An emphasis on citizen engagement, which has direct bearing on conservation and community organizations, is emerging within the corporate realm. Businesses are beginning to view local involvement as a strategic component of their corporate social responsibility mandates, suggesting that it provides win-win benefits in branding them as leaders in the field while advancing noteworthy causes. Concurrently, conservation groups are seeking to partner with corporations in an effort to diversify funding sources, accomplish much needed work and find creative methods for outreach to a “non- traditional” support base. This research explores employer supported volunteer initiatives, an emerging facet of corporate community engagement where businesses form alliances with community organizations to facilitate donation of staff time to carry out hands-on conservation activities. Using a literature review, a series of global case examples and data collected from key local (Ontario-based) conservation and corporate-based informants, this study assesses the challenges and opportunities associated with cross-sectoral collaboration while investigating the potential of employer supported volunteer programs to foster conservation stewardship. Respondents from both sectors face such challenges as finding or maintaining suitable contacts, organizing team volunteer opportunities with mutually beneficial outcomes and understanding each other’s frames of reference. Despite these hurdles, they also realize that employer supported volunteerism can raise awareness about stewardship and the importance of volunteerism in general, provide opportunities for enhanced collaboration and demonstrate leadership in the arena of corporate social responsibility. Collective experience from both sectors provides the basis to determine thirteen principles for effective partnerships. Accompanied by a set of best practices to forward conservation programs, these principles supply an essential “how to” guide for cross-sectoral partners to work together effectively. The implementation of these principles will assist in providing a stepping stone to tap more fully into the potential for joint partnership and even garner greater capacity for stewardship than could be achieved by civil society or corporate players alone.

As one of Europe’s largest-producing actors in the energy sector with a wide energy mix, Vattenfall has a great responsibility to contribute to sustainable development of society. To do so, economical, environmental and social aspects need to be balanced in a responsible way. This is done through acting social responsible or in other terms, addressing corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the company’s business activities. Electricity and heat constitute one of the prerequisites for a modern society. However, it has always been a highly debated industry due to its inevitable impact on the environment and society. This makes it crucial for Vattenfall and its operations to act as responsible as possible and listen to the stakeholders and take their expectations into account in the business decisions process. Vattenfall has a long history of being criticised for its activities by NGOs and media. However, Vattenfall´s main task is to deliver electricity and heat to the society, which means that Vattenfall must continue to deliver secure energy supply to its markets, but with as little negative impact on the environment and society as possible.   Vattenfall is through its operations, its value chain, its use of technology and the markets on which it operates, exposed to risks associated with the areas human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. These “CSR risks” can harm the reputation, brand and image if they are not managed in a proactive and effective way. In order to manage CSR risks and emerging CSR issues, the company needs to catch and respond quickly to new trends and expectations raised by opinion formers, which often are expressed through the media and the Internet. The aim of this study is to provide Vattenfall with a tool to do so. Through identifying the main CSR risks related to its operations, awareness about Vattenfall’s vulnerability areas are created. The result shows that the largest CSR risks for Vattenfall are technology related, i.e., connected to the fuels used in Vattenfall’s power plants and their value chain. This knowledge can be used when addressing CSR in the organization. Still, a direct solution to manage CSR risks and emerging CSR issue is needed. The second purpose of this study is to propose a process for a CSR issues management at Vattenfall. The aim of such an issues management is to provide the company with a tool to identify, analyse and manage emerging issues. A CSR issues management will provide Vattenfall with a tool to respond to emerging issues before they become public knowledge. It should scan and collect external and internal information, identify relevant information for Vattenfall, monitor ongoing and emerging CSR issues/concerns/debates and report to relevant functions in the Vattenfall organization.

