Religious Salience and Attitudes towards CSR in Saudi Arabia
Introduction
A number of authors have studied the relationship between religion and attitudes toward
corporate social responsibility (CSR). For example, Brammer, Williams, and Zinkin (2007)
examine attitudes toward CSR based on religious affilitation (e.g., Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish,
Muslim, Roman Catholic, etc) across 20 countries. Although studies like this add to our
understanding of CSR, it is unclear at this point if these reported attitudes are true reflections of
specific religious identities.
Although it is widely accepted that an individual’s identity is the sum of a number of
social identities (Markus, 1977), the process by which particular identities become activated or
more salient is less understood. For example, the presence of a particular social identity, such as
a religious identity may not automatically lead to increased emphasis on identity-relevant
information in every judgment situation. For increased emphasis on identity-relevant
information to occur, the particular identity in question needs to be activated (Bargh et al.,1996).
In this research, we propose the use of an identity prime to activate Saudi Arabian
subjects’ religious and business identities. The paper is structured as follows. In the first section
we discuss of the relationship between the principles of Islam and CSR and develop hypotheses
that address how the activation of one’s Islamic identity will affect attitudes toward CSR. In the
second section, we outline our proposed experimental research design. We end with a discussion
of the importance of the model for understanding attitudes toward CSR and a call for future
research on this topic.
Literature Review and Development of Hypotheses
Islam, in like manner to that of the other Abrahamic religions (i.e. Christendom and
Judaism), clearly delineates the moral expectations of adherents in all facets of life. Normatively
speaking, these ethical guidelines are enshrined in two principle sources: the Qur’an and the
Sunnah (Beekun and Badawi, 2005). The Qur’an (the recitation) is the compilation of revelation
received by the Messenger from God over a twenty-three year period. The first phase of
revelation, known as the Meccan revelation, focuses on the spiritual and moral development of
the early Muslims, while the Medinan or second phase provides a more detailed articulation of
the laws (the Shariah) sent by the Divine to govern the daily affairs of what eventually became
the Islamic state/ the ummah (religious community).
The sunnah, on the other hand, are the sayings and actions of Messenger Muhammed
throughout his prophethood, as witnessed by his companions. Similarly to the Qur’an, this
prophetic example is of great import to Muslims insofar as it provides the ideal illustration of the
manifestation of Islamic morality within the realm of the dunya (the physical world).
Though comprehensive in nature, these primary sources from which Islamic morality is
derived do not explicitly address all of the ethical challenges encountered by later generations of
Muslims. Rather they, in concert with secondary sources (i.e. scholarly consensus (ijma’a),
analogy (qiyas), consideration of public welfare, juristic preference, consideration of custom,
legal precedent, as well as reports of the Companions of the Prophet) help to provide a principled
framework by which later generations can employ in addressing the moral landscape of their
respective era (Al-Qaradawi, 1992). It is important to note that the aforementioned secondary
sources are derived from the Qur’an and the Sunnah (Beekun and Badawi, 2005).
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Ethical Foundation of Business in Islam
The sources of Islamic morality are not relegated to governing the spiritual life of
Muslims solely, but rather their entire engagement with the ‘alamin (creation). As such, the
concept of worship (ibadah) in Islam is all-encompassing (Al-Faruqi, 1992). It includes the fivepillars of Islam (i.e. the declaration of faith, prayer, fasting during the month of Ramadhan,
almsgiving, and the pilgrimage to Mecca), belief in the six articles of faith (the angels, the
revealed books, the messengers), and ihsan (striving for perfection in worship), whilst also
including man’s productive contributions as an economic agent (Lewis, 2001). As long as a
Muslim’s daily actions, including one’s economic activity (amal), are carried-out (1) for God’s
sake (fisabilillah), (2) in accordance with the Shariah, and (3) without causing one to neglect
one’s religious commitments, then such acts are deemed ibadah (Williams and Zinkin, 2009).
Taken as an amalgam, the spiritual and practical elements of worship provide Muslims
with a more robust understanding of man’s ultimate purpose on Earth. This purpose is inclusive
of two inter-related duties. The first is a Muslim’s metaphysical or spiritual devotion to Allah as
his servant (Williams and Zinkin, 2009): “I did not create the jinn and humankind except that
they should worship Me” (Qur’an, 51: 56). Secondly, Muslims have the duty to serve as the
trustees or vicegerents (khulifah) of Allah upon the earth (Williams and Zinkin, 2009): “And We
have sent you (O Muhammed) not but as a mercy for the ‘alamin (mankind, jinn and all that
exists) (Qur’an, 21: 107). The mercy referred to in this verse is the duty of humankind as
stewards of Allah to maintain “balance and equilibrium (‘adl)” in the world (Williams and
Zinkin, 2009).
