<p> </p><p><strong>Purpose:</strong> The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how SMEs in the Småland region define and communicate their CSR activities towards their stakeholders.</p><p><strong>Background:</strong> Corporate social responsbility is a topic that is widely discussed today. In many cases the CSR agenda has been adopted by many large corporations. However there is a demand from governmental bodies to spread this agenda further to include and engage small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs). The main reason for this approach is due to SMEs being the most frequent type of business in Europe and is often influential in the local communities (Castka, Balzarova, Bamber, Sharp, 2004).</p><p>There is also a demand from stakeholders to receive information about CSR. Research within the field of CSR Communication has mostly been focused on large corporations. Recently, the focus has shifted towards SMEs and  it is still an emerging field.  The research  concerning CSR and CSR communication within the SME context is limited and therefore it is an important area that needs to be addressed.</p><p><strong>Method:</strong> The purpose of this thesis was achieved by using the case study approach. Two companies; Smålandsbygg and Sköna Hem AB were investigated. Four respondents from each company were interviewed and the outcome of the interviews was analyzed together with the frame of reference.</p><p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> According to the findings it is difficult to provide one common definition of CSR that can be applied for the two companies in the study. In general it might be difficult to provide a common definition of CSR in SMEs. According to previous research the way SMEs conduct their business is dependent on the owner and the personalities of the management. Consequently, there can be a variety of ways that SMEs are engaging in CSR or percieve CSR to be.</p><p>There are three different communication strategies when communicating CSR towards the stakeholders. It could be interpreted that both companies applied different communication strategies depending on which stakeholder they were communicating with.</p> / <p> </p><p><strong>Syfte:</strong> Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka hur små och medelstora företag definierar och kommunicerar deras CSR aktiviteter gentemot sina intressenter.</p><p><strong>Bakgrund:</strong> Företagets sociala ansvarstagande, även kallat CSR, är ett omdiskuterat ämne idag. I många fall har CSR agendan integrerats i de flesta stora företag. Emellertid finns det ett krav från statliga organ att sprida denna agenda vidare och engagera små och medelstora företag. Den främsta anledningen för denna ansats beror på att små och medelstora företag är den mest vanligt förekommande verksamheten i Europa och tenderar att vara inflytelserika i lokalsamhället. (Castka, Balzarova, Bamber, Sharp, 2004).</p><p>Det finns också efterfrågan från olika intressenter att få information om CSR. Forskning inom området CSR kommunikation har mest varit riktad mot större företag. Nyligen, har fokus skiftat till små och medelstora företag och är fortfarande ett område på frammarsch. Forskning inom CSR och CSR kommunikation i små och medelstora företag är begränsat och är ett viktigt område som måste uppmärksammas.</p><p><strong>Metod:</strong> Syftet med den här uppsatsen uppnåddes genom att använda en fallstudie. Två företag; Smålandsbygg och Sköna Hem AB undersöktes. Fyra personer från varje företag blev intervjuade och resultatet från dessa intervjuer analyserades tillsammans med referensramen.</p><p><strong>Slutsats:</strong> Enligt resultaten från studien är det svårt att tillhandahålla en allmän definition när det gäller CSR som kan appliceras i de två företag som var med i studien. Generellt sett kan det vara svårt att ge en allmän definition om CSR i små och medelstora företag överhuvudtaget. Tidigare forskning visar att sättet som små och medelstora företag drivs på, påverkas av ägarna och ledningens personlighet. Följaktligen kan det finnas flera olika variationer om hur små och medelstora företag är engagerade i CSR eller hur de uppfattar CSR konceptet.</p><p>Det finns tre olika kommunikationsstrategier när man vill kommunicera CSR till olika intressenter. De två företagen i studien applicerade olika kommunikationsstrategier beroende på vilken intressent de kommunicerade med.</p>