An emphasis on citizen engagement, which has direct bearing on conservation and community organizations, is emerging within the corporate realm. Businesses are beginning to view local involvement as a strategic component of their corporate social responsibility mandates, suggesting that it provides win-win benefits in branding them as leaders in the field while advancing noteworthy causes. Concurrently, conservation groups are seeking to partner with corporations in an effort to diversify funding sources, accomplish much needed work and find creative methods for outreach to a “non- traditional” support base. This research explores employer supported volunteer initiatives, an emerging facet of corporate community engagement where businesses form alliances with community organizations to facilitate donation of staff time to carry out hands-on conservation activities. Using a literature review, a series of global case examples and data collected from key local (Ontario-based) conservation and corporate-based informants, this study assesses the challenges and opportunities associated with cross-sectoral collaboration while investigating the potential of employer supported volunteer programs to foster conservation stewardship. Respondents from both sectors face such challenges as finding or maintaining suitable contacts, organizing team volunteer opportunities with mutually beneficial outcomes and understanding each other’s frames of reference. Despite these hurdles, they also realize that employer supported volunteerism can raise awareness about stewardship and the importance of volunteerism in general, provide opportunities for enhanced collaboration and demonstrate leadership in the arena of corporate social responsibility. Collective experience from both sectors provides the basis to determine thirteen principles for effective partnerships. Accompanied by a set of best practices to forward conservation programs, these principles supply an essential “how to” guide for cross-sectoral partners to work together effectively. The implementation of these principles will assist in providing a stepping stone to tap more fully into the potential for joint partnership and even garner greater capacity for stewardship than could be achieved by civil society or corporate players alone.

Most multinational enterprises face difficulties regarding what and how to best communicate activities related to corporate social responsibility. Therefore, this master thesis addresses the online communication of corporate social responsibility by Swedish multinational enterprises. The purpose is to contribute to the understanding of the way Swedish multinational enterprises reveal messages regarding corporate social responsibility to their international stakeholders while communicating with them online via their websites and social media. This research is of qualitative nature and follows a multiple case study design. The six Swedish MNEs the Volvo Group, H&M, Atlas Copco, Securitas AB, Svenska Kullagerfabriken, and Svenska Cellulosa AB are included in the sample. Two methods for data collection are combined: online observation of the communication regarding corporate social responsibility on the corporate websites including sustainability reports or alike and in social media as well as qualitative, semi-structured interviews with the employees in charge of corporate social responsibility. The results indicate that the examined multinational enterprises communicated corporate social responsibility in different ways depending on whether they communicate via their corporate websites, their reports or in social media. This master thesis concludes with practical recommendations for multinational enterprises involved in communication of corporate social responsibility.

This thesis presents an empirical inquiry that explicitly exposes the relationships between CSR practice in Malaysia and the scope of PR. This thesis embraced a critical approach which offers alternate readings in Malaysian PR literature which are dominantly quantitative in nature. The focus is on how socio-political, economic, cultural and organizational contexts shape the practice of CSR and affect the scope and function of PR in pursuing the practice. This thesis has contributed to the literature by providing empirical evidence of the underlying motives behind the pursuit of CSR among businesses in the country. It also offers empirical data on PR roles in pursuing CSR in Malaysia – something that has received very little attention in the literature despite PR’s perceived potentials in spearheading the function. This empirical work has employed semi-structured interviews among PR managers and CSR managers working in renowned CSR organizations in Malaysia. In addition, the thesis analyses executives’ messages in CSR reports and later triangulated with interview findings that helped to achieve a rich description of the topic under study. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was adopted in this thesis and made explicit the relationships between socio-political, economic and cultural dimensions that shape CSR practice and the scope of PR by taking into consideration the presence of power relations in this phenomenon. Fairclough’s (2010) three dimensional frameworks was adopted to enable interpretation go beyond texts that mainly applied to data from CSR reports. The literature revealed CSR practice is a recent phenomenon in Malaysia whereby the government has been a major driver in its development. Drawing from Malaysian experience, economic growth is fundamental to ensure a fair distribution of wealth among multi-races in Malaysia that perceived imperative to preserve national unity. In this respect, CSR initiatives have been largely undertaken to achieve the long term survival of businesses that consequently drive the nation’s economy in a long term. CSR has been primarily constructed as a means to create business competitiveness and a symbol for success. This has been widely accepted among business firms in Malaysia thus become ideological. At the same time, PR role was found dominant in promoting the practice of CSR that appears to be working to the advantage of the dominant groups i.e., business and government. Nevertheless, how PR promotes mutual interests of business and society through CSR remain obscure. This thesis also argues that the motivation to promote business interests serves as the key stumbling block for PR in creating sustainable impact and value to other than it paymaster and financial stakeholders. This thesis suggests that it is time for PR to reflect on this common practice particularly in terms of its ethical implications to both the organizations and the value of PR profession as a whole. This empirical study has significantly contributed particularly in the realm of PR role research in CSR within specific social-cultural, political, economic contexts of Malaysia and PR research from the critical perspectives.

