Framing Corporate Social Responsibility to Achieve Sustainability in Urban Industrialization: Case of Bangladesh Ready-Made Garments (RMG)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The reviewed paper concentrates on strategic development of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to achieve sustainability in ‘‘Ready-made Garments (RMG)’’ industry in Bangladesh. This industry faces many challenges related, among others, to occupational health, work environment, ergonomic, chemical and environmental hazards. On the other hand, it plays important role in poverty reduction as well as in social, cultural and educational development. Therefore this research problem is very topical and important for social and environmental improvements in Bangladesh and other developing countries, where industries like RMG play very important, or even crucial role in national economy. However, in the paper I identify some important weaknesses which should be significantly improved if the paper will be accepted for publication:

1. The title does not correspond to the content of the paper. The concepts of “smart urbanization” and “urban industrialization” are neither well theoretically nor empirically developed. The content concentrates on CSR challenges in RMG industry with strong emphasis on Bangladesh context. Therefore I propose to change the title into: “Framing Corporate Social Responsibility to Achieve Sustainability in Ready-made Garments (RMG) industry: Case of Bangladesh”.
2. On p. 2 two research questions are formulated. Answers to these questions should be clearly stated in ‘conclusion’ section.
3. Conceptual framework (model) of the study presented in Fig. 4 (p. 6) in unclear and does not correspond to the theoretical description. On p. 6 the Author states that “From the above model it can be shown that the study would analyze the CSR conditions based on five significant indicators…”, however, in Fig. 4 only 3 indicators of “Assessing CSR Conditions in …(what?)” are presented. Moreover, the role of “Framework for Strategic Sustainable (Development)” is unclear. The Author states that FSSD “is used to assess the CSR and build up some strategic guidelines for corporate sustainability practices through the existing CSR planning”. However in Fig. 4 the FSSD is presented as moderator of ‘Assessing CSR Conditions’ impact on ‘Urban Sustainability Prospects by CSR in RMG’. In my opinion the assumed role of FSSD should be more precisely defined in the model.
4. Research methodology (especially ‘Sample size and data collection’ (p. 7) should be deeper presented. Selection criteria and characteristics of 15 stakeholders groups should be provided. Are these stakeholders external or internal in relation to RMG industry? What kind of data was collected from these stakeholders and who was respondent (source of data) in each case? On pp. 9-12 many detailed information are presented, however it is not clearly stated what is the source of this information. Moreover no references are provided.
5. In ‘Discussion’ section (p. 12-16):

• • the title of 4.1. ‘CSR in line with the existing challenges’ should be changed to ‘CSR in RMG industry in Bangladesh in line with the existing challenges’,
  • on p. 12 the Author states that ‘Different empirical studies also show that’ but no references are provided,
  • on p. 14 the title of 4.2. ‘Strategic pathways towards sustainable CSR’ should be changed to ‘Strategic pathways towards sustainable RMB industry in Bangladesh’

1. In ‘Conclusion’ the limitation and future directions of research should be presented and discussed.
2. Each Figure should be clearly announced in the text body of the paper.

In my opinion, the reviewed article represents an average scientific level. In the final conclusion I recommend it for publication in “Sustainability”, but after a very significant improvements taking into account the comments made above.

Author Response

Response to point 1: I changed the title of the article to align with your suggestions.

Response to point 2: The answers to two research questions are now defined more clearly in the conclusion section. First two paragraphs In this section are the answers to research question 1, and the last paragraph is explained to answer the second research question of the study.

Response to point 3: The FSSD has been elaborated more about its application in the study. After the conceptual framework (fig 4), the paragraph is explained about the actual functions of FSSD in the study.

Response to point 4: All the questions are now more clear in the section of "sample size and data collection". Since the study is mixed of primary and secondary data of qualitative approach, therefore, some information is not referenced due to its nature of primary data. The information was collected through interviews. 

Response to point 5: All the suggested changes were made in the discussion section. Two titles of the section have been changed. 

In the conclusion section, the last sentence is based on the future direction of research and limitations.

Figures are sufficiently addressed in the text where necessary.

Reviewer 2 Report

I found the article very interesting with potential to contribute in the issue of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to achieve sustainability. It is well written and takes into account a number of current constraints that prevent fully adoption of CSR. I have two observations only:

1. The authors explain that this is a qualitative research based on a sample of 15 stakeholder. According to the authors, “the aim is to find out the possible answer and in-depth knowledge about CSR challenges in Bangladesh”. In addition, the authors state that official websites and secondary materials of the stakeholder groups were used to gather information.

I am confused. What is the qualitative methodology here? Did the authors carry out in-deep interview to 15 stakeholders? How was the collected data processed? Perhaps the authors used grounded theory? If the research was based on secondary data and websites, then we cannot call this a qualitative research. It is just a search of information in the public domain. I think the authors should clarify this confusion. They should explain in more detail how the methodology was designed, why, how, and how the data was processed.