This thesis is aimed at finding out how aware final users at Karlstad Business School are of its CSR communication message. The study discusses the concept of corporate social responsibility by providing a background knowledge of the concept. CSR communication is defined and presented in this study as an ongoing process and presents prior knowledge on the concept. The chapter outlines UN Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals as a message which firms can utilize in communicating CSR.  A qualitative methodology was adopted in this study using semi – structured interviews of 12 respondents who were final users at Karlstad Business School. The respondents were varied between different programs at the business school. The study uses constructivism as philosophy such that meaning is co – constructed by the researcher and the respondents. The data is analyzed using coding. The findings from this study show that awareness is low and as such the users do not share an adequate meaning with that of Karlstad Business School. The findings also show that users with prior knowledge on sustainability mainly through course related sources demonstrate an intermediary level of awareness. Discussions mainly through seminars come out as a key message channel for the business school to communicate its CSR agenda. The implications of this study are in two phases; to the business school and to the users. The business school adopts UN Agenda 2030 as a message for CSR communication which is novel to CSR communication. The users at the business school have a task of engaging in CSR communication to other departments at the university.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how SMEs in the Småland region define and communicate their CSR activities towards their stakeholders. Background: Corporate social responsbility is a topic that is widely discussed today. In many cases the CSR agenda has been adopted by many large corporations. However there is a demand from governmental bodies to spread this agenda further to include and engage small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs). The main reason for this approach is due to SMEs being the most frequent type of business in Europe and is often influential in the local communities (Castka, Balzarova, Bamber, Sharp, 2004). There is also a demand from stakeholders to receive information about CSR. Research within the field of CSR Communication has mostly been focused on large corporations. Recently, the focus has shifted towards SMEs and  it is still an emerging field.  The research  concerning CSR and CSR communication within the SME context is limited and therefore it is an important area that needs to be addressed. Method: The purpose of this thesis was achieved by using the case study approach. Two companies; Smålandsbygg and Sköna Hem AB were investigated. Four respondents from each company were interviewed and the outcome of the interviews was analyzed together with the frame of reference. Conclusions: According to the findings it is difficult to provide one common definition of CSR that can be applied for the two companies in the study. In general it might be difficult to provide a common definition of CSR in SMEs. According to previous research the way SMEs conduct their business is dependent on the owner and the personalities of the management. Consequently, there can be a variety of ways that SMEs are engaging in CSR or percieve CSR to be. There are three different communication strategies when communicating CSR towards the stakeholders. It could be interpreted that both companies applied different communication strategies depending on which stakeholder they were communicating with. / Syfte: Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka hur små och medelstora företag definierar och kommunicerar deras CSR aktiviteter gentemot sina intressenter. Bakgrund: Företagets sociala ansvarstagande, även kallat CSR, är ett omdiskuterat ämne idag. I många fall har CSR agendan integrerats i de flesta stora företag. Emellertid finns det ett krav från statliga organ att sprida denna agenda vidare och engagera små och medelstora företag. Den främsta anledningen för denna ansats beror på att små och medelstora företag är den mest vanligt förekommande verksamheten i Europa och tenderar att vara inflytelserika i lokalsamhället. (Castka, Balzarova, Bamber, Sharp, 2004). Det finns också efterfrågan från olika intressenter att få information om CSR. Forskning inom området CSR kommunikation har mest varit riktad mot större företag. Nyligen, har fokus skiftat till små och medelstora företag och är fortfarande ett område på frammarsch. Forskning inom CSR och CSR kommunikation i små och medelstora företag är begränsat och är ett viktigt område som måste uppmärksammas. Metod: Syftet med den här uppsatsen uppnåddes genom att använda en fallstudie. Två företag; Smålandsbygg och Sköna Hem AB undersöktes. Fyra personer från varje företag blev intervjuade och resultatet från dessa intervjuer analyserades tillsammans med referensramen. Slutsats: Enligt resultaten från studien är det svårt att tillhandahålla en allmän definition när det gäller CSR som kan appliceras i de två företag som var med i studien. Generellt sett kan det vara svårt att ge en allmän definition om CSR i små och medelstora företag överhuvudtaget. Tidigare forskning visar att sättet som små och medelstora företag drivs på, påverkas av ägarna och ledningens personlighet. Följaktligen kan det finnas flera olika variationer om hur små och medelstora företag är engagerade i CSR eller hur de uppfattar CSR konceptet. Det finns tre olika kommunikationsstrategier när man vill kommunicera CSR till olika intressenter. De två företagen i studien applicerade olika kommunikationsstrategier beroende på vilken intressent de kommunicerade med.

A company can create a socially responsible image by having the public associate it (the company) with corporate social responsibility (CSR). Many researchers have asserted that a socially responsible image benefits a company in many ways. Zenisek (1979) clarified the complexity of CSR by approaching the concept through an organizational behavior approach. He constructed a CSR model that consisted of critical aspects—the ideological, operational, and societal aspects–in the relationship between a company and society. By applying Zenisek’s (1979) CSR model, this study conducts a content analysis of the corporate website homepages of Fortune Global 500 companies. The objective is to explore the variability in creating a socially responsible image through CSR communication by revenue, industry category, and country-of-origin. The results indicate that there are differences in communicating CSR aspects of CSR as well as CSR issues according to a company’s revenue, industry category, and country-of-origin. The study provides fresh insights for practitioners to approach CSR communication in business. / text