Įmonių socialinei atsakomybei (toliau vadinama ĮSA) tampant vis populiaresne tema verslo pasaulyje magistro baigiamajame darbe yra pristatoma šio verslo modelio koncepcija, apžvelgiama, kaip ji kito nuo XX a. vidurio iki šių dienų. Analizuojamos pagrindinės dimensijos, kuriose įmonės gali būti atsakingos, aptariamas aplinkos spaudimas ir įtaka pasiryžimui diegti atsakingo verslo modelį, pateikiamos pagrindinės įmonių suinteresuotosios grupės. Kaip atsvara išvardytoms naudoms, kurias ĮSA suteikia įmonei, yra pristatomas ir kritiškas požiūris. Praktiniam ĮSA modelio realizavimo pavyzdžiui yra pasirinktas Lietuvos atvejis. Darbe yra analizuojamos organizacijų, kurių veikla susijusi su ĮSA, iniciatyvos, aptariami Lietuvoje atliktų ĮSA vertinimo tyrimų ataskaitų duomenys bei įvertinamos AB Teo LT socialinės veiklos ataskaitos. Apibendrinus ir išskyrus problemas bei galimybes, kurios aktualios Lietuvai, yra pateikiamos rekomendacijos, kaip jas spręsti ir išnaudoti. / As Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is increasingly becoming a widely discussed topic in business, this postgraduate thesis endeavours to explore the concept of CSR and review its development from the mid-twentieth century until the present day. The paper presents the main dimensions of corporate responsibility, discusses the impact that the environment has on companies’ decisions to implement a socially responsible business model and looks at key corporate stakeholders affected by it. The thesis not only reveals a range of benefits that CSR provides to businesses, but also presents several views that criticise the model. As an example of practical implementation of CSR, the case of Lithuania is presented. The thesis investigates initiatives undertaken by organisations whose operations are associated with CSR, looks at the results of CSR assessment research in Lithuania and assesses social responsibility performance reports of JSC Teo LT. Finally, the thesis identifies problems and opportunities that are relevant to the Lithuanian case and makes recommendations for their solution and utilisation.

隨著企業社會責任(CSR)議題的興起、綠色消費意識提高，以及國際環境管理系統與相關法規的日趨完善，社會大眾要求企業應擔負起社會與環境責任的呼聲漸劇；是故愈來愈多的企業開始投身綠色經營的行列。本研究從企業總體層級出發，以質化研究取向來探討全球領導品牌是如何形塑其影響動機、資源投入、利害關係人管理，及發展系統性的策略方案等綠色經營實務。 　　從本研究發現及所提出的延伸性管理意涵，企業應主動追求更積極的CSR作為，透過影響力及市場機制來回應利害關係人，始得滿足「三重盈餘」目標： 1.　創辦人或企業本身的環境經營、綠色管理等價值觀或信念將會形塑企業綠色經營動機，且應從總體層級並「內外兼顧」來推行，以一貫性地從企業願景、使命、策略方針等向下最終落實於日常營運活動中。 2.　企業綠色經營動機將影響其資源投入與利害關係人管理，透過「推動公司治理」、「維護社會公益」、「發展永續環境」及「生命週期成本管理」來創造綠色價值，架構性地支持綠色經營意識轉化為營運活動。 3.　企業綠色經營動機將影響實際推展的代表性措施、策略與計畫，透過「綠色供應鏈管理」、「綠色消費行為」、「綠色形象/品牌」及「綠色獲利模式」來實踐綠色價值，彈性因應市場需求並提高競爭者進入門檻。 4.　企業應加強綠色價值創造與綠色價值實踐兩構面間的連結性，並善盡利害關係人溝通機制，使架構性的措施得以轉化為實務作為。 5.　企業綠色價值創造與企業綠色價值實踐兩構面將會影響品牌領導地位，且若在環保、收益與成本間並無遭遇明顯的決策衝突或困難，則最終其企業綠色經營的商業可行性將反映在正向的財務績效表現中。 　　本研究歸納出影響企業執行綠色經營實務成效的各項因素及各構面間的交互關係；並提供有志發展綠色經營模式或期待更為精進者一個整體性參考架構。 / With the rise of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) issues, green consumer awareness, as well as the maturity of international environmental management system and relevant regulations, the community advocates companies should account for social and environmental responsibility; therefore more and more companies devote to green management. In this study, the qualitative research method is utilized from the corporate level to explore how the global leading brands to shape the influence and motivation, allocation of resources, stakeholders management, and the development of systematic strategy plans and other green management practices. 　　From the study results and proposed management implications, companies should pursue more proactive CSR actions through their influence and market mechanisms to respond to stakeholders to meet "Triple Bottom Line" objectives: 1.　The founder, values or beliefs of environment management and green management will shape the motivation of business green management from "both inside and outside" through the corporate level to implement consistently along with the corporate vision, mission, strategic direction and so on cascading to the fulfillment of daily operations. 