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1532780099″;106;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;Manhaimer, E.;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;Does the brand equity influence the customers;apos; loyalty?;/title;;/titles;;dates;;year;2007;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;Cite;;Author;Saeednia;/Author;;Year;2013;/Year;;RecNum;15;/RecNum;;record;;rec-number;15;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531575815″;15;/key;;key app=”ENWeb” db-id=””;0;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;Saeednia, Hamid Reza;/author;;author;Sohani, Zahra;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;An investigation on the effect of advertising corporate social responsibility on building corporate reputation and brand equity;/title;;secondary-title;Management Science Letters;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;Management Science Letters;/full-title;;/periodical;;pages;1139-1144;/pages;;volume;3;/volume;;number;4;/number;;section;1139;/section;;dates;;year;2013;/year;;/dates;;isbn;19239335 19239343;/isbn;;urls;;/urls;;electronic-resource-num;10.5267/j.msl.2013.03.012;/electronic-resource-num;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;65, 66.

Therefore, in spite of whatever school of thought CSR may internalize, companies are currently more interested in how CSR can improve the BE of their company and that is the main reason that firms are now considering and initiating CSR activities ADDIN EN.CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Niazi;/Author;;Year;2012;/Year;;RecNum;32;/RecNum;;DisplayText;67;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;32;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531577742″;32;/key;;key app=”ENWeb” db-id=””;0;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;Muhammad Shakeel Niazi;/author;;author;M Imtiaz Haider;/author;;author;Tahir Islam;/author;;author;Shams Ur Rehman;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Brand Equity;/title;;secondary-title;European Journal of Social Sciences;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;European Journal of Social Sciences;/full-title;;/periodical;;volume;34;/volume;;number;3;/number;;dates;;year;2012;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;67.Placing companies’ CSR efforts in the context of brand leadership, Deigendesch proposed the following: If corporate social responsibility is understood to be core competencies, which strengthen intangible and temporarily inimitable assets such as integrity, credibility, reputation, and human or social capital, it enables companies to create innovation, develop new markets, clearly differentiate themselves from competitors, or influence the competitive environment to their benefit … when it becomes an integral element of a company’s strategy …. In this light, CSR must be viewed from the perspective of successful brands ADDIN EN.

CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Deigendesch;/Author;;Year;2009;/Year;;RecNum;94;/RecNum;;DisplayText;68;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;94;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1532722555″;94;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;Deigendesch, Thomas;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;Corporate Social Responsibility: Brand Leadership or Green- Washing?;/title;;/titles;;dates;;year;2009;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;68.The Lebanese territoryLebanon: OverviewThe Lebanese Republic is a small country, with an area of 10,452 square kilometers, located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It is bordered by Syria to the North and the East and Palestine to the South. Its location made the country a bridge between the East and the West, and a connection between the three continents, namely: Asia, Africa and Europe. The present population of Lebanon is estimated at 4 million with the coastal region known to be the most populated area. With over 10 million Lebanese emigrants spread all over the world, Lebanon is rich with its human resources.Lebanon has a free economy system that guarantees entrepreneurship and private property. It is led by a private sector that plays a major role in the different economic fields, especially the services sector and the financial and banking sector, which represent 70% of Lebanon’s national income.

Thus, until nowadays, Lebanon’s economic conditions and prospects remain very challenging.One of the key issues the Lebanese Republic is facing is the economic and social impact of the Syrian crisis, for the seventh year in a row now. According to government and journalism resources, up to 1.5 million Syrians, about a quarter of the Lebanese population, have taken refuge in Lebanon since the conflict started in March 2011. Since the latter began, the number of tourists visiting Lebanon has fallen by more than a third and tourism revenues are down by almost one-half. This has put a strain on government services, healthcare, public finances and environmental infrastructure.Within this challenging environment, GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth in Lebanon in 2016 was estimated to have undergone a slight acceleration to reach an estimated 1.8%, compared to 1.

3% in 2015. This trivial acceleration was driven by an improvement in the real estate sector and an increased number of tourist arrivals. Some mitigating factors, such as an influx of returning Lebanese expatriates and increased spending by Syrians in Lebanon, helped to partially alleviate these negative trends. Nonetheless, economic activity remains well below potential.Some issues continue to cause frustration among local and foreign businessmen. Impediments include red tape and corruption, arbitrary licensing decisions, complex customs procedures, archaic legislation, an ineffectual judicial system, high taxes and fees, flexible interpretation of laws, and weak enforcement of intellectual property rights ADDIN EN.

CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Am;/Author;;Year;2016;/Year;;RecNum;57;/RecNum;;DisplayText;18;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;57;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531670752″;57;/key;;key app=”ENWeb” db-id=””;0;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;Aline Al Am;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;Corporate social responsibility and sustainability: theory and practice in Lebanon ;/title;;secondary-title;Int. J. Environment and Health;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;Int. J. Environment and Health;/full-title;;/periodical;;volume;8;/volume;;number;1;/number;;dates;;year;2016;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;18.Moreover, at a time when several countries have begun to put in place a genuine national strategy for sustainable development, this concept remains unclear or even controversial in Lebanon, in which a community needs to live in a safe, clean and healthy environment.

Businesses can no longer behave as separate entities without considering the impact of their activities on the economy, society and environment; they must recognize and assume responsibility by strengthening the well-being of the society and adopting eco-driving behavior ADDIN EN.CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;RecNum;108;/RecNum;;DisplayText;69;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;108;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1532981690″;108;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;Corporate Social Responsibility in Lebanon;/title;;secondary-title;Lebanese Transparency Association;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;Lebanese Transparency Association;/full-title;;/periodical;;dates;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;69.CSR current situation in LebanonThe evidence continues to support that CSR affects businesses positively, not just in ethical but also in financial terms. With social responsibilities, the suppliers, business associates and customers would have more confidence in the organization. In contrast to the fast-growing CSR scale across the global corporate world, the implementation of CSR strategies in Lebanon remain very limited, with only very few initiatives undertaken by certain corporations in specific fields and a significant lack of awareness about these social activities and their role in the development and sustainability of the country ADDIN EN.

CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;Author;Am;/Author;;Year;2016;/Year;;RecNum;57;/RecNum;;DisplayText;18;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;57;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531670752″;57;/key;;key app=”ENWeb” db-id=””;0;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;authors;;author;Aline Al Am;/author;;/authors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;Corporate social responsibility and sustainability: theory and practice in Lebanon ;/title;;secondary-title;Int. J. Environment and Health;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;Int. J. Environment and Health;/full-title;;/periodical;;volume;8;/volume;;number;1;/number;;dates;;year;2016;/year;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;18. This, indeed, negatively affects Lebanese companies’ aspired competitiveness, profitability, and sustainable growth. The CSR awareness and its role in achieving sustainable development need to be viewed within the contextual framework characterized mainly by economic disorder, uncertainty, and political problems.

Thus, the government is absent in this field and should in contrast play a major role to improve the CSR situation in Lebanon, which can eventually lead to a sustainable society. The current practices in Lebanon have suffered from the lack of responsible behavior towards the employees, the economy, the society, and the environment.In fact, the lack of documents about CSR, environmental reports and certification show the real extent of the problem.The study led by Aline AL AM demonstrates the substantial lack of CSR awareness among the Lebanese society, as shown in Table 2, which constitutes a significant problem to be resolved through the implementation of different strategies ADDIN EN.CITE <EndNote><Cite><Author>Am</Author><Year>2016</Year><RecNum>57</RecNum><DisplayText>18</DisplayText><record><rec-number>57</rec-number><foreign-keys><key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1531670752″>57</key><key app=”ENWeb” db-id=””>0</key></foreign-keys><ref-type name=”Journal Article”>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author>Aline Al Am</author></authors></contributors><titles><title>Corporate social responsibility and sustainability: theory and practice in Lebanon </title><secondary-title>Int. J. Environment and Health</secondary-title></titles><periodical><full-title>Int.

J. Environment and Health</full-title></periodical><volume>8</volume><number>1</number><dates><year>2016</year></dates><urls></urls></record></Cite></EndNote>18:Table SEQ Table * ARABIC 2: CSR awareness in LebanonAwCSRFrequency Percent Valid percent Cumulative percentValid Not aware 284 70.8 71.0 71.0Aware 116 28.9 29.

0 100.0Total 400 99.8 100.0 Missing System 1 0.

2 Total 401 100.00 (Am, A.A., Corporate social responsibility and sustainability: theory and practice in Lebanon Int. J. Environment and Health, 2016. 8(1))This same study further showed that the private sector in Lebanon is more engaged in CSR practices, as clarified in Table 3, and this is due to many reasons, such as: advertising, reputation, competitive advantage, personal beliefs… etc.

Table SEQ Table * ARABIC 3: Engagement of different sectors in CSR activities in LebanonAwCSR * CompSectorCrosstabulationCountCompSectorBanking Food Tourism Education TotalAwCSRAware 59 9 8 19 95Total 59 9 8 19 95(Am, A.A., Corporate social responsibility and sustainability: theory and practice in Lebanon Int. J. Environment and Health, 2016.

8(1))Naturally the situation in Lebanon has its own special features. Most companies are small-scale enterprises and their administrations reflect their nature as “family” businesses (Figure 4). However, as the Lebanese economy integrates with the world economy and as Lebanon joins the World Trade Organization (WTO), the goal then should be to boost competitive capabilities, which will require opening and expanding all firms to investments outside the frame of Family Business. Therefore, the principals of transparency must become universal and the responsibilities of board of directors must become clearly defined, in parallel with dealing with the issue of minority shareholders’ rights ADDIN EN.