The fashion industry is a recurring topic in the media, especially regarding the responsibility the fashion companies should take, which has created skepticism from stakeholders. This skepticism is based on that the stakeholders do not know what the companies do concerning corporate social responsibility and the companies communicate CSR with the hope of creating legitimacy on the market. How apparel and footwear communicate their CSR efforts and their performances in self-assessed tools compared to their actual efforts have not been researched before, hence the purpose of this thesis. The purpose of this research is to map and analyze how apparel and footwear companies communicate CSR efforts in comparison to their claimed CSR performance. This in order to reach a better understanding of how apparel and footwear companies communicate their CSR efforts how consistent they are with their self-assessed performance they communicate to their stakeholders. Content analyses have been conducted on the sample, which contained 59 companies in the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC). First, the content analysis has been performed on communication channels used by the sample when communicating CSR and the claimed CSR performances been collected from the Higg Index. The sustainability efforts in comparison to the performances have been analyzed based on a discourse analysis on five of the chattiest companies in SAC, which was performed after the content analysis in order to create a mixed method approach. This study has presented how frequently apparel and footwear companies communicate their CSR efforts and performances. It has also shown what channels primarily used when communicating CSR and how they choose to prioritize their performances. Additionally, the result and analysis in this study have shown that the most talkative companies in SAC, namely H&amp;M, Inditex, Patagonia, PVH and Salomon, communicate quality in their available sustainability information. The way they all incorporate CSR in their business model is also a way of showing dedication and perhaps even quality in their sustainability efforts and claimed performances.

Alors que la littérature suggère qu’une entreprise socialement responsable atteint une meilleure performance financière (Margolis et Walsh, 2003), la recherche en marketing n’a pas abouti à un consensus concernant cette relation vertueuse du point de vue du consommateur (Chernev et Blair, 2015). Du fait de l’existence de facteurs de contingence, une entreprise responsable ne serait pas forcément le gage de meilleures offres aux yeux des consommateurs. Cette recherche intègre le mode de gouvernance perçu de l’entreprise comme nouveau facteur de contingence, en distinguant des entreprises capitalistiques et des entreprises coopératives. Une première étude met en avant le rôle modérateur de la gouvernance sur l’attitude implicite des consommateurs en matière de responsabilité sociale de l’entreprise –RSE– et de performance de l’offre : les entreprises coopératives (versus capitalistiques) sont moins (versus plus) associées au fait d’être non socialement responsables et moins (versus plus) associées au fait d’être performantes. Les études 2 (étude qualitative) et 3 (expérimentation) évaluent l’impact de la gouvernance sur l’efficacité des arguments de communication relatifs à la RSE ou à la performance. L’intention d’achat des consommateurs est plus forte lorsqu’un argument de communication RSE est utilisé par une entreprise coopérative comparativement à une entreprise capitalistique. / While the literature suggests that a socially responsible organization achieves better financial performance (Margolis and Walsh, 2003), marketing research has not reached consensus on this virtuous relationship from a consumer perspective (Chernev and Blair, 2015). Due to contingency factors, a socially responsible organization would not necessarily be perceived by consumers as a guarantee to better offerings. This research integrates the organization’s perceived mode of governance as a new contingency factor, distinguishing between stock firms and cooperatives. A first study highlights the moderating role of governance on the implicit attitudes of consumers in terms of corporate social responsibility –CSR– and performance of the offering: cooperatives (versus stock firms) are less (versus more) associated with not being socially responsible and less (versus more) associated with being efficient. Studies 2 (qualitative approach) and 3 (experimental design) evaluate the impact of governance on the effectiveness of CSR-related or performance-related marketing communication arguments. The buying intention of consumers is stronger when a CSR-related marketing communication argument is used by a cooperative as opposed to a stock firm.

The coffee industry affects both people and the environment in a negative way, which is an aspect coffee producers are forced to relate to. Today, more and more organizations are involved in CSR and communication about CSR. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine young consumers of Generation Y, their attitudes and opinions towards coffee producers' CSR work and its communication on CSR. The study has two research questions “what does Arvid Nordquist communicates about its CSR work through their official website?” and “what kind of attitudes and opinions does a group of young consumers have on coffee producers' CSR work and communication on CSR?” For this study two theories have been used, the CSR theory Triple Bottom Line as a theoretical starting point and Deegan Unerman’s theory on the social contract, based on Freeman’s stakeholder theory, as a theoretical framework. This qualitative study used two methods of data collection. First, a document analysis of Arvid Nordquists offical website. Secondly, a focus group interview with young consumer of Generation Y. The conclusion that can be drawn from our research is that consumers from Generation Y are positive to CSR as a phenomenon, but that communication of CSR is followed by scepticism in combination with ignorance. This paper sheds light on a issue that in previous research has used quantitative methods, while this study uses qualitative methods. The importance of this paper is its contribution to how organizations can improve their communication of CSR to young consumers.

