6.2 Discussion
This thesis is based on high quality and important literature in the field of competitive advantage and reputation, contributing to the quality of this thesis. But this thesis is largely based solely on assumptions of other literature and therefore this thesis has little empirical evidence
During this research the difficulty of CSR has become clear. There is not a commonly used definition but there is a scattered view on CSR. As mentioned by Votaw and Sethi (1973) it means something, but not always the same to everybody. This phrase describes the difficulty of CSR clearly. Because there is not a commonly definition of CSR it is sometimes difficult to identify what is and what is not a CSR activity. Therefore it is difficult to precisely emphasize what part of competitive advantage can be assigned to CSR.
This research is focused on the influence of CSR on competitive advantage and the influence of CSR by means of reputation. It can be assumed that CSR effects other resources. It is possible that CSR influences other resources and so in multiple ways is able to influence competitive advantage.
In this thesis competitive advantage is only described by means of the resource- based view. By using other theories it may happen that there are multiple and sometimes different results. When examining the influence of CSR on competitive advantage, there appeared little or no empirical evidence for the influence of CSR on competitive advantage. This does not have any impact on the quality of the results since the results are based on high quality literature, but with more empirical evidence some results of this research might be stronger.
6.3 Recommendations for further research
As mentioned in the discussion, competitive advantage is only described by means of the resource-based view. A recommendation for further research is to describe the influence of CSR on competitive advantage based on other theories. Furthermore, no empirical support is
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used to describe the influence of CSR on competitive advantage. It is important to more obtain empirical evidence about the influence to give it a better/stronger foundation. It’s recommended not only to focus on existing academic literature, but also make use of field research in further research
This research only describes the influence of CSR and reputation on competitive advantage. A recommendation is to examine more important resources (tangible or intangible) which might influence competitive advantage and which might be influenced by CSR. When examining more important resources, the knowledge of the influence that CSR might have on resources might be extended.
Another recommendation for further research is to develop a framework to identify what can be seen as a CSR activity (social responsible activity). Such a framework can facilitate measuring the influence of CSR on competitive advantage.