The main purpose of this thesis is to study why the chosen case companies, Atlas Copco, Sandvik and Alfa Laval engage in CSR activities, with a secondary purpose of investigating how the aformentioned case companies has executed their engagement in CSR and what their present focus is. Our empirical findings suggest that the case companies have similar motives and approaches to CSR engagement. Whereas their main motivation for CSR engagement derives from a concern of legitimacy to their investor community, hence the case companies foremost emphasize an economic responsibility as a motivator and driver for their CSR agenda. In addition we have observed that all case companies use CSR reporting as the base-line for their CSR implementation, which our theoretical framework indicates is a systematic approach to mitigate risk and cost, as well as strengthen their reputation. Furthermore, we have observed that the case companies’ present concern in terms of their responsibility is focused on achieving a tighter implementation between a competitive business strategy and CSR activities as well as developing a better understanding of the increased complexity of social issues and human rights questions surrounding their widespread operations.

The aim of this thesis is to critically examine and analyze multi-national corporation´s work with corporate social responsibility when it comes to environmental protection and sustainability. This study is therefore a case study, where empirical material about a multinational corporation, the company of Wärtsilä, is studied. These include annual sustainability reports and other official material available, as well as qualitative interviews with eight employees at Wärtsilä. This material is then analyzed through the theoretical framework of Corporate Social Responsibility (e.g., Caroll, 1979) and through the theory of Corporate Citizenship (Mirvis and Googins, 2006). The results show that Wärtsilä has come far when it comes to integrating and improving its product environmental performance, but there appears to be inconsistencies between the information collected from the reports etc. and the information gathered from the interviews. These inconsistencies show that there is a need for further integration of the goals for environmental protection and sustainability, presented in the official material, into all levels and departments of the company.

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.

<p>Introduction: The society is becoming more aware of the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) work. CSR has also be-come a competitive tool in order to reach out to potential cus-tomers. There are also many definitions of what CSR actually means. These are things that makes it interesting to find out how multinational corporations, who has a lot of power, per-ceive and work with CSR, as well as what can be done to make corporations work more with CSR.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe what CSR as a con-cept means, whose responsibility it is, as well as why corpora-tions work with it. We also intend to find out what it takes to make CSR a more prevailing and decisive instrument for cor-porations?</p><p>Method: We conducted six unstructed interviews with multinational corporations in Sweden.</p><p>Conclusion: Today the phenomena of CSR has no unified definition, this is why we believe that a definition that is precise in describing what CSR is can be useful. We think that transparency is something important since information provided to the pub-lic, provides consumers and stakeholders with power to make information based investment, and purchase decisions. We have also concluded that we think that the most important factor in driving the CSR work forward and making it grow in size, is to make consumers reward the corporations that per-form well in their CSR activities.</p>

Recent years have seen an increasing interest in the application of virtue ethics in business as opposed to consequentialist or deontogical ethics. However the focus has often been on virtues at the individual as opposed to the organizational level of analysis.It is proposed that the organisational virtues intermediate individual (leadership) and group level constructs (organisational citizenship behaviours, corporate citizenship) to foster intrinsic motivation through a focus on eudemonia (measured as affective commitment). The overall aim of this study is to test this hypothesis using the Chun (2005) scale of organisational virtues ('Virtue Ethical Character Scale'). In the conceptualisation of the organisational virtues I draw from the Aristotelian virtue ethics tradition as reinterpreted by Alasdair MacIntyre.The study is in the main quantitative using SPSS and AMOS, vs. 16 and it is based on a sample of 643 questionnaires drawn from eight different organisations, including two law firms, the headquarters of an international timeshare company, four hotels and a dairy company. All the organisations are based in the UK, except the timeshare company which is based in Cork, Ireland.The survey questionnaire used for the collection of quantitative data is composed of measurement scales representing each construct which were available in the literature and whose validity and reliability were also tested.The outcome of the study is a structured equation model linking the various constructs in the hypothesised manner, which is then applied in a series of case studies involving the organisations surveyed. The model shows particularly strong path coefficients between transformational leadership behaviours and the organisational virtues, and the organisational virtues and affective commitment. Findings from semi-structured and informal qualitative interviews conducted at the organisations are used to help interpret the results.

This thesis investigates employee attitudes to corporate citizenship (CC) and the impact on employer brands. It addresses the practice of CC in the German FMCG industry, considers employee understanding of CC, and examines which CC initiatives influence perceptions of employer brands. The research is driven by the dual challenges of sustainable development and the ‘war for talent’ in attracting, motivating and retaining employees. It is underpinned by the extant literature on CC dimensions, stakeholder theory and employer brands. The research approach is based on two case studies, comprising three phases: analysis of corporate documentation followed by two phases of semi-structured interviews exploring employees’ perceptions of CC and the link to employer brands. Key findings: An understanding of the positioning of CC in the corporate sustainability strategy and differing foci of CC, including environment, sustainable supply chain and people/culture. The study highlights employee understanding of eight CC dimensions, revealing economic responsibility toward employees as a new dimension. With respect to employer brands, CC initiatives focused on discretionary responsibility towards the natural environment and economic responsibility towards customers are seen as essential; legal, ethical and discretionary responsibility towards community are limited; and discretionary and economic responsibilities towards employees have a strong relationship. A focus on economic responsibilities towards owners has a strong but negative relationship. The theoretical contribution is a conceptual framework of all identified CC dimensions in practice and their relationship to employer brands. Contributions to practice include the importance of benefit packages, work-life balance support, employee development and work environment.

