Managing corporate social responsibility through social learning

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the Mexican financial sector is constructed through a social learning process in which four CSR dimensions: influencers; motivations; issues; and outcomes interact, influence each other, and adjust within the boundaries of the Mexican institutional context. By looking at the case of the Mexican financial sector, this paper aims to study how firms engage in the process of managing their corporate social responsibility strategies to generate sustained competitive advantage. It posits that many organizations already consider the different dimensions, but they do so in a siloed way, and that CSR management can be more efficient by engaging in a structured double learning loop that allows firms to adapt their strategy and help them create long‐term value for the firm and its stakeholders. Successfully engaging in social learning can also enhance the firm's legitimacy, but doing so requires strong coordination between different teams and leadership and the capacity to set shared objectives. This research contributes to CSR literature by proposing a model for understanding CSR as a social learning process, and by providing empirical evidence for the understanding of CSR from an emerging country context.