An Investigation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Model of Oil Refining Companies via Exploratory Mix Method

Since the purpose of this study was to provide a comprehensive picture of the status qua of the social responsibility directions and factors in the Iranian oil refining companies, the study at hand is a descriptive needs analysis research. Moreover, it was a mixed method study in which first an exploratory qualitative sub-study was carried out using thematic analysis method. At this stage, the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) thematic network of Iranian oil companies was researched based on the interviews with 16 experts who were members of the key stakeholders of the companies with the experience or knowledge related to social responsibility in the oil industry selected based on the snowball sampling method. The obtained data was analyzed and drawn using Attride-Stirling coding method. The interviews were continued up to the point data saturation was achieved. The validation of the extracted model was done with the cooperation of 42 experts using a questionnaire and the three-stage Delphi method. The results show that although at the first stage of the thematic analysis, six comprehensive themes and 23 organizing themes were extracted, at the validation stage, the four comprehensive themes of “issues related to customers, environment maintenance, issues related to the staff, and the development of local communities”, 18 organizing themes, and 109 basic themes were confirmed as the CSR dimensions of oil refining companies.