This thesis investigates employee attitudes to corporate citizenship (CC) and the impact on employer brands. It addresses the practice of CC in the German FMCG industry, considers employee understanding of CC, and examines which CC initiatives influence perceptions of employer brands. The research is driven by the dual challenges of sustainable development and the ‘war for talent’ in attracting, motivating and retaining employees. It is underpinned by the extant literature on CC dimensions, stakeholder theory and employer brands. The research approach is based on two case studies, comprising three phases: analysis of corporate documentation followed by two phases of semi-structured interviews exploring employees’ perceptions of CC and the link to employer brands. Key findings: An understanding of the positioning of CC in the corporate sustainability strategy and differing foci of CC, including environment, sustainable supply chain and people/culture. The study highlights employee understanding of eight CC dimensions, revealing economic responsibility toward employees as a new dimension. With respect to employer brands, CC initiatives focused on discretionary responsibility towards the natural environment and economic responsibility towards customers are seen as essential; legal, ethical and discretionary responsibility towards community are limited; and discretionary and economic responsibilities towards employees have a strong relationship. A focus on economic responsibilities towards owners has a strong but negative relationship. The theoretical contribution is a conceptual framework of all identified CC dimensions in practice and their relationship to employer brands. Contributions to practice include the importance of benefit packages, work-life balance support, employee development and work environment.

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This dissertation consists of two essays on the impact of managerial entrenchment and ethical corporate citizenship on capital structure decisions of the firm. The first essay examines the impact of managerial entrenchment on financial flexibility and capital structure decisions of firms. Agency conflicts and asymmetric information between managers and shareholders of firms exacerbate managerial entrenchment, which is operationalized using the entrenchment index. The excess cash ratio of a firm over the median cash ratio of firms within the same 3 digits SIC code is the proxy for financial flexibility. Capital structure decisions include the extent and maturity of debt as proxied by debt-to-equity ratio, and average debt maturity respectively. Results indicate that compared to managers who are not entrenched, entrenched managers obtain less rather than more debt, and they use long-term rather than short-term debt maturity. Also, entrenched managers keep more excess cash than managers who are not entrenched. This is especially the case for firms in small and large market value groups compared to medium sized firms. Results do not change before, during, and after the 2008 global economic crisis. The second essay examines the impact of ethical corporate citizenship and CEO power on cost of capital, and firm value in the context of stakeholder theory. Firms listed as World's Most Ethical Companies (WMECs) exemplify ethical corporate citizenship, which is operationalized as a binary variable of 1 for WMECs, and zero for non-WMECs. This paper matches WMECs and non-WMECs control firms in the same 3 digits SIC code, and within 10 percent of total assets. CEO power is primarily measured using CEO pay slice calculated as CEO total compensation as a percentage of top 5 executives of the firm. Powerful CEOs have pay slice above the 50th percentile, and weak CEOs pay slice is below the 50th percentile. Tobin's q is the proxy for firm value, and cost of capital is measured as the market value weighted cost of debt, and cost of equity. Results indicate that WMECs have neither lower cost of capital nor higher Tobin's q than matched control sample of non-WMECs. Firms led by powerful CEOs have significantly lower cost of debt capital, and lower industry-adjusted Tobin's q than firms led by weak CEOs. The negative impact of CEO power on firm value is consistent with agency theory that self-interested CEOs extract firm value for personal advantage, subject to managerial controls. Results have implications for research and practice in capital structure, corporate governance, CEO compensation, and corporate social responsibility. / Doctor of Philosophy / This study consists of two essays. Essay 1 examines the impact of managerial entrenchment on financial flexibility, and leverage decisions of the firm. Managerial entrenchment is measured using the entrenchment index. The excess cash ratio of a firm over the median cash ratio of firms measures financial flexibility. Capital structure decisions include the extent and maturity of debt as measured by debt-to-equity ratio, and average debt maturity respectively. I find that entrenched managers use less debt than managers who are not entrenched. Also, entrenched managers prefer using long-term rather than short-term debt, and they keep more excess cash than managers who are not entrenched. This is especially the case for small and large firms compared to medium sized firms. Essay 2 investigates the impact of ethical corporate citizenship and CEO power on cost of capital, and firm value. Ethical corporate citizenship (ECC) refers to firms' commitment to a culture of ethics, effective governance, leadership, and innovation. ECC is measured as a binary variable of one if a firm is listed on World's Most Ethical Companies (WMEC), and zero otherwise. CEO power is primarily measured using CEO pay slice that is calculated as CEO total compensation as a percentage of top 5 executives of the firm. Powerful CEOs have pay slice above the 50th percentile, and weak CEOs pay slice is below the 50th percentile. WMECs and non-WMECs in the same 3 digits standard industry classification, which have similar total assets as the WMECs are compared. I find that WMECs have neither lower cost of capital nor higher Tobin's q than non-WMECs. Powerful CEOs often utilize their influence to reduce cost of debt capital, but also reduce firm value compared to weak CEOs. Self-interested CEOs who extract firm value for personal advantage partly explains the negative effect of CEO power on firm value.

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