Corporate social responsibility in Malaysia housing development : the developer's perspective

The focus of this paper is on corporate social responsibility from the perspective of housing developers in Johor Bahru, Malaysia; particularly how they believe socially responsible practice can benefit project marketability. One-to-one interviews with housing developers were conducted to explore their perceptions, level of commitment and limitations to implementing CSR. An observational study of housing development trends from 1985 to 2004 was performed to identify major changes, predominantly from the aspect of CSR application, and to validate the interviews. Research findings showed that for the past five years, developers in Johor Bahru placed more emphasis on CSR elements; most developers committed to implement CSR; not only to improve marketability, but also to achieve the objective of sustainable housing development.