CITE ;EndNote;;Cite;;RecNum;108;/RecNum;;DisplayText;69;/DisplayText;;record;;rec-number;108;/rec-number;;foreign-keys;;key app=”EN” db-id=”wda59vwpt0vwdnes05fvx596wtdvv5zzsxzt” timestamp=”1532981690″;108;/key;;/foreign-keys;;ref-type name=”Journal Article”;17;/ref-type;;contributors;;/contributors;;titles;;title;Corporate Social Responsibility in Lebanon;/title;;secondary-title;Lebanese Transparency Association;/secondary-title;;/titles;;periodical;;full-title;Lebanese Transparency Association;/full-title;;/periodical;;dates;;/dates;;urls;;/urls;;/record;;/Cite;;/EndNote;69.Figure SEQ Figure * ARABIC 4: Types of organizations present throughout the Lebanese Republic(Corporate Social Responsibility in Lebanon. Lebanese Transparency Association)Statistical Analysis: CSR activities in LebanonThe aim of the current analysis is to provide a realistic picture of the current state of CSR’s manifestation in Lebanon and its eventual effect on building the firm’s BE.All the businesses chosen for the survey were from diversified and different sectors as shown in the following pie chart, covering a total of seven different divisions:Figure SEQ Figure * ARABIC 5: Businesses’ sector repartitionFor such, a group of twenty businesses were verbally interviewed, using Appendix A (shown below), out of which the focus was brought upon a group of specific businesses throughout the Lebanese Republic, to assess each company’s CSR activities and awareness.The first group of twenty businesses interviewed was as follows:ABC, Alfa, American University of Beirut (AUB), BankMed, Banque Audi, Beirut Restaurants, BLOM Bank, Byblos Bank, CSR Lebanon, Fransabank, Indevco, IPT, Khalil Fattal ; Fils Sal, Lebanese American University (LAU), Liban Post, Middle East Airlines, MTC Touch, Shtrumpf, Trillium Holding Lebanon, Université du Saint-Esprit Kaslik (USEK).The second group of businesses upon which focus was brought was as follows:Alfa, AUB, BankMed, CSR Lebanon, IPT, Shtrumpf, Trillium Holding Lebanon, USEK.

For its first part, the analysis focused on obtaining a general overview for the current CSR knowledge and awareness across different kinds of businesses throughout the Lebanese Republic and the consciousness level related to these practices upon the local market.As follows are the main attained results, based on the answers given over the survey included in Appendix A:The company should have an established CSR program as part of its mission:The CSR program is of importance to the company’s stakeholders:The CSR practices affect employee satisfaction and productivity:The CSR practices affect the reputation of the company:The CSR practices affect the customer’s loyalty towards the company:CSR practices are of a direct effect on the organization’s financial performance:The better the CSR practices, the better the company’s brand equity:The company should communicate its CSR activities to the public:The company should integrate annual CSR trainings within its program:The above outcomes further highlight the lack of knowledge of the fast-growing CSR scale across the corporate world, and its limited implementation throughout Lebanese businesses of different sectors, whereby its current state is found to be unadvanced and not very strategic. Significant levels of awareness about these practices and their role in the development and sustainability of the country as well as their effect on the company’s prosperity, direct/indirect stakeholders, its FP and CBBE are deemed to be absent or insignificantly present.Moreover, this lack of awareness related to the CSR scale affects a majority of the few companies whom are already developing their sustainable behavior towards their community, whereby there still is a lack in the communication of these practices to the public, in addition to the deficiency in having permanent trainings achieved for all stakeholders of the company regarding its CSR manifestations.The second part of the analysis brought the attention to some of the main businesses in Lebanon, very well known for their sustainable development activities, and for which the brand names is of a high classification upon local customers.By answering the questions present in Appendix A, results support the limited, but solid CSR presence across specific Lebanese businesses, and prove the necessity of its further expenditure to ensure the sustainability of the environment and the businesses’ ethical behavior towards their community.Following are the nine main businesses focused at, and a summarized outline regarding their main CSR practices, and how the latter are affecting each company’s brand name and BE.Service: CSR Lebanon S.

A.R.L.Established in 2009, CSR Lebanon S.

A.R.L.

is an independent social consulting firm aiming to raise awareness about CSR and sustainability in Lebanon.The Company follows a multi-year strategic program aiming to enhance corporate engagement in communities by integrating responsible practices in their workplaces, marketplaces, environment, and society.The main mission of the enterprise is stated as follows: Towards a National CSR Strategy.

