Drivers that motivate energy companies to be responsible. A systematic literature review of Corporate Social Responsibility in the energy sector

Energy companies are increasingly pressured to address a broader set of social responsibilities that go beyond legal and environmental requirements, which motivates them to incorporate a holistic approach to their activities. To do so, many firms have adopted Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a response to a diversity of pressures but also as a framework that enables them to prevent and manage risks and be proactive in the context of climate change. While the drivers behind CSR have been thoroughly studied, the specific motivations for energy companies to adopt CSR seems to be missing in the literature. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to review the literature in order to identify and categorize the drivers that motivate energy companies to adopt CSR. To do so, a systematic literature review is conducted that covers all the academic publications from 1990 to 2018 available in four scientific databases and focusing on CSR in the energy sector. The findings indicate that five internal drivers, three connecting drivers, and four external drivers can be identified in the literature as motivations for energy companies to adopt CSR. In addition, it is found that energy companies have a responsive or proactive approach towards the implementation of CSR. This article contributes to the literature by providing a broad systematic review of the academic publications on the topic and by identifying and categorizing the different drivers for CSR implementation that have been pointed out by the scholars in the sample. The practical contributions of this research come from presenting the drivers that motivate energy companies to adopt CSR, which provides understanding of the rationale behind responsible business practices and can translate into positive implications for the energy sector in terms of governance, legislation, and innovative business frameworks. This study can be useful for scholars and practitioners alike because it outlines the most relevant lines of research on the topic and provides a synthesis of the literature that highlights research gaps as well as trends. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.