Title: Food companies' work with CSR and its impact on consumer purchases of organic products Level: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration Author: Maria Nilsson and Mikaela Jaredal Supervisor: Agneta Sundström Date: June 2015 Aim: The study aims to understand and describe how food chains affect consumer choice to buy organic food and how it affects their buying behaviour. Method: Firstly a qualitative study was conducted. It consisted of six semi-structured interviews with store managers and employees on Willys and Coop in Sala and in Nyköping. Secondly a quantitative study was performed in the form of a questionnaire with 80 consumers in Willys and Coop stores located in Sala and Nyköping. Result &amp; Conclusions: We have seen that price is important when consumers decide whether to buy organic food or not. This has been noticed by the food chains who work actively with being able to offer organic food at lower prices. Other factors that affect the consumers choice to buy organic products are offers, displaying and advertising. We have seen that consumers of the food chain that has worked a long time with sustainability are more willing to pay a higher price of organic food than consumers of the food chain with shorter tradition of working with these issues. Suggestions for future research: Future research could focus on the attitude towards and awareness of organic food of different age groups. It would also be interesting to continue our research but in a larger geographical area and/or include more food chains. Contribution of the thesis: The contribution of the study is that we show which CSR activities that actually influence consumers of buying organic products.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has emerged as a competitive corporate marketing strategy and gained increasingly more attention among organizations. Drawing from attribution theory, persuasion knowledge model and the first- and third-person effects, this study outlined a survey study designed to examine the relationships among consumers’ beliefs in CSR motives, perceived effects of CSR communication on self and others, and behavioral consequences. Also described is a structural equation model which allows for the testing of the research hypotheses. Data was collected from 202 college students via survey. The results supported that when consumers believe the motives of CSR are other-serving, perceived effects are more positive on self than other and they are able to take action to join. Results also showed that when consumers believe the motives are self-serving, perceived effects are negative on self.

Syfte: Studien syftar till att förstå hur B2B-företag kan förbättra kommunikationen av sitt hållbarhetsarbete. Frågeställningar: 1. Hur har hållbarhetskommunikationen sett ut de senaste tio åren? 2. Hur kommunicerar B2B-företag ut informationen i hållbarhetsredovisningen till medarbetare och kunder? 3. Vilka förbättringsmöjligheter finns för intern och extern hållbarhetskommunikation? Metod: För att besvara studiens syfte har en kvalitativ ansats använts. Elva djupintervjuer har genomförts med specialister på hållbarhetskommunikation och svenska B2B-företag med framstående hållbarhetsarbeten. Resultat: Kommunikationen av företags hållbarhetsarbete har förändrats eftersom hållbarhet utvecklats från ett tråkigt måste till att betraktas som något lönsamt. Detta beror bland annat på att engagemang och efterfrågan ökat från både medarbetare och kunder. Informationen i hållbarhetsredovisningen kommuniceras ut, men hållbarhetsredovisningen i sig är inte den främsta kommunikationskanalen. Respondenterna understryker att det är mer väsentligt att hållbarhetsinformationen kommuniceras vid aktuell tidpunkt samt bit för bit under året. Slutsats: B2B-företag borde bli mer transparenta samt kommunicera aktuell och väsentlig hållbarhetsinformation. De gynnas även av att samarbeta för att öka genomslagskraften med gemensamma hållbara initiativ. Ett annat förbättringsområde är den interna kommunikationen som med fördel skulle kunna bli mer tvåvägs, detta då den interna hållbarhetsdialogen är en väsentlig del för att integrera hållbarhet i verksamheten. Med hållbarhet integrerat i verksamheten och i strategin presenterar företag ett hållbart budskap i samtliga processer med kunden. / Purpose: The aim of the paper is to understand how B2B companies can improve the communication of their CSR activities. Problem 1. How has the CSR communication changed during the last ten years? 2. How do companies communicate the information in the CSR report to employees and customers? 3. Which potential improvements exist for internal and external CSR communication? Methodology: In order to answer the purpose of the paper a qualitative approach has been used. Eleven interviews have been conducted with B2B companies with achievements in CSR activities as well as specialists in CSR communication. Results: The communication of a company’s CSR activities has change. Earlier CSR has been perceived as something boring but today it is seen as profitable. Among other things, this is because the commitment and demand from both employees and customers has increased. The information from the CSR report is being communicated, but the report itself is not the primary channel of communication. The respondents emphasize that the CSR information should be communicated in the current time and piece by piece during the year. Conclusion: B2B companies should be more transparent and communicate current and essential information. Also, they could cooperate to increase the collective power in order to reach a sustainable level. Moreover, companies could improve their two-way communication since the internal CSR dialogue is a vital part in order to make CSR integrated in the company. If CSR is integrated in the company and strategy, it enables for the customers to perceive a sustainable message.