Thus, their aim is to provide an informative platform to companies and support them in embodying CSR in their core business strategies and operations, aiming to align profitability with sustainability and human development.As a matter of fact, to highlight the importance of sustainable behavior towards the society and the environment, CSR Lebanon, in its educational material, ask rhetorically: “Reputation is everything. How much is yours worth?”The above strongly sheds light over the importance of any company’s reputation, hence its brand name, and the necessity of integrating CSR practices in its core businesses to ensure the maintenance of its brand name, reputation and customers’ loyalty towards the products and services being offered, while still performing well on the financial and human development levels.The importance of the above is supported by the following statistics given by the firm:55% of consumers worldwide are willing to spend more on a product offered by a socially responsible company;40% of CEOs’ strongly believe that the greatest benefit of CSR practices is improved brand reputation;90% of CSR practices in Lebanon remain not strategic, philanthropic;65% of the biggest Lebanese firms have only short-term CSR initiatives, out of which only 2% have officially published CSR reports.To summarize the company’s main sustainable development activities:In March 2010, CSR Lebanon joined the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and committed to the 10 Principles of the UN (Appendix B) and represented Lebanon at the UNGC Summit in New York in June 2010;On a yearly basis, the company gathers key figures, partners and businessmen from the Lebanese private sector and governmental bodies along with multinational companies and international CSR experts in awareness forums on CSR;The “Green Responsibility Book” was released in 2011, providing a heavy and solid body of facts, advices and glossary of sustainable development, allowing all readers to delve into the current environmental dilemma and learn effective ways to make a difference;The MENA CSR Data Bank was afterwards established, covering a collection of CSR books, guides, reports, journals, articles, studies… etc.;Ever since 2012, the company started publishing its own journal Responsible Business™ and launched its permanent CSR training courses as well throughout the Lebanese territory, helping raise awareness related to the matter;The company’s 8th forum will be held on the 25th of October 2018 and will target the following topic: SDGs AND MILLENNIALS: LEADERS OF SUSTAINABILITY.Thus, the forum will focus on sustainable development global goals (SDGs) and how these will require a transformative approach to be held by the private sector to make progress. Moreover, it will also target millennials, and the strong impact they have in driving this new force.

Based on the above, and as CSR Lebanon S.A.R.L. state: A strategic approach to CSR is increasingly important to a company’s competitiveness.

It can bring benefits in terms of innovation, cost savings, brand differentiation, and employee and customer engagement. Most importantly, embedding CSR into the corporate strategy can help save brand reputation. Therefore, CSR is a must for every company that aims at maintaining good market share while making good profits.

Real estate: Trillium Holding LebanonReal estate developer in Beirut, Trillium Holding is one of the leading constructions and trading companies in the MEA region (Middle East and Africa).As part of their normal business strategy, Trillium Development is continuously trying to partake in CSR activities to give back to their community and encourage a positive impact on the environment, as it is strongly believed in the company that by sustaining the society, long-term success and opulence is definite for the enterprise as a give-back from its environment and stakeholders.Thus, following are few of the major CSR practices undergone by the firm, and proven to have strongly affected its positioning in the market and the customers’ loyalty towards its branding:The Lebanese Red Cross (LRC): the LRC’s fund is usually highly dependent upon donations and annual fund-raising campaign, normally held through the month of May.For several years, the LRC departments occupied rented space. In 2006, the Lebanese government granted the LRC/Tyre branch, a land to build their own establishment, a project that was financed by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

The ground floor contains 5 different clinics including 1 dental clinic and a pharmacy. The dental clinic was donated and totally equipped by Trillium Development, as a mean to back up a project designated for all special needs in the community.Think pink: as part of its CSR mission, Trillium Development has been the Gold Sponsor for Think Pink fund raising event, an event for the fight against Breast Cancer.Jouzour Loubnan: Trillium Holding is part of the reforestation Program held by Jouzour Loubnan, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that has planted over 32,000 trees throughout the country, helping them into adding “One m² of a newly created forest for each m² Trillium Development Clients are buying” and this in the process of expanding the green areas in the country.Trading: IPTAs an international petroleum trading company, and one of the most steadily based and trusted petroleum providers in Lebanon, IPT genuinely cares about CSR, as part of its mission and behavior. The firm tends to play a citizen-centric role in supporting economic, environmental and social development, as a mean to give back to their community. By such, IPT drives people’s engagement to their society and loyalty towards their brand.The company’s main CSR initiatives include:Supporting youth events dedicated to spreading awareness on the dangerous health effects of drugs;Spreading awareness on the harmful effects of steroids intake among sport athletes;Organizing exhibitions to spread awareness and promote eco-driving practices among students;Supporting several sport events such as: Rally of Lebanon;Taking part of all eco-friendly activities such as: running and biking for the preservation of the environment and the promotion of a healthy lifestyle;Promoting eco-tourism via supporting local and international green festivals;Participating in the yearly blood donation day in collaboration with the LRC Association;Sponsoring TV programs to promote the Lebanese heritage;Supporting theatrical productions, music concerts, rally papers, and school projects for the promotion of culture and arts.

