Communication of corporate social responsibility activities through corporate website: a comparative study of India’s private and public sector undertakings

The history of CSR in India is a pre-independence phenomenon and was largely influenced by the nation–building belief inspired by Gandhiji. Over the years the model of CSR practice in India has moved from Trusteeship to Stakeholder model but the focus has not shifted much. The original idea of helping to develop self-reliant countrymen has continued despite the emergence of idea that development has to be co-ordinated and linked. While CSR has become a part of the corporate communication strategy of most of the companies earning above a threshold limit, it in most cases has not been able to transcend the corporate strategy and serve as an integrated approach for development in India. The corporate houses are well aware of the legitimacy granted to their activities by a transparent communication pattern, yet they have not been able to give up their practices of shrouding their activities in corporate mystery. It has resulted not only in sullying their intention of helping the stakeholders; it has also failed to develop a public discussion in deciding on the strategies of development. As a sum total, despite spending heavily on developing the human resources or building public resources, the big industries in India lack a cohesive pattern of development and most importantly it has remained immediate community specific in terms of stakeholders’ development. The developmental scenario would have been fundamentally different if the companies had a larger picture in mind and and took efforts in building stable public resources of development instead of helping out merely individuals only as individuals.