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Konkurrensen om kompetent personal ökar och flertalet faktorer används därför för attattrahera och rekrytera kvalificerad arbetskraft. Företag lägger idag stort fokus på corporatesocial recponsibility (CSR) och studier har visat att CSR spelar stor roll för potentiellamedarbetare i sökandet efter arbetsgivare. Syftet med denna uppsats är således att undersöka,beskriva och analysera huruvida studenter på avancerad nivå vid ett svenskt universitet,värderar CSR som en attraktiv faktor hos en framtida arbetsgivare. Den teoretiskareferensramen utgår från tre områden vilka berör CSR, employer branding samt social identitytheory (SIT). Uppsatsen baseras på en kvantitativ metod i form av en enkätundersökningbland 230 studenter på avancerad nivå vid ett av Sveriges största universitet. Resultaten ochslutsatserna visar, till skillnad från tidigare studier, att CSR inte ses som en attraktiv faktorhos en framtida arbetsgivare samt att andra faktorer överlag ses som både mer attraktiva ochviktiga än CSR.

The purpose of this thesis is to describe the behaviors that multinational corporations(MNCs) and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are taking for carrying outcorporate social responsibility (CSR) under the context of sustainable development.Besides, the factors which drive and influence the performance are further exploredand discussed.The thesis is to be analyzed by means of a literature review, qualitative case study,semi-structured interviews, within case study and cross case study.By adopting these methods, the thesis shows that both MNCs and SMEs are aware ofand actively shouldering CSR in spite of different contents and approaches. MNCs areable to integrate economic, environment and social values into CSR strategy whileSMEs focus more on economic values. Competitive pressures, social expectations andinternal governance system are the main drivers of MNCs. By contrast, owners’ desiregives rise to the performance of carrying out CSR strategy by SMEs.It is suggested that a new domain of CSR namely, political social responsibility isfound through the study. It demonstrates that MNCs with the state-owned nature haveparticular missions and responsibilities to serve the country and society, which is notcommon but exists in the world.

Uppsatsens syfte är att öka förståelsen för CSR ur ett varumärkesperspektiv genom att beskriva hur CSR kan stärka varumärket. Uppsatsen avser svara på: Hur kan CSR stärka varumärket? SlutsatserResultatet visar att CSR är på väg att bli en hygienfaktor för företagen. Som ett resultat av uppsatsen så har vi identifierat fem aspekter som är av vikt för företag att hänsyn till när man arbetar med CSR ur ett varumärkesperspektiv. Vi har dragit slutsatsen att varumärket kan stärkas genom att företaget utgår från ett grundläggande CSR-arbete, identifierar intressenternas förväntningar, skapar ett mervärde genom att ta ett utökat ansvar, integrera CSR som en naturlig del av varumärkesidentiteten och ha en väl avvägd extern kommunikation. Vi menar att företag genom att ta hänsyn till dessa fem nyckelaspekter av CSR kan stärka sitt varumärke och samtidigt bidra till en hållbar samhällsutveckling vilket vi tror är nödvändigt för ”framtidens varumärken”.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has recently been the subject of increased attention, both in the academic and the corporate arena. In general, definitions of CSR seem to have in common the idea that businesses make a decision to commit to social and environmental issues and go beyond their legal obligations. In practice, corporations define their approach to CSR by using their own lenses, being influenced by factors at regional, national, industrial and corporate levels. Although there is an increasing pressure on corporations to play a more explicit role in the welfare of society and the importance of behaving socially responsibly is well accepted in the literature(Falck and Heblich, 2007), there have been very few attempts at identifying how companies from different geographical regions themselves define and interpret CSR (Baughn et al, 2007; Maignan and Ralston, 2002). Most of the cross-national studies on CSR have focused on the situation within Europe (Aaronson, 2002; Perrini, 2005; Silberhorn and Warren, 2007) or between Europe and the U.S (Maignan and Ralston, 2002). Besides, CSR researchers usually focus on industries acknowledged as problematic in environmental issues. Although construction industry has a bad reputation of “poor quality and service, a bad safety record, and a history of broken promises and sharp practice” (Wood et. al, 2002:4), it is one of the less approached industries in the CSR literature. Such theoretical considerations led to the interest in exploring how top companies in the Construction industry of Sweden, Thailand and Brazil approach CSR. The authors aim to contribute to fulfill the gap of CSR theories by exploring cross-national similarities and differences based on the nature of motivations underlying CSR practices, CSR processes, stakeholder issues as well as the main factors shaping such similarities and differences. In the empirical part, a three way cross-national CSR study was conducted. The top construction companies from Sweden, Thailand and Brazil were chosen, totalizing twelve firms. The study was carried out using a qualitative approach, employing as the research method the analysis of corporate disclosure through organizational documents. The results for each country were then analyzed and compared in order to reveal similarities and differences in CSR approaches. Results suggest a predominant CSR value-driven approach, which might indicate that CSR has come a long way from its early roots of charity to become a strategic business practice inserted in corporate values. Although the cross-national differences were apparently mainly shaped by regional factors, the industry sector has emerged as an important factor shaping the areas of cross-national agreement. Swedish companies are strongly focused on environmental issues and stress the idea of sustainability, whereas Thai companies use Corporate Governance to group CSR activities, denoting a focus on legal compliance. Brazilian companies show high concern for social issues, which can be perceived in the nature of CSR processes the companies present, the stakeholders addressed and in the role companies seem to take as social agents, fulfilling the gap left by the national government.

