The study investigates the role of corporate social responsibility initiatives and employee support in promoting sustainable livelihood among indigenous communities in India.
The study has conducted personal interviews with 326 beneficiaries of Tata Steel Foundation, residing in East Singhbhum and Saraikela Kharswan districts in Jharkhand, India. Structural equation modelling is used to empirically examine the effect of CSR initiatives and employee support on sustainable livelihood development.
The findings underscore the importance of employee support in ensuring the effective execution of CSR projects and the promotion of sustainable livelihoods for its indigenous beneficiaries. CSR initiatives significantly contributed towards the achievement of sustainable livelihood, in which employee support acts as partial mediation.
Government agencies must collaborate with corporations to promote projects focusing on the sustainable livelihood of vulnerable communities. Livelihood-generating activities like entrepreneurship and self-employment must be encouraged to foster a sustainable and reliable structure of wealth creation, employment and survival.
This paper enriches existing literature on CSR communication by emphasising the importance of employee support in CSR projects towards organisational performance. The philosophy of external CSR communication and CSR theory has also been extended in addressing the issues of sustainability and equality in livelihood development.
