Abstract

The study examines the relationship between the Corporate Citizenship (CC) practices of leading firms in their industries and their level of advancement in CC. The study took a conceptual approach and used two cases not as empirical evidence but for illustration purposes. The main hypothesis was that CC practices of leading firms find expression from the fact that these firms tend to play two significant roles. First, leading firms in CC can set standards (pace-setting) of CC practice in their industry which would become a benchmark for other firms. Second, leading firms take up the challenge to catch up with the standards set by other firms in the industry in other aspects of CC where they are not leaders. The results show that the two cases used by the study have revealed how the CC practices of a leading firm in an industry under institutional isomorphism that manifests through pace setting, and catching-up can improve the general CC practices of an industry. As a practical recommendation, champions of CC like NGOs should target leading firms more as their practices are more likely to be replicated by other firms in the industry since the study has demonstrated that firms in the industry tend to copy leaders (innovators and early adopters) more than laggards. 

Key words: Corporate social responsibility, corporate citizenship, socially responsible behaviour of leading firms, institutional isomorphism.