As corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been recognized as a factor that positively affects corporate financial performance, many domestic studies have conducted CSR research at the organizational level, including strategy and finance. However, as the perspective has emerged that CSR can enhance organizational effectiveness by promoting employees' positive attitudes and behaviors, research on employees' individual-level CSR perceptions has also been increasing. Nevertheless, efforts to analyze the trends of domestic studies focusing on employees' CSR perceptions and to explore future research directions have been insufficient.

Accordingly, this study analyzed the research trends and proposed future research directions by examining a total of 40 studies dealing with employees' CSR perceptions published in registered academic journals in the domestic business administration field over the past 30 years, comparing them with overseas research in terms of overall research status, perspectives, theories, measurement instruments, empirical research results, and research methods. First, regarding domestic research trends, many studies adopted perspectives focused on perceptions of CSR activities/levels and perceptions of CSR motives, and social identity theory and attribution theory were frequently used to explain the mechanisms of CSR perceptions, while social exchange theory and justice theory were used relatively less. In terms of measurement instruments, responsibility-based and stakeholder-based measurement tools were widely used, and among CSR sub-dimensions, discretionary CSR and society-oriented CSR were most frequently addressed. In empirical research, while many studies examined the relationship between CSR perceptions and outcome variables, few studies identified the antecedents of CSR perceptions.

Based on this analysis of research trends, future research directions were proposed, including: the application of micro-level theoretical perspectives to identify CSR perception mechanisms; research from new perspectives to explore negative aspects of CSR perceptions; selective utilization of CSR perception measurement instruments aligned with research purposes; research on the interaction between CSR activity/level perceptions and motive perceptions; identification of individual characteristics and supervisor/organizational characteristics as antecedents of CSR perceptions; research on the differential effects of CSR considering industry characteristics; and research on CSR perceptions considering Korean-specific characteristics. Finally, the significance of this study and its methodological limitations were summarized.