| Corporate social responsibility has become an integral part of strategic planning of firms that operate globally, due to concerns about the power large corporations wield in the distribution of limited resources. Scholars and practitioners have not been able to secure an all-defining rubric for measuring the effectiveness of the corporate social responsibility activities undertaken by firms---across varied industries. This investigation evaluated the association between the corporate social responsibility ratings of multi-national pharmaceutical corporations and the new product development. Specifically, secondary data in the areas of research and development integrated marketing communications, and pricing were examined to gauge the nature of the relationship that may exist with the engagement of pharmaceutical firms that produce originator drugs in emerging economies like China, Russia, India, and Brazil. The sample consisted of the most profitable multi-national pharmaceutical corporations that manufacture originator drugs n=20. The data collection method followed Chatterji, et. al., (2014) convergence metric to establish the reliability of the 2012 Access to Medicines Index suggested by Hogerzeil (2013) by comparing the overlap with the 2012 Morgan Stanley Capital International Environmental Sustainability Governance Index database used by Jo and Na (2012) The statistical findings indicates that a linear relationship does exist between new product development and corporate social responsibility ratings in the pharmaceutical industry. |
