Emily Jania

National culture and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are increasingly receiving attention within the field of industrial/organizational psychology. Previous research demonstrates that relationships exist between various cultural dimensions and corporate social responsibility. The current study aims to build on this previous research to show that country-level cultural-dimensions are related to the typical (average) number and diversity (variety) of external CSR initiatives engaged in by companies (aggregated to the national level). Generally, we expect that companies will differ in the number and variety of CSR initiatives that they conduct as a function of the cultural characteristics of the countries they are headquartered in. Using data about culture rooted in the Hofstede Model and information about corporate social responsibility collected from organizations’ CSR reporting, this paper examined how the CSR initiatives of corporations located in various parts of the world differ based on country-level culture. The results show that certain cultural characteristics produced strong correlates (correlation scores above .25) between national culture and the average level of external CSR engagement for companies. These included: a strong negative correlation between larger amounts of CSR engagement and higher levels of Gender Egalitarianism, a strong positive correlation between larger amounts of CSR engagement and higher levels of In-Group Collectivism, and a strong positive correlation between larger amounts of CSR engagement and higher levels of Long Term Orientation. Other results show that certain cultural dimensions produced strong correlations with the variety of external CSR behaviors engaged in. These include Future Orientation Societal Practices, Gender Egalitarianism Societal Values, Humane Orientation Societal Values, Individualism versus Collectivism, and Performance Orientation Societal Values.