Purpose: Drawing upon a contractarian lens of corporate social responsibility (CSR), this study aims to explore community construals of happiness and evaluates conceptual boundaries of CSR for happiness.
Design/methodology/approach: Using a mixed-methods design, natural language processing and thematic analysis techniques were used to analyse large volumes of textual survey data collected from over 1,000 research participants through an online survey.
Findings: Results indicated that lay construals of happiness were primarily defined in terms of socioeconomic conditions and psychoemotional experiences. In explicating the boundary conditions, community perceptions regarding the extent of businesses’ social responsibilities for happiness were evidenced in five themes: that businesses have a responsibility not to harm happiness, a responsibility to enable conditions for happiness to occur, a responsibility to exercise awareness of happiness implications in decision-making, a responsibility for happiness that is limited by strategic purpose and resource capability and a responsibility for happiness that is limited by stakeholder proximity.
Originality/value: This study contributes to the theoretical and empirical foundation of CSR for happiness while simultaneously developing and applying a novel approach for processing and analysing large volumes of qualitative survey-based data.