Corporate Social Action Patterns in Contrasting Market Settings

This paper presents the results of a survey of Australian and Bangladeshi corporate managers' response patterns in the food and textile sectors to increasing demands for improved corporate social performances. Based on an analysis of six internal and external decision areas using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), significant differences were found in corporate action between countries and within selected industries. Australian managers were more likely to act on the internal marketing decision areas (product, price, distribution and communication), Bangladeshi managers tended to act on external environmental decision areas. The strategic implications of these findings are that macro- and micro-environmental variables and government and business capabilities in diverse settings significantly influence managerial actions on social responsibility pressures.