Sammanfattning Examensarbete, turismekonomprogrammet, Ekonomihögskolan vid Linnéuniversitetet, 2FE40E, HT 2011 Författare: Christopher Dahl och Benita Johansson Handledare: Thomas Karlsson Examinator: Krister Bredmar Titel: Dags att hållbarhetsredovisa - Polyplank AB, en fallstudie   Bakgrund: Studier har påvisat att vi överkonsumerar jordens resurser i en allt snabbare takt. En ökad medvetenhet kring dagens miljöproblem har bidragit till att företag i större utsträckning aktivt arbetar för en hållbar utveckling samt för att ta ansvar i samhället. Begreppet Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) behandlar företags samhällsansvar utifrån tre perspektiv; miljömässigt, ekonomiskt och socialt. Arbetet inom dessa områden presenteras av många stora företag idag i en hållbarhetsredovisning. Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) är den organisation som bistår med riktlinjer för upprättning av den här typen av redovisningar.   Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att ta reda på vad GRI:s riktlinjer och rådande begrepp säger om hållbarhetsredovisning samt att utifrån vårt fallföretag Polyplank AB:s förutsättningar rekommendera lämpligt innehåll i en eventuell hållbarhetsredovisning.   Metod: Vårt fallobjekt, Polyplank AB, är ett företag som verkar inom tillverkningsbranschen och utmärks genom deras miljövänliga produkter. Det empiriska materialet till denna studie har erhållits genom intervjuer med nyckelpersoner inom företaget samt genom observation av företagets verksamhet.   Analys och diskussion: Resultatet av denna studie visar de faktorer som ligger bakom vår rekommendation för vilka indikatorer som Polyplank AB bör rapportera i en eventuell hållbarhetsredovisning. Exempelvis har intressenternas synpunkter och önskemål en stor del i vilken information som bör tas med i en redovisning, men det förekommer även andra krav som bör beaktas.   Slutsats: Avslutningsvis rekommenderas Polyplank AB tillämpa GRI:s redovisningsnivå C, vilket vi menar att företaget har goda förutsättningar för att göra. Vi tror att upprättandet av en hållbarhetsredovisning skulle kunna leda till positiva konsekvenser för företaget, utan att vara för resurskrävande.   Nyckelord: Hållbar utveckling, Hållbarhetsredovisning, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Polyplank AB.

Since 1987, the United Nations has promoted sustainable development as a form of development that takes into account and balances economic, ecological, and social considerations. To achieve sustainability, the United Nations has repeatedly required private businesses—among other actors—to assume a broader set of social responsibilities. This is though highly contested in the corporate world and among economists. To throw light on this debate, the aim of this paper is to assess whether contemporary theories of business ethics are compatible with the Brundtland notion of sustainable development. For that reason, the responsibilities for sustainable development that corporations should assume are deduced from the Brundtland Report; followed by an introduction to the field of business ethics and a detailed discussion of major contemporary theories reflecting instrumental, integrative, political, and ethical approaches to corporate social responsibility. By comparing the different responsibilities the compatibility of sustainability with each discussed theory on business ethics is assessed. This paper finds that the compatibility is low for instrumental theories, moderate for integrative and political theories, and high for ethical theories on business ethics. Nevertheless, ethical theories assume a normative perspective on sustainable development, idealizing how corporations ought to act in a sustainable world. In reality, the world is far from sustainability. This is not least a result of national economic and legal policies maintaining conditions and structures that continue to promote globalization and free markets. It is argued that the combination of fierce competition and corporations’ opportunities to take advantage of weak legal systems in emerging and developing countries leads firms to further subscribe to an instrumental approach to business ethics. It is suggested that international politics develop a global legal framework based on sustainable development that provides competitive conditions at arm’s length. At the same time, recent management research is presented that suggests that corporations can promote sustainability if they contribute solutions to the social and environmental problems of our time. The pursuit of sustainability, therefore, results more from business opportunities than from any ethical convictions.