2.　The motivation of business green management will affect allocation of resources and stakeholders management through "promoting corporate governance", "maintaining social welfare", "developing sustainable environment" and "managing life-cycle cost" to create green value and structurally support green management sense into business activities. 3.　The motivation of business green management will affect the actual promotion of representative measures, strategies and plans through "Green Supply Chain Management", "green consumer behavior", "green image / brand" and "green profit model" to fulfill green value and flexibly respond to market demand as well as to increase the entry barriers to competitors. 4.　Companies should strengthen the linkage between green value creation and green value realization and fulfill communication mechanism with stakeholders to transform the structural measures into actual practices. 5.　Both of business green value creation and business green value realization will affect the brand leadership, and if there is no decision-making conflict or significant difficulties among environment, benefits and costs, finally the commercial feasibility of business green management will be reflected on the positive financial performance. 　　The study induces the affecting factors of implementation effectiveness of green management practices and the interactions among the various aspects and also provides an overall reference structure to develop green management model or advance sophistication.

Šiame magistro baigiamajame darbe analizuojamos įmonių socialinės atsakomybės koncepcijos bei galimybė jas pritaikyti praktikoje vertinant verslo subjektų socialinio atsakingumo apimtį. Pirmojoje darbo dalyje orientuojamasi į ĮSA teorinę dimensiją, kurios analizė patvirtino egzistuojantį aukštą ĮSA neapibrėžtumo lygį, kuris buvo sumažintas pateikus socialiai atsakingos veiklos vykdymo sampratą. Antroji dalis skirta ĮSA koncepcijų pritaikomumo praktikoje analizei, kurios pagrindu išskirti pagrindiniai veiksniai, skatinantys socialiai atsakingą veikimą, bei susisteminti konceptualūs ĮSA modeliai, kas sudarė prielaidas verslo subjektų socialinio atsakingumo vertinimui. Trečiojoje daro dalyje atlikti du tyrimai siekiant pritaikyti ĮSA koncepcijas praktiškai. Pirmasis tyrimas leido pateikti du ĮSA kraštutinumo pavyzdžius, tai yra socialiai atsakingą ir neatsakingą verslo subjektą. Antruoju tyrimu nustatytas egzistuojantis skirtumas tarp užsienio ir Lietuvos kapitalo verslo subjektų požiūrio į ĮSA ir iš to išplaukiančio jų socialinio atsakingumo apimties, bei viso to sąsaja su šiose kompanijose vyraujančiais vadybos tipais. / The author of this paper analyzes the concepts of corporate social responsibility and the possibilities of their practical implementation in valuing CSR extent in companies. The first part of the work deals with theoretical dimension of CSR, analysis of which confirmed the existence of vagueness of the phenomenon, which was eliminated to some extent by presenting a definition of this term. The second part is devoted to analysis of CSR concepts’ practical implementation, according to which main factors stimulating socially responsible behavior were singled out and conceptual CSR models systematized, all of which created preconditions for evaluation of social responsibility in companies. The third part of the paper covers two practical researches conducted based on CSR concepts. The first one created an opportunity to present two marginal examples of CSR, i.e. socially responsible and socially irresponsible company. In the second research it was established that there is a difference between foreign and Lithuanian capital companies’ attitudes towards CSR, which can be linked to the dominant management types in the aforementioned companies.