Currently, the firm is in the process of implementing a full Energy and Environmental Management Strategy (EEMS), enabling them to transform most of their stations to become eco-friendly, sustainable and “green”. The EEMS is achieved through the implementation of energy and water efficient solutions including renewable energy solutions, waste reduction, water treatment and recycling solutions, and an overall environmental impact management system.In addition to the above, IPT Energy Center (IPTEC) has been, to date, focusing on the status of the energy sector, energy efficiency and renewable energy in Lebanon as well as the offshore petroleum resources. IPTEC is currently part of many similar activities and agreements with national and international institutions, that will come to life soon in the name of promoting sustainable development in the energy sector.Only very recently, IPTEC and USEK, with the support of the United Nations Development Program in Lebanon, have signed a memorandum of understanding to install a pilot plant to produce biodiesel from Waste Cooking Oil (WCO).The main objective of this project is to encourage and promote sustainable biodiesel production from WCO, by collecting household WCO in storage tanks available at key IPT gas stations and at the USEK university campus and processing it into biodiesel in a pilot plant installed at the USEK campus.Communication & Media: ALFAAs one of the two main leading GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) Networks in Lebanon, Alfa is committed to bringing real and positive change, based on its core values, through their CSR program: Alfa 4-Life.

Ever since 2006, Alfa 4-Life has supported several Lebanese NGOs such as Lebanese Autism Society, SOS Children’s Village, Acsauvel, SESOBEL, Father Andeweg Institute for the Deaf, and the Lebanese School for the Blind and Deaf.This program focuses on improving the lives of children with communication needs. Through special care and skill-building initiatives, Alfa ensures that these children can fully and comfortably interact in the society they live in.Moreover, as part of Alfa 4-Life, and allowing the company to engage its subscribers, an SMS fundraising campaign has been raised, allowing all subscribers to donate $1 to organizations partnering with Alfa, via the short code 1004.This model was a one-of-a-kind in Lebanon when introduced and has since then been replicated by other organizations. Alfa 4-Life and its SMS fundraising component demonstrate how something as simple as an SMS can prove to be innovative and have a powerful impact on peoples’ lives.In addition to the above, and as our environment today is going through an unprecedented transformation, from loss of green spaces, to climate change, Alfa confirmed that it has become imperative more than ever to work together towards preserving the future of the country and its environment.Through their Alfa 4-Nature program, and via internal and external measures for a more sustainable environment, they aim on reducing their environmental footprint, by optimizing waste management, reducing energy consumption, and cutting down on carbon emissions.

For the enterprise to make its premises eco-friendlier, following are the initiatives and solutions adopted, for an environmental-driven behavior:Installing energy-efficient ballasts on all floors and cafeterias;Configuring power shut down for floor lightings and kitchen pantries;Configuring turn off on all computers and printers;Configuring automatic power save for copiers, shredders, and screens;Enabling sleep mode into the power management network tool;Installing motion detectors in the parking and toilets, cutting down energy consumption by over 40%;Direct recycling and sorting in the local premises to educate the staff on waste management;Implementing Alfa Green service initiatives such as e-billing and e-recharge services that considerably reduce the amount of paper used.Education: UniversitiesAs it if often said, universities are often looked upon to take a leadership role within societies and to lead by example. Indeed, awareness starts at the educational level, making it a very important asset of any university to abide and lead its students towards sustainable development and socially responsible behavior.Based on such, many universities in Lebanon have started considering the implementation of CSR guidelines and programs throughout their curriculum, making them of a high branding classification in their community and because of which students, mainly millennials, will look after:AUB?With the arising need for CSR reflecting the important interdependence of business and society, the Olayan School of Business (OSB) at the AUB University Campus, and as a signatory of the UNGC and supporting its 10 principles (Appendix B) towards its stakeholders, is the first business school of its kind in the region, aiming to mainstream CSR through the integration and embedding of CSR practices as a stand-alone subject matter across all of its programs (BBA, MBA, EMBA). The OSB is thought to be a leader in CSR and has, since its inception, prioritized it as critical to its mission, which resulted in many pioneering initiatives pertaining to CSR in the region, striving to fulfill its main objectives of educating future leaders and building awareness relating to CSR.By integrating CSR in undergraduate and graduate curricula, endeavoring in regional case studies and books pertaining to CSR, housing a series of conferences, seminars and guest speakers empowering students to use their business skills in creating a positive social and environmental impact, OSB seeks to mobilize a new generation of leaders who embrace the complexities of ethical integrity and moral choice, and through which, CSR at AUB has ultimately gained momentum.Through its CSR Initiative, by nurturing soft skills relating to moral / ethical integrity, including stewardship, and compassion.

