Managerial attitude and support for social responsibility through the lens of legitimacy theory: A cross country comparison

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is threefold; first, to examine the Australian and Indian managerial attitudes towards social responsibility (SR) and assess their support for SR; second, to explore the underlying factors that shape beliefs and attitudes; and third, to explore whether respondents from these countries, characterised by differing levels of development, differ in their attitudes towards SR. Design/methodology/approach – It investigates attitudes and support for SR of 318 Australian and Indian managers drawn from three industries. Eighteen social issues, principal component analysis (PCA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) procedures were undertaken to explore and confirm the underlying factors of SR. The paper used legitimacy theory as theoretical framework.