“The sun and the moon run on their fixed courses (exactly) calculated with measured out
stages for each. And the stars and the trees both prostrate themselves (to Allah). And the
heaven He has raised high, and He has set up the balance in order that you may not
transgress (due) balance” (Qur’an, 55: 5-9).
This balance, “At a more metaphysical level... relates to the all-embracing harmony in the
universe” (Beekun and Badawi, 2005). In the physical realm, it is manifest in the complex
cosmological, ecological, physiological, and sociological systems that man has just begun to
ascertain. To uphold the delicate sociological balance between human beings, Allah has
embedded the principles of justice (‘adl), trust (amanah), and benevolence (ihsan) within
humanity’s lived psyche (Beekun and Badawi, 2005).
Islam and CSR
The extant literature on Islam and business ethics demonstrates significant crossfertilization between the tenets of the Islamic faith and the demands of CSR (Beekun and
Badawi, 2005; Graafland, Mazereeuw, and Yahia, 2006; Brammer, Williams, and Zinkin, 2007;
Williams and Zinkin, 2009). Beekun and Badawi (2005) argue that Islam supports stakeholder
theory as expressed by Freeman (1984) in his seminal work Strategic Management: A
Stakeholder Approach, regarding a firm’s fiduciary responsibility to its diverse group of
stakeholders.
In similar fashion, Williams and Zinkin, (2009) demonstrate that there is a great deal of
convergence between Islam and the UN Global Compact concerning human rights (Qur’an, 6:
164; Qur’an, 2: 256; Qur’an, 49: 12; Qur’an, 24: 27; Qur’an, 51: 19; and the Prophet’s Last
Sermon), equality (Qur’an, 49: 13), personal freedom (Qur’an, 2: 256), ethical treatment of
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workers (Sahih Bukhari, 3, p. 258), preservation of the natural environment (Qur’an, 6: 165 and
Qur’an, 2: 30), and the prohibition of any form of corruption in business transactions (Qur’an, 2:
188; Sahih Bukhari: Vol. 3, Book 43, No. 634; and Abu Dawud, Hadith No. 3573).
Identity Priming, Islamic Salience, and CSR
One of the difficulties in studying the effects of religiosity on judgment is controlling for
the identity subjects are enacting when the data is collected. Deaux (1984) and Eagly (1987)
contend, for example, that in a controlled setting one's study-subject identity may overwhelm
other aspects of one’s identity. Consequently, making conclusions based on experimental
research may be widely misleading if researchers do not control for the enactment of various
identities. To address this concern, researchers turned to what are termed identity primes.
Lashley (1951) was the first to use the term priming to describe the preparatory function
of thought (Bargh et al.,1996). The basic principle behind identity priming is that Berkowitz
(1984) argued that behavioral responses as well as thoughts and emotions can be automatically
or subconsciously activated by aggressive stimuli (Berkowitz, 1984). Automatic thought
processes involve reflexive responses to certain triggering conditions. These processes require
only that a stimulus event or object be detected by an individual’s sensory system. Once that
triggering event is detected, the process runs to completion without awareness (Bargh, 1997).
Evidence regarding the effects of identity priming has been presented by a number of
researchers in the fields of psychology, ethics, and consumer behavior. Higgins, Rholes, and
Jones (1977), for example, show that when subjects were primed by being exposed to specific
traits within a semantic category, their judgment of a behavior presented in a scenario changed
when the scenario content was semantically applicable with the traits contained in the prime.
When exposed to positive, semantically applicable traits, subjects rated the behavior in the
scenario to be more positive than when the prime was negative or not semantically applicable.
In the area of ethics, Hill (1994) finds that religious and nonreligious people make similar
implicit evaluations toward religiously neutral objects. In contrast, implicit evaluations of
religious objects are stronger among religious people than among nonreligious people (e.g.,
Weisbuch-Remington, Mendes, Seery, & Blascovich, 2005). Finally, in their analysis of the
effects of religious priming and cheating, Randolph-Seng and Nielsen (2008) find that that
activating religious identities dramatically decreased the incidence of cheating in experimental
settings.
Model Development. Although the basic tenants of Islam are consistent with the
principles of CSR, we argue that even highly religious people may not always make decisions
related to, or form judgments of, CSR based on their religious or in this case Islamic identities.
Because of the known effect of activated identity on attitude and judgment formation, we
propose the following model of the effects of religiosity on CSR attitudes. As shown in Figure
1, the effects of religiosity on attitudes toward CSR are moderated by the social identity that is
activated at the time of the study. More specifically, we expect attitudes toward CSR to be more
positive in cases where the subject’s Islamic identity is activated and salient.
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Figure 1: Religiosity, Social Identity, and the Importance of CSR
H1:
H2:
H3:
Subjects’ attitudes toward CSR will differ significantly based on the type of socialidentity prime.
The level of religiosity will only lead to significant differences in attitudes toward CSR
when subjects’ Islamic identity is activated and salient.
