Corporate Social Responsibility-19 Scale (CSR-19)

Abstract

The Corporate Social Responsibility-19 Scale (CSR-19), developed by Eiadat in 2023, is a 16-item inventory specifically designed to measure company executives’ perceptions regarding CSR actions undertaken during the COVID-19 pandemic. This instrument fills a crucial gap in existing literature by focusing exclusively on the scope and dimensions of CSR activities within the extraordinary context of the pandemic, viewed from the perspective of organizational leadership.

The scale operationalizes four primary facets of CSR actions as latent variables: Economic, Legal, Social, and Environmental responsibilities. Scale development involved both the generation of new items by academic experts and the adaptation of items from established measures. Initial validation included Face Validity evaluation by business experts and an extensive translation/back-translation procedure for the Arabic administration in Jordan. Subsequent Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) confirmed a robust second-order, four-factor structure, supporting the hierarchical nature of the construct.

Keywords

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), CSR Actions, COVID-19 pandemic, Executive Perceptions, Economic CSR, Legal CSR, Social CSR, Environmental CSR, Scale Development, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Organizational Behavior.

Authors

Yousef Eiadat

Purpose

The central purpose of the CSR-19 scale is to quantitatively assess the perspectives and perceptions held by company executives regarding the extent and nature of corporate social responsibility activities implemented by their organizations during the unprecedented operational challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This measure provides a standardized tool for researchers and practitioners to examine how organizations adapted their social, economic, legal, and environmental responsibilities in a time of global crisis, offering critical insights into strategic executive decision-making under high uncertainty and disruption.

Construct

The primary construct measured by the CSR-19 is the multi-dimensional perception of Corporate Social Responsibility Actions (CSR-A) during the COVID-19 pandemic, as reported by organizational executives. This construct is conceptualized as a second-order latent variable encompassing four distinct, yet related, first-order dimensions.

These four dimensions—Economic CSR, Legal CSR, Social CSR, and Environmental CSR—represent the comprehensive scope of responsibilities a corporation must manage. The scale operationalizes these components to capture a holistic view of proactive and reactive socially responsible behaviors in crisis times, differentiating the perceived performance across these critical areas.

Validity

The validity of the CSR-19 scale was rigorously assessed using multiple psychometric methods, demonstrating strong measurement properties.

Convergent Validity: Strong Convergent Validity was supported by key metrics. The Average Variance Extracted (AVE), Composite Reliability (CR), and Maximum Reliability (MaxR or H) values all indicated that items intended to measure the same construct are highly correlated and share sufficient variance.

Discriminant Validity: Evidence for Discriminant Validity was established by ensuring the constructs were distinct from one another. Specifically, the Composite Reliability (CR) values were greater than their respective AVE values, and the Shared Variance (MSV) values were less than the AVE values. Furthermore, the Heterotrait-Monotrait Ratio (HTMT) values were clearly well below the recommended threshold of 0.85 (Henseler et al., 2015), providing robust support for the uniqueness of the latent factors.

Face Validity: The initial scale items underwent evaluation by business experts to establish Face Validity, confirming that the measure appears relevant and appropriate for assessing CSR actions from the executive perspective.

Reliability

The scale demonstrated high levels of internal consistency, supporting its reliability across the measured factors.

Internal Consistency: The reliability metrics consistently exceeded standard academic thresholds. The Average Variance Extracted (AVE) ranged from 0.762 to 0.824 (average 0.789), comfortably surpassing the recommended threshold of 0.5. Similarly, the Composite Reliability (CR) values, ranging from 0.846 to 0.891, and the maximum reliability (MaxR or H) values, ranging from 0.854 to 0.958, all exceeded the recommended threshold of 0.7, indicating excellent internal consistency among the items within each dimension.

Factor Analysis

A Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed following established scale development methodologies (Churchill, 1979; Anderson & Gerbing, 1988) to confirm the hypothesized structure of the CSR-19.

The initial hypothesized first-order model demonstrated a good fit to the data (e.g., χ²= 126.15, p = .029, RMSEA = 0.038, CFI = 0.983). Subsequently, a second-order model was estimated, proposing that the four first-order factors (Economic, Legal, Social, and Environmental CSR) load onto a single higher-order factor representing overall CSR-19. This second-order structure also exhibited an acceptable fit (χ² = 157.99, RMSEA = 0.053, CFI = 0.966).

The calculation of the ratio of the chi-squares to the degrees of freedom between the first- and second-order models resulted in a score of 0.93. This finding indicates that the second-order model provided a more parsimonious and equally effective explanation for the covariation observed among the four first-order dimensions, confirming the hierarchical structure of the scale (Smith & Langford, 2009).

Instrument

Test Type: Original Inventory/Questionnaire

Format: Respondents assess the extent to which their companies implemented specific actions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic using a 5-point Likert scale. The anchors range from 1 (little or no extent) to 5 (very great extent).

Language Available: Arabic

Population Group: Human (Male and Female)

Age Group: Adulthood (18 years and older), covering young adulthood (18-29 yrs), thirties (30-39 yrs), middle age (40-64 yrs), and aged (65 yrs & older).

Population Details: The scale was initially validated using Company Executives located in Jordan.

Test Methodology: Test Validity, Content Validity, Convergent Validity, Discriminant Validity, Test Reliability, Internal Consistency, Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis.

Keywords

Executive Decision Making, Organizational Leadership, Crisis Management, 5-point Likert Scale, Jordan, Business Ethics.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2126-2275

Affiliation Email addresses: [email protected] (Affiliation: University College Dublin (UCD) School of Business)

Correspondence Address: [email protected]

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Permissions: Contact Corresponding Author

Fee: No

Test Year: 2023

Commercial: No

Reference’s

Eiadat, Y. (2023). The CSR‐19 scale: A measure of corporate social responsibility actions during COVID‐19 pandemic. Business Ethics, the Environment and Responsibility, 32(Suppl 3), 257–269. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12534

Anderson, J. C., & Gerbing, D. W. (1988). Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological Bulletin, 103(3), 411–423.

Churchill, G. A. (1979). A paradigm for developing better measures of marketing constructs. Journal of Marketing Research, 16(1), 64–73.

Smith, B., & Langford, D. (2009). The fit of the second-order factor model: A comparison of three approaches. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 16(1), 169–188.

Items of the Corporate Social Responsibility-19 Scale (CSR‐19)

Number of Items: This measure consists of 16 items.

Factors and Subscales:

• Economic CSR

• Social CSR

• Legal CSR

• Environmental CSR