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Research Methodology
The research
design calls for the identification of several matched pairs or triads
of multinational companies head quartered in Southern Europe, Northern
Europe and North America, and active in one of 7 industries: food,
pharmaceutical, neutral resources, energy, banking, chemical and
information technology. For each pair or triad, companies are matched
for their product, size, financial performance and degree of
internationality, while being at varying stages of development in their
CSR practice.
For each participant company 10 senior executive
interviews are conducted in specified corporate positions and 15
external interviews with selected stakeholders. In addition a web-based
survey of 400 randomly selected managers across the global management
population is administered.
The web survey has a dual purpose:
(a) to
replicate the content of the interviews within a representative sample
of the company’s management, and
(b) assess the likelihood of socially
responsible behaviour and the psychological profile of the respondent
manager through a series of standardized tests.
With a small number of companies, the project team
has also completed an experimental designed aimed at assessing the
effectiveness of several training approaches through pre-post
variations measured with a web-based survey similar to the (b) part of
the one described above.
The objective is to measure the degree of
change in the psychological profile (individual values, emotional
traits, moral reasoning, etc.) and in the expected behaviour relevant
to social responsibility issues. The training interventions include a
standard executive training session on CSR, and different types of
coaching programs focusing on stress management, introspection or
meditation practices.
Overall, RESPONSE has collected evidence from:
- 400 interviews (about 160 managers and 240 stakeholder representatives) in 19 multinational companies active in 7 sectors
- On-line questionnaires completed by about 2000 managers in 9 companies (pending completion in other 8 companies)
- 5 experiments, for a total of double (Pre-post) online questionnaires completed by 120 managers in 5 companies
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