Subjects exposed to the Islamic prime condition will rate CSR as more important than
subjects in the non-religious priming conditions.
Research Methodology
Studying the effects of one’s activated social identity will require an experimental,
between-subjects factorial research design. Subjects will be randomly assigned to three groups.
One group will be given a religious prime to activate their Islamic identity while the other groups
will be given a Saudi business identity prime or a neutral prime. After completing the priming
task, subjects will be asked to complete a survey on their attitudes toward CSR and answer
questions about their level of religiosity.
The proposed priming manipulation will be in the form of a scrambled sentence test
(Srull and Wyer, 1979). Participants will be told that it is a test of language ability. The task
will require subjects to use the five listed words to construct a grammatically correct four-word
sentence as quickly as possible. In the religious and business primes, ten of the 25 scrambled
sentence tasks will contain words that are rated as highly associated with Islam and business,
respectively. The Islam and business related words will be pretested with a separate group of
subjects who will rate a list of Islam and business themed terms on a 100 point scale according to
the degree which they consider the word to be associated with the respective concept.
The measure of corporate social responsibility will be taken from Brammer et al. (2007).
Subjects will be asked to rate the extent to which firms should be held responsible for 15
different social issues ranging from protecting the environment to honest financial reporting (see
Brammer et al., 2007 for more details). The scales used for the rating will be as follows: (1) Not
held responsible; (3) Held partly responsible; (5) Held completely responsible.
The measure of Islamic religiosity will be adapted from Graafland et al. (2006). It
focuses on the degree to which subjects agreed with the basic principles of Islam and their level
of compliance with the required practices and rituals. Because religiosity is a control measure, it
will be given after the CSR measure.
Discussion and Summary
The topic of CSR is a highly relevant and increasingly important issue around the world
and is attracting growing attention in Saudi Arabia (Ali and Al-Aali, 2012). For example, in an
effort to enhance Saudi Arabia’s sustainable competitiveness, the Saudi Arabian General
Investment Authority (SAGIA) in partnership with AccountAbility and Tamkeen Consulting,
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launched the Saudi Arabian Responsible Competitive Index (SARCI) in July of 2008 to
encourage socially responsible corporate practices amongst Saudi firms. This initiative served as
a catalyst for a far more robust agenda to promote CSR which included: the King Khalid Award
for Responsible Competitiveness, Saudi Fast Growth 100, and the Responsible Competitiveness
Leadership Dialogues.
Despite the attention CSR is receiving, understanding attitudes toward CSR in Saudi
Arabia is complicated by the perceived omnipotent role of Islam. Although there is clear overlap
between the teachings of Islam and the principles of CSR, research in this area tends to assume
that reported attitudes toward this subject are automatically reflective of Saudis’ Islamic identity.
In this study, we propose that a more accurate reflection of the Islam/CSR connection can be
examined through the use of social-identity priming. Furthermore, we argue that even
differences due to various levels of religiosity will only be evident when subjects’ Islamic
identity is salient.
Admittedly, our model of religiosity and attitudes toward CSR in the presence of socialidentity primes represents just the first step in developing a deeper understanding of the effects
of Saudi Arabian’s religious versus business identities on their attitudes toward CSR. We
encourage future research in this area and especially efforts to empirically test the hypotheses
presented within as the results are expected to have important implications for both teaching and
practice in the area of CSR.
Selected References
Ali, A., & Al-Aali, A. 2012. Corporate social responsibility in Saudi Arabia. Middle East Policy,
19 (4): 40-53.
Beekun, R., & Badawi, J.(2005) Balancing Ethical Responsibility Among Multiple
Organizational Stakeholders: The Islamic Perspective, Journal of Business Ethics 60:131145.
Berkowitz, L. (1984). Some effects of thoughts on anti- and prosocial influences of media
events: A cognitive-neoassociation analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 410-427
Brammer, S, Williams, G, & Zinkin, J. (2007). Religion and attitudes to corporate social
responsibility in a large cross-country sample. Journal of Business Ethics, 71 (3): 229243.
Graafland, J, Mazereeuw, C., & Yahia A. 2006. Islam and Social Responsible Business Conduct:
An Empirical Research Among Dutch Entrepreneurs, Munich Personal RePEc Archive
http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/20279/
MPRA Paper No. 20279, posted 27. January
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Lashley, K. S. (1951). The problem of serial order in behavior. In L. A. Jeffress (Ed.), Cerebral
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Mazar, N., Amir, O., & Ariely, D. 2008. The dishonesty of honest people: A theory of selfconcept maintenance. Journal of Marketing Research, 45 (6): 633-644.
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Srull, T. K., & Wyer, R. S., Jr. (1979). The role of category accessibility in the interpretation of
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Tenets of Islam and the UN Global Compact, Journal of Business Ethics 91: 519-533.
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