A systematic-narrative hybrid review of evidence: Exploring how corporate social responsibility initiatives impact population health

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) refers to initiatives undertaken by corporations that aim to make a positive impact on society. It is unclear to what extent these aims are achieved in relation to population health. We explored the evidence for mechanisms by which CSR has positive or negative effects on population health through a systematic-narrative hybrid review of 97 relevant articles. We found few examples overall that could trace a CSR initiative through to verifiable impacts on the population. Our review found that generally the evidence for the impacts of CSR on population health was patchy, highly heterogenous and of varying quality. We found some potential positive impacts of CSR on health; including on poverty alleviation, development, health care, the environment and the health and wellbeing of workers. Some CSR initiatives were rebranding of core functions, such as HR practices and employee wellbeing strategies, or were a partial redressing of the problems the corporation itself is creating, such as CSR initiatives that sought to improve workplace safety, reduce corporate environmental footprints or relocate people displaced by mining activities. We situate these impacts in relation to the role and intent of CSR, and argue that meaningful progress on CSR can only be made with greater transparency and reporting of initiatives to more fulsomely evaluate their impacts – as well as the political economy in which these sit. It is further critical to strengthen government regulation and oversight to maximise any public good that can come from CSR, and minimise the negative consequences reported in research literature.