AUB is determined to maintain its leadership role in this area, emphasizing its commitment to social progress and reform across the region. USEKThe pursuit of sustainability is directly related to the Mission of the University. Throughout its history, the University has embodied the traditional principles of sustainability, as part of its commitment to remaining vital and strong for succeeding generations.Thus, while environmental sustainability often focuses on energy efficiency and cost savings, USEK’s approach acknowledges the indivisible link between environmental sustainability and the University’s future.For several years, the University has acted to inspire and encourage environmental sustainability, both academically and administratively, through:The implementation of hybrid petrol-electric vehicles since 2010;Energy conservation measures across facilities;The design and construction of LEED-certified buildings, such as the Medical building;The establishment of the Office of Sustainability, academic and research centers. At USEK University Campus, the Green Committee, recently established in 2016, follows a sustainability strategy, in partnership with several departments and divisions across the campus, aiming towards the development, establishment and support of sustainability initiatives, to create a culture of students, faculty and staff who are socially, economically and environmentally responsible.

Consistent with sustainability development, the Committee approaches the effort from three fundamental perspectives:Respect for the human condition: The Committee deems the University’s actions to be of benefit for the people, not just the current generation or today’s community but future generations and communities;Respect for the conservation of natural resources: Any decision or action arising from the campus or its members must respect the planet’s inherent value and consider both immediate and long-term impacts on its resources;Economic viability: The economic impacts of any taken action must ensure the University’s financial health for decades to come.The Committee confirms that all efforts to promote a sustainable use of natural resources constitute an investment capable of providing other economic benefits in the medium term, namely:Increase energy conservation and efficiency;Decrease harmful emissions;Track water use by function and location;Ensure efficient space utilization before constructing new buildings;Improve campus-wide single-stream recycling.Food & Beverages: RestaurantsShtrumpfEstablished in 1984, Shtrumpf is a medium-sized Lebanese company, in the Food & Beverages sector, owning to day two restaurants, in Beirut and Jounieh.Since 1999, and with the launching of its environmental CSR program “Go Green”, Shtrumpf has incorporated an environmentally friendly commitment into its mission statement and culture and has nowadays CSR practices embedded into the company’s business strategy, corporate identity and day-to-day business.At present, 20% of Shtrumpf’s marketing budget is allocated to their CSR program, carried out in cooperation with several other Lebanese businesses, universities and ministries, allowing Shtrumpf to benefit from a strong network through these cross-sectoral partnerships.This awareness is carried through a strong culture and is actively communicated internally and externally to the restaurant’s stakeholders. Externally, Shtrumpf promotes environmental concerns to all sectors of the Lebanese society; NGOs, clients, the media, other private sector organizations.

While internally, the company ensures that its employees are in tune with such practices, and able to project the company’s beliefs and culture to their customers as well. Moreover, Shtrumpf tends to create awareness among its guests, through the usage of table mats with short environmental protection messages and decorative natural elements in the restaurants, helping expose its clients to the CSR importance and necessity.Some of the “Go Green” Program activities are highlighted as follows:Architecture and Landscape: In fact, Shtrumpf builds its locations mostly with wood coming from well-managed forests;Waste Management: According to the environmentally sustainable development scope, the restaurant guides its employees to sort its waste into plastic, metal and glass, enabling the firm to use 100% recycled paper for delivery packaging, napkins and towels. Furthermore, they re-use as much as possible by re-filling printer ink cartridges and reusing nylon bags used by the restaurant;Culture and Training: Shtrumpf’s employees defend a culture that gives back to the community and most of them hold a personal belief that “a company must give back to society and be more socially responsible in order for the community to respond back by supporting the company and allowing it to earn an income”. Thus, through a variety of lectures and training sessions, Shtrumpf trains its employees to be concerned with the environment and to carry with them a community service culture;Investing in Education: Shtrumpf has demonstrated a strong commitment to working with and promoting environmental awareness to future generations. In addition to organizing the yearly ‘Go Green’ contest that offers students a total of $USD 11,000.00, the environment program manager actively speaks out about the environment in various clubs, university seminars, and even in the various classes that he teaches at different universities.Banking and FinanceBankMedEstablished in 1944, BankMed is known to be the best investment bank, trade finance and banking group and the most sustainable bank in Lebanon.

