(Person) Percentage - Sabanci University Research Database

The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
The definition of marketing has been amended and revised from time to time. American
Marketing Association (1985) defined marketing as “the process of planning and executing
conception, pricing, promotions and distribution of goods, ideas and services to create exchanges
that satisfy individual and organizational goals”. In year 2004, this definition has been revised to
that “marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating
and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit
the organization and its stakeholders”. Those definitions have merely highlighted the
relationships between marketing and communication, which in this context of communication it
is referred as PR.
There is no definite reference of CSR as marketing in so far as in the case of PR and
marketing concerned. Somehow there are CSR related issues in marketing that brought to the
attention of researchers. Those researchers include Vaaland, Heide and Gronhang (2008)
regarding CSR in the marketing context; Andersen and Skjoett-Larsen (2009) on green supply
chain; Valor (2007) on strategic plan for corporate philanthropy where cause-related marketing
was discussed in the process of communications; Karna, Hansen and Juslin (2003) on
environmental marketing.
In so far no direct definition is given to the relationship between CSR, PR and marketing.
The progressive definition in this paper has highlighted the intersections of them.
CSR, PR and Marketing in Malaysia
CSR has received most public attention in the developed countries, and it has also been of major
concern in Malaysia in recent years. Those several non-governmental organizations like
“Sahabat Alam Malaysia”, Federation of Malaysian Consumers Association (CAP) and many
others have raised issues relating to environmental pollution, health hazards, product safety,
discrimination against the handicapped, and drug abuse (Md Zabid and Saadiatul Ibrahim, 2002).
As stated in Md Zabid and Saadiatul Ibrahim’s (2002) article regarding CSR in Malaysia,
research studies were mostly on corporate social involvement, social reporting and social
performance. Whereas Nejati and Azlan Amran (2009) are focusing on identifying the
motivation for CSR practice where most companies of the research mentioned that they were not
receiving any benefits for practicing CSR activities. Malaysian SMEs are practicing CSR
because of their own benefits and values, religious thoughts, and pressure and encouragement
from stakeholders.
A report of Norwegian Web Site on 20 May 2010
(http://www.norway.org.my/News_and_events/ Business/Bedriftenes-Samfunnsansvar/) revealed
that “the focus on CSR in Malaysia has increased in recent years, in line with international
trends”. Before hand there is a guide book on CSR framework in Malaysia titled The Silver
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