2. CSR focused on the environment can become a very important tool for RMG, particularly in response to the current globalization process. The reason is because lack of concern about human and environmental standards could rise trade barriers negatively affecting the industry in Bangladesh. I suggest the authors to expand their arguments to explain why lack of CSR may introduce trade barriers. For example, the UK is currently signing several bilateral agreements, and one of the main concerns is to make sure that future partners comply with human and environmental standards. This means that more efforts to strength CSR in Bangladesh to face international challenges is fundamental. This has to be discussed in the article.

Author Response

Response to Point 1: All the queries were addressed in 2.1 section "sample size and data collection".

Response to point 2: The query was addressed in the 3.2 section under the head of 'environmental management and disability in CSR', particularly focused in the last paragraph of this section. 

 

Reviewer 3 Report

This research attempts to explore the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR), and takes the ready-made garment (RMG) industry in Bangladesh as an example, hoping to show that once corporate social responsibility is implemented in the industry, it will contribute to the development and sustainability of the overall industry, which is worthy of recognition. However, there are some issues that need to be clarified in the overall discussion and reasoning, so the following suggestions are made:

1. Introduction

(1) This study uses a lot of space to describe the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR), and focuses on smart urbanization: building corporate social responsibility to achieve urban industrialization, hoping to promote sustainable development through the practice of corporate social responsibility implementation. This article hopes to draw conclusions specifically from the corporate social responsibility of the garment industry, but the problem lies in:

1. What is the representativeness of the RMG industry for corporate social responsibility? Did not elaborate.
2. What is the relationship between the establishment or promotion of corporate social responsibility in the RMG industry and the realization of urban industrialization?

(2) In 1.4. Investment situation in the Ready-made Garment industry in Bangladesh, this article analyzes the investment situation in the ready-made Garment industry in Bangladesh. However, whether the realization degree of corporate social responsibility is directly proportional to the degree of investment is not explained, and it is also lost. An important niche in discourse.

2. Methods

This research attempts to analyze and discuss the relationship between corporate social responsibility and sustainability using the ABCD method of argument. However, what are the factors that affect the smart urbanization or urban industrialization mentioned in the title of the article? In addition, what is the relationship between corporate social responsibility and it?

3. Result and analysis

This article proposes several factors that will affect CSR. What are the reasons for selecting these factors? Are these factors not discussed in the past (that is, what is the innovation of this article)? The literature collation and review does not seem to be complete.

4.Discussion & Conclusion

The discussion and conclusions of this article discuss international perceptions and stakeholders (especially employees). Such statements have been discussed and confirmed in many studies. There may be correctness in the direction, but there seems to be a lack of complete discussion and research on whether the concepts of smart urbanization that this article seeks are related to each other. In particular, this research only analyzes the garment industry, and does not discuss the implementation or current status of corporate social responsibility in other related (or similar) industries at the same time, thus highlighting the high academic value of this research, which is also the focus of this research.

 

Author Response

Response to point 1: Regarding question 1 under this point, CSR representatives of the RMG industry are independent and self-serviced. Most of the industries are not aware of this, but few are implementing the concept within the self-administrative process of their unique compliance department. There is no government pressure or policies for establishing a CSR department of the industry. For question 2, the issue has been addressed in the article, since most of the RMG factories and offices are operated around Dhaka city which is the largest urbanization of the country due to the major growth of RMG industries. in the city.

Response to point 2:  This is true that the realization degree of corporate social responsibility is directly proportional to the degree of investment is not explained here. The theme is not explained in detail due to our research question limitations. The future investment vs CSR in RMG can be another full-phase research question for the future. Section 1.4 is just explained to understand the importance of this sector where CSR could be a very important issue in the near future. But I recommended it as the future research direction in the conclusion section.

Response to point 2: For general comments on the Methods section, the issue has been addressed sufficiently as a cross-cutting issue in the research. Moreover, the title of the article has now been changed. 

Response to point 3: Yes, this article proposes several factors that will affect CSR. The reasons for selecting these factors are consequences as a result of applying sustainability framework in CSR? Basically, we tried to answer the research questions on this analysis. Even a few factors are discussed in the past, but not all within the sustainability framework. The innovation of this article is how to understand sustainability issues in a particular sector of a country and establishing a common process of sustainability integration in CSR of the RMG sector in Bangladesh. 

Response to point 4: Yes, the discussion and conclusions of this article discuss a mixed perception of international and local stakeholders (especially employees). Since the methods of the study are a mixed approach of primary data and secondary review, therefore we tried to cover perceptions of local and international perspectives. On the other hand, the title of the article has been changed a bit. Now we think, there will be no highlighting or main title on smart urbanization which should be discussed adequately in the article, but we covered it as a cross-cutting development in the study if we could redesign or frame the CSR in the RMG sector.

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

1. There are complete replies to the questions raised, and they are persuasive, and the content is richer than the original article;
2. There are still some CSR arguments worthy of further discussion in the future. I hope the author will continue to work hard to dig out more meaningful issues and propose better research.