As a matter of fact, BankMed integrated CSR within its culture with the aim of creating value in its greater community.BankMed has set several principles that are aimed at reflecting its commitment to sustainability. Reducing the Bank’s carbon footprint emission, taking care of the environment, educating the public on the importance of being ecofriendly, supporting cultural and sports activities across the country, and developing the community by helping those who are most disadvantaged and marginalized, have been top priorities on the Bank’s CSR list.The Bank’s approach to business reflects its caretakers’ vision, which enables it to build a strong foundation based on high moral standards of honesty, integrity, excellence, transparency, and respect. Over the past few years, BankMed’s CSR application underwent major evolvement as the Bank shifted its focus from direct donation to community projects to becoming one of the main drivers of the community’s continuity and development.Thus, The Bank laid out its customer-centric strategy along five CSR pillars and modifies it on a yearly basis to keep up with the community’s demands and respond carefully to its needs:Corporate Governance: Operating with integrity, upholding strong governance and protecting stakeholders’ rights and information;Environmental Sustainability:At BankMed, it is strongly believed that a promising future is fundamentally linked to the well-being of the planet. Based on such, the firm has adopted several approaches in this regard to promote sustainability through: Green financing loans (Figure 6), reduction of environmental impact and the adoption of eco-friendly initiatives through their environmental program “The Happy Planet”;Figure SEQ Figure * ARABIC 6: Green Financing Loans evolutionCommunity development:Through providing social and healthcare support as well as advocating sports and active living for a healthy and dynamic lifestyle of the young generation. In addition, BankMed adopts several events that entail unique cultural values as an attempt to preserve heritage;Economic development:Through several adopted initiatives, BankMed plays an important role in promoting economic growth to retain youth in their country and provide career opportunities in SMEs. The firm also offers distinctive financial services and microfinance initiatives for young people to assist them with their financial management plans (Business loans, Kafalat loans, Emkan finance… etc.);Human development:Through human resources opening room for young and ambitious employees to join the firm’s workforce, in addition to talent management and training to sustain progress and prepare human power for future experiences and career opportunities.In addition to the above, the Bank’s most recent CSR initiative was based on launching their Youth Program, a specially tailored program for youth empowerment.BankMed Youth Program is a specially tailored financial program, designed to target young people, judged as the community’s most valuable asset, and encourage them to become financially responsible. This program aims to offer youth safe and practical banking solutions that are specifically aimed at their lifestyle, thus supporting them in their educational and career paths and in the development of their entrepreneurial skills. Through this program, BankMed targeted facing many challenges present in the current community, while proposing, through their sustainability development, the bests solution for each challenge, as shown in Table 4.Table SEQ Table * ARABIC 4: Solutions to the challenges faced by BankMed on the young generation’s levelChallenge SolutionScarcity of job opportunities: the lack of opportunities in the labor market is attributed to the difficult operational environment that particularly prevailed since 2011. This, in turn, had restricted growth in the market size and accordingly limited the job availability for the youth. Creating job opportunities: through making viable contributions to the community by supporting Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), promoting startups and extending financial access to economically active individuals, BankMed has been having active part in creating new jobs and career opportunities for Lebanese youth.Competitive programs’ barriers: youth in Lebanon are given limited room to take part in healthy and recreational competitions that go beyond the scope of schools’ or colleges’ contests. Although some educational competitions have been recently introduced, they have not been based on local, original ideas.Introducing novel competitions: the Green School and the Green Student as well as the BankMed Youth Marathon competitions have been introduced by BankMed, both giving youth the space to excel while instilling in them the love and appreciation of their own country.Lack of financial Awareness: the teaching of certain financial skills such as budgeting and investing can be overlooked by many parents. If not introduced to financial management early on, many young people are prone to encounter financial challenges later in their lives. BankMed Youth Program: a program creatively designed with attractive solutions and exceptional features. The program resolves around day-to-day activities of young people, providing them with a simple efficient and effective way to manage their finances.BankMed Youth Program reflects the Bank’s ongoing drive to consistently design and deliver unique products and solutions that meet the evolving needs of all customer segments and age groups. It also highlights BankMed’s aim at supporting the young generation and becoming their leading banking partner.Conclusion & Future PerspectivesThe concept of CSR finds its origin in the late 1960s. However, it has become an essential part of the global corporate scale only since the publication of R. Edward Freeman ‘book, Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach in 1984.In a nutshell, CSR is the belief that companies hold responsibilities not only towards their shareholders, but all their direct and indirect stakeholders, namely the environment, the society and the community in which they operate.It has been proven that, to act socially responsible and to integrate CSR practices in a businesses’ strategy eventually results in increased sales revenues and profits, as opposed to purely philanthropic actions.Besides the purely economic aspect, CSR can lead to higher working morale, which can help in cutting costs, attracting and building a productive workforce, lowering absenteeism and error rates, as well as increasing retention of employees.Thus, in response to public demands for greater accountability and transparency, companies started to publish “social reports” or “sustainability reports” and began to recognize that intangible assets like reputation have a deep impact on the value of their business.Through ethical and environmental driven behavior, a company is guaranteed to have long-term success through its internally satisfied and productive environment, automatically resulting in a steadily growing FP and the ensuring of a highly classified BE through customers’ satisfaction and loyalty.However, CSR seems to have arisen as part of an initiative especially in developing countries due to an apparent lack of capacity of many governments to effectively provide social services and enforce their laws.Issues that fall under the umbrella of CSR programs include sustainable development, responsible stakeholder management, fair trade, environmental protection, ethical investment, and socio-political activities including poverty alleviation, health and education in disadvantaged communities as well as traditional philanthropy.Despite the high-scale integration of these initiatives throughout the worldwide corporate environment, such practices are still significantly lacking in Lebanon, whereby a limited number of companies engage to such initiatives. To the contrary, the companies whom already have CSR practices embedded within their day-to-day business activities, these have been certainly deemed to be ones of the highest branded companies in the Lebanese Republic, which highlights the importance of CSR and its impact on the company’s BE.Thus, the government has a major role to play for the improvement of the current CSR state in Lebanon. For such, it is important for the government to facilitate capacity building and awareness-raising over CSR-related issues, targeting both the private and the public sector.Moreover, the Lebanese government should harmonize national laws and legislations with international CSR regulations and reporting standards by taking into consideration the country’s specific culture. Although CSR is mainly regarded to be a voluntary action by companies, governments can still play a role in advocating such action or punishing irresponsible behavior. While most developed countries have already incorporated laws and regulations related to CSR and sustainability, this should be pushed toward the developing world as well.On another side, the education sector has an important role to play in shaping the attitudes of future business leaders. Some ministries of education outside the Middle East are introducing lessons about sustainable development as early as primary school. Business schools and other educational institutions in Lebanon should develop programs to help educate teachers about sustainability, and to offer guidance for schools to incorporate principles and actions for sustainability into school curriculaWith instability hitting the region, it is especially now that focus should head towards sustainability, trust and social responsibility for our businesses to endure through and thrive.CSR can no longer be considered as a luxury that companies use for short-term gains and brighter public exposure, but rather a vital investment opportunity enhancing FP and rendering a solid competitive edge over rivals, through strengthening the company’s BE.LIST OF ABBREVIATIONSAUB: American University of BeirutBDL: Bank of Lebanon / Banque Du LibanBE: Brand equityCBBE: Customer-based brand equityCSR: Corporate social responsibility EEMS: Energy and Environmental Management StrategyFP: Financial performanceIPTEC: IPT Energy CenterLAU: Lebanese American UniversityLEED: Leadership in Energy and Environmental DesignLRC: Lebanese Red CrossNGO: Non-Governmental OrganizationOSB: Olayan School of BusinessRSE: Responsabilité sociale des entreprisesSMEs : Small and medium EnterprisesUNGC: United Nations Global CompactUSEK: Holy Spirit University of Kaslik / Université du Saint-Esprit KaslikWCO: Waste Cooking OilLIST OF FIGURES TOC h z c “Figure” Figure 1: Baker’s Model 2001 PAGEREF _Toc521264980 h 16Figure 2: The project definition process PAGEREF _Toc521264981 h 19Figure 3: Spectrum of risk attitudes PAGEREF _Toc521264982 h 20Figure 4: Types of organizations present throughout the Lebanese Republic PAGEREF _Toc521264983 h 28Figure 5: Businesses’ sector repartition PAGEREF _Toc521264984 h 29Figure 6: Green Financing Loans evolution PAGEREF _Toc521264985 h 47LIST OF TABLES TOC h z c “Table” Table 1: The five dimensions, the applied coding scheme and example phrases PAGEREF _Toc521264986 h 11Table 2: CSR awareness in Lebanon PAGEREF _Toc521264987 h 27Table 3: Engagement of different sectors in CSR activities in Lebanon PAGEREF _Toc521264988 h 28Table 4: Solutions to the challenges faced by BankMed on the young generation’s level PAGEREF _Toc521264989 h 48BIBLIOGRAPHY ADDIN EN.REFLIST 1.Crane, et al., Corporate Social Responsibility in a Global Context. 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Lebanese Transparency Association.Appendix A: Statistical AnalysisSurveyCompany’s name:Disagree Neutral AgreeThe company should have an established CSR program as part of its mission The CSR program is of importance to the company’s stakeholders The CSR practices affect employee satisfaction and productivity The CSR practices affect the reputation of the company The CSR practices affect the customer’s loyalty towards the company CSR practices are of a direct effect on the organization’s financial performance The better the CSR practices, the better the company’s brand equity The company should communicate its CSR activities to the public The company should integrate annual CSR trainings within its program QuestionsWhat kind of CSR activities do you carry out?Do you have a yearly allocated budget for your CSR activities? If not, from where do you obtain the funding?Are your CSR activities communicated to the public in any way? If so, how often and what kind of media is used?Who is assigned responsibility for CSR and how do you think this affects CSR in practice?Appendix B: The UN Global Compact 10 PrinciplesHuman RightsPrinciple 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; andPrinciple 2: make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.LabourPrinciple 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;Principle 4: the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour;Principle 5: the effective abolition of child labour; andPrinciple 6: the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.EnvironmentPrinciple 7: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges;Principle 8: undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility; andPrinciple 9: encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies.Anti-CorruptionPrinciple 10: Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.