The exploratory study of the company’s CSR motives: The case of two companies in Indonesia

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been a subject of research interest and has drawn awareness for researchers and business practitioners from various fields. When doing their CSR activities, companies might have several motives that could be beneficial not only for the company itself, but also for their stakeholders. This paper focuses on a specific CSR initiative (i.e. scholarship program) provided by two companies in Indonesia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the representatives of the companies to explore the company’s motives. A cross-case analysis was also presented to describe the findings. The findings revealed that both firm-serving and public-serving motives were prevalent as the motives for doing CSR activities. The interviews also suggested that belief, value and religious thoughts would also be relevant factors for an organization to initiate its CSR activity.