Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemThe Happiness Externality: Exploring the Social Role and Responsibilities of Business( 2020)Happiness refers to the way people feel and function in their lives and is something that is highly valued by most nations and their citizenry. Over the past two decades, happiness has been a topical area of interest in policy circles around the world. Today, various intergovernmental agencies and over 40 countries around the world are routinely collecting and publishing data on the subjective wellbeing of citizens. However, while much attention has been given to the role of governments in preserving and enhancing societal happiness, there has been minimal focus on the role and contributions of business in societal happiness. Businesses, in their various forms, are inseparable features of modern societies, and their activities bear far reaching consequences on all aspects of social life, including the subjective experiences of societal constituents. Given the systemic social connectedness of business in society and the importance of happiness to governments and their people, this dissertation draws on positive psychology and corporate social responsibility (CSR) concepts to frame happiness as an externality of business and examines the social roles and responsibilities of businesses for societal happiness. In the absence of specific theories and frameworks in the extant literature, my research first proposes a new humanist and normative concept termed ‘CSR for Happiness’, which contends that businesses have a social responsibility to respect, preserve, and advance people’s right to, and experience of, happiness. As a new concept, subsequent empirical work was undertaken and interpreted through the lens of social contracts, to clarify the conceptual boundary conditions of CSR for Happiness. The empirical contributions of this dissertation comprise two studies that examined lay perspectives regarding CSR for Happiness using a single large survey dataset. Study 1 was a quantitative study that analysed Likert-style responses of 1,319 participants. Study 2 was a mixed-method study that analysed open-text responses from over 1,000 participants. In undertaking Study 2, a novel mixed method was developed that used a combination of natural language processing and thematic analysis techniques to process and analyse large volumes of textual survey data, thus also contributing a method to the extant literature. Collectively, both studies found that the study participants were supportive of the notion that businesses hold some degree of social responsibility for happiness. Findings from exploratory analyses in Study 1 indicates that there is stronger support among less privileged respondents in the public and that the perceived degree of social responsibility for happiness tends to be greater for high-proximity stakeholders such as customers and employees, compared to low-proximity stakeholders such as suppliers. Study 1 also found that business activities that enhance happiness of societal constituents corresponds with stakeholder behavioural intentions that may enhance business performance outcomes. In Study 2, analysis of the textual data revealed that lay construals of happiness were defined in terms of socioeconomic conditions and psychoemotional experiences. Further, although the public believed that businesses have some social responsibilities for happiness, their expectations were tempered by a number of caveats: (1) responsibility not to harm happiness, (2) responsibility to enable happiness, (3) responsibility to exercise awareness of happiness in decision making, (4) responsibility for happiness is greatest for stakeholder that are spatially near, and (5) responsibility to act within scope of their purpose and capability. Interpreted through a contractarian lens of CSR, Study 2 clarifies the conceptual boundaries of CSR for Happiness by identifying the perceived nature and extent of businesses’ social responsibilities for societal happiness.