1. ¹Department of Merchandising, Apparel, and Textiles, University of Kentucky, Lexington, USA
2. ²Department of Retail, Hospitality, and Tourism Management, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA
3. ³Department of Merchandising, Apparel, and Textiles, University of Kentucky, Lexington, USA

Abstract

This study is motivated by the lack of information about the retail industry's commitment to and attention given to socially responsible behaviors. The purpose of the study is to discover in what context corporate social responsibility (CSR) is being addressed within the top 100 US retail organizations. The framework of the study consists of principles of CSR, processes of CSR and outcomes of CSR. Based on this, corporate web pages were reviewed using content analysis procedure. Just over one-half of 100 US retailers mentioned CSR principles either in separate statements or embedded in mission statements. Economic statements were most common to category killers whereas discount stores predominantly mentioned philanthropic statements. In the analysis of CSR programs, social programs followed by environmental programs were most frequently mentioned. The results suggest more retail firms should be involved in communicating their social responsibility beliefs on their corporate website although previous research showed that a majority of Fortune 500 companies used their website to promote some aspects of CSR.