The process of globalization over the past five decades has given impetus to drivensustainability and related thinking in business. It is also observed that there areunprecedented trends in corporate strategy towards sustainable thinking - the emergenceof sustainability as corporate strategy and the concern of business for ecology and society.This forces companies to rethink their standard business models and increase theirinterest in innovating products and services based on the challenges of global sustainabledevelopment. The pressure from external stakeholders, mainly non-governmentalorganizations (NGOs), as drivers of change may also contribute strongly to thisendeavour. This substantial change pressure clearly reflects companies’ recognition of themounting pressures for social responsibility and governance. The overall aim of this thesisis to describe and understand how social responsibility and value-creation of customers’influence the overall service quality of companies in developing a sustainable servicebusiness. The theoretical and conceptual frame of reference finds its stimulation from the researchin sustainable development – corporate social responsibility, service research and qualitymanagement. In this way it attempts to bridge the gap between business and socialresponsibility. Theoretically and conceptually, the thesis amalgamates sustainabilitythinking and the service logic. Here, value creation and co-creation of Service DominantLogic (S-D logic) approach expands to integrate the values based approach of CorporateSocial Responsibility (CSR) in management thinking and have created the prevailingbusiness practices and service quality (SQ) improvement. This thesis is a compilation offive different papers that follow an interpretative case study approach. The empiricalstudy developed from the cases of multinational companies, small and mediumenterprises, smallholders and NGOs. In this thesis, ‘Sustainable Service Dominant Logic’ (SSDL) was labelled to argue thatvalue-based co-creation of the S-D logic framework can be used to create values-basedservices for sustainable business by examining the link between CSR and S-D logic basedon value, values and service quality for sustainable business. This is this thesis’scontribution to the ongoing discussion of the paradigm shift in service research. Theframework is of the integration of CSR thinking into service business to create sustainablebusiness thinking. This signifies the new thinking of incorporating different managementsystems in creating the organizational change process, sustainability and finally SQimprovement. This counters the critique against S-D logic by expanding the societal andethical dimensions by using CSR, and showing real business cases. This depends on theintegration of different change pressures for value creation, whether related to economicand social resource integration. This involves the shift of the focus of managerial controlfrom a preoccupation with financial issues to a wider awareness of CSR thinking. Theseissues are also explored by demonstrating, based on cases, how the adoption of thisperspective can also enable the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) framework to become animportant aspect of value creation. Finally, the paradigm shift can be generalized to newthinking in S-D logic and the social responsibility of businesses as the major phenomenonof the changing and globalizing business environment; time for the CSR framework to permeate S-D logic.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been a subject of increasing interest among academics and business practitioners globally. This thesis contributes to the discourse on CSR in the context of the Nigerian oil industry with regard to corporate-community relations. Specifically, the thesis constitutes a critique of CSR initiatives by multinational oil companies (MOC) operating in the Niger Delta region and their impact on the traditional livelihoods of local communities. The research attempts to understand the link between CSR and Psychological contract from the perspective of both the host communities and the MOCs. This thesis examines community perceptions, expectations and seeks to interpret the relationship between the host communities and the MOCs. The study provides empirical data through the use of twenty-eight semi-structured interviews and three focus groups. This is significant given that most of the research conducted into CSR in this region has been limited to descriptive and extensive theoretical explanations. Findings from the research suggest that the relationship between the host communities and the MOC is a very complex one and that the impact of the MOCs activities can be interpreted from the host communities’ negative actions. The thesis makes an important contribution to the emerging literature on social license to operate (SLO) and in what manner the local communities seek to enforce it. It also offers an alternative approach to CSR based on need assessment and stakeholder involvement rather than corporate obligations and expectations from society in general.