The main concern of this thesis is to problematize the so-called mutually beneficial relationship between free market mechanism and common good through the debates around Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Despite the social problems deepened by the free market, capitalist discourse attempts to justify itself by adopting some ethical concerns. However, it should be recognized that these attempts including CSR constitute market-based ethics. Trying to move beyond the existing critical literature on CSR, this thesis approaches to the concept of CSR from a Marxist perspective. I attempt to do it with the help of Marxist concept of commodity combined with Guy Debord&rsquo / s notion of spectacle. I argue that CSR can be considered as a spectacle, because it has at least two characteristics of the spectacle: confronting the working class with each other and commodifying the humanitarian values. This thesis also includes a close reading of the discourse about CSR in order to show that how these two characteristics of the spectacle are embedded in the global language of CSR and how they are manifested through the institutions of capitalism. In this context, I will focus on four institutions that have major contributions to the existing CSR discourse worldwide: UN Global Compact and OECD Guidelines for Multinational Corporations, the most comprehensive international guidelines for CSR, and Nike and Walmart, two monopolies that have been under intense public scrutiny for their unethical practices and have produced the most intense discourse about their corporate responsibility practices.

Abstract Background and purpose: Many people think that the corporate social responsibility is inseparable from large companies. However, small condiment companies have come to realize the importance of corporate social responsibility in recent decades as well and begun to implement it gradually. But there are still some challenges and opportunities that are faced by small condiment companies. This study will contribute to increases in literature of corporate social responsibility of SME by examining the SME in Chinese state policy context. And the purpose of this study is to find out the opportunities and challenges confronted by small condiment companies in implementing corporate social responsibility through the case study of the small condiment company, Meihua Condiment Co. Ltd. Shandong Branch. Method: The main method used in this study is single case study, which helps the authors get in-depth investigation, rich description and better understanding of how a small condiment company implements corporate social responsibility and the opportunities and challenges it faces therein. In this thesis, semi-structured face-to-face interviews that are aimed to get detailed information about the small condiment company---Meihua Condiment Co. Ltd. Shandong Branch are held. Since the face-to-face interview allows more communication between the authors and interviewees, and through the interviews, the authors get more familiar with the main condition of the company and know how they implement the CSR, as questions raised to the interviewees mainly concern how the company runs and how it implements corporate social responsibility. Around the topic of implementing CSR in small companies, the authors had looked up and analyzed the internet information like in China Development Observations, professional journals, and different digest like Special Focus, thus come up with an conclusion that small companies are faced with both challenges and opportunities. Furthermore, through the practical investigation of a small typical company--Meihua Condiment Co. Ltd. Shandong Branch, the authors make a step future to prove this argument. Conclusion: During the process of implementing CSR, small condiment companies may face plenty of opportunities such as low production cost, high group cohesiveness and less social responsibilities, but also lots of challenges such as enterprise development resistance and low social recognition. The investigation on a condiment SME in China shows that it’s important to combine both business opportunity and government effort for small condiment company to implement CSR. The small condiment company can take the advantage of its little social responsibility to save much effort to promote productions, utilize its strong staff coherence to improve production enthusiasm, make effort to do charity work well to establish good reputation, transfer the capital saved from taxes reduction to development, actively carry out moral construction for responding the nation’s summons, enhance enterprise’s sense of social responsibility. Meanwhile, the company shall also face challenges and take full advantages of them. What is more, due to the financial constrain and lack of external attention, the government shall transform its functions, deepen the reform, create good external environments and broaden the financing channel for small condiment company, enhance the company’s sense of safe production and solve the environment and products problems well. Key words: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Small Condiment Company, Opportunities, Challenges, Corresponding Countermeasures

The expectations’ on companies to take responsibility for their business practices aregrowing. Still, limited research have been conducted on consumer expectation on corporatesocial responsibility (CSR) practices in small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). Thereforethe purpose of this study was to investigate how consumers’ expectations of CSR practices inSME’s differ concerning the five areas of CSR; environmental, social, ethical, human rightand labour rights, to provide suggestions on how SME’s could allocate their resources onCSR. This was investigated by a mixed method consisting of a survey and a focus group witha sample of students at Uppsala University. The findings of the study demonstrate that theconsumers have the highest expectations on labour rights responsibility, second highest onethical responsibility, followed by human rights responsibility, environmental responsibilityand finally the lowest expectations on social responsibility. The main theoretical implicationof the study is that the expectations on the social area of CSR differ much from previousresearch and the main managerial implication indicates that SME’s should allocate a majorityof their resources to ensuring labour rights.