Identifying and ranking the key performance drivers of corporate social responsibility in Saudi Arabia

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a global governance mechanism. It is a code of conduct, regulations, trade rules are also considered as an ethical practice of a company towards social responsibility. It is a drive to increase the profitability and goodwill of the company. This main objective of the study is to identify the key performance drivers of the CSR practices in public as well as private sectors in Saudi Arabia. The study also recommends ranking or prioritising of the major identified activities and benefits of the same. It has further investigated the association between awareness of CSR and the profitability by CSR between private as well as public companies. However, the study concludes that there is a significant difference in awareness as well as profitability between private and public corporates with the CSR. The author concludes that enhancing profitability is one of the key drivers of CSR in private corporates, whereas legal compliance is the primary factor in public corporates in Saudi Arabia. The result reveals attracting customers and social integration as ultimate benefits of the 'corporate social responsibility' in Saudi Arabia.