Explaining the relationship between socially responsible products and the operations of the firm: The case of equine assisted therapy

Abstract Although there is a growing interest in social responsibility in research as well as in practice, the majority of studies on corporate social responsibility do not explicitly investigate operations management issues when adopting socially responsible practices under the “people” pillar of sustainability. This paper, dealing with the theme of social responsibility in operations management, aims at clarifying the complex relationship between socially responsible product/service and the operations of the company. The empirical context of the study is the sport industry, where the attention to social issues is well established. We used a mixed theoretical-empirical approach to develop …