This Master Thesis copes with current phenomenon - Corporate social responsibility and as a base it uses the Stakeholder theory. The Thesis continues with defining the concept of Corporate social responsibility in general and then devotes small part to present activities under Corporate social responsibility which aims mainly at external stakeholders of an organization. Nevertheless the core of this Thesis is an interconnection between Corporate social responsibility and human resources management which is later on examined from several different points of view and an overview of tools that work with this interconnection is given. It also describes employees from the stakeholder perspective, follows with investigating corporate social responsibility aspects within individual personnel activities in an organization and confronts them with real attitudes of Czech university students.

Financial markets are nowadays more important than ever. Financial crisis of the previous decade demonstrated their power to influence stability of the whole economy. Since the consensus blames weak regulation and considers the only solution to be its extension, this thesis tries to provide the proof of existence of other options. The focus is firstly aimed at the weaknesses of the fractional reserve banking, which does not follow the basic legal principles of a deposit contract. This practice results in price fluctuations and favoritism of first takers of newly created money. Moreover, the thesis develops a new method of analysis, which emphasizes the application of preferences in exchanges. Important outcome of this method is the demonstration that the public does not have to always prefer the most evolved form of institution. All institutions within commercial banks are then analyzed with the use of this method and the thesis shows where preference channels are being interfered with. This analysis also reveals another outcome of fractional reserve banking, which is that the newly created money is only used according to the preferences of commercial bankers. We suggest that circumvention of the true nature of a deposit contract leads to a similar outcome in loan banking, where funds gathered by loan...

The thesis deals with the topic of corporate social responsibility emphasizing especially its spatial aspects and the impact on regional development. It aims to discover the spatial pattern of the so-called socially responsible firm activities in Czechia including the motivations for choosing this pattern, and to assess the importance of these activities for regional development. Particularly, it aims to present the concept of corporate social responsibility from a geographical point of view. The empirical research using the case of Czechia is structured into two phases. The first phase, based on an extensive research of internet-based sources and a questionnaire survey among selected corporations, explores the institutional context of corporate social responsibility in Czechia and follows the activities of particular firms including their spatial strategies. The second phase, using intensive research in two Czech micro- regions (Broumovsko and Červenokostelecko), particularly in-depth interviews with representatives of selected firms, provides deeper insight into the topic, reveals the motivations of firm behavior regarding social responsibility and sheds light upon the importance of these activities for development of the respective region. The thesis proved direct connection between geography and...

Background: Corporate social responsibility has continuously developed ever since the concept first was introduced in the 1950’s up until today. In its beginning, managers who engaged in CSR did so to improve workforce efficiency. In this day and age, CSR has come to include social, environmental and economic topics and is now about creating value for the society at large. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to find the underlying reasons for why SMEs engage in CSR activities. Method: To properly fulfill the purpose of this study, we have conducted a qualitative case study. The empirical data has been collected through ten in-depth semi-structured interviews with ten different organizations from four different industries. Conclusion: The results show that SMEs believe there are expectations from customers/clients to engage in CSR and by doing so they create a competitive advantage over their competitors. In addition to this, most SMEs that engage in CSR is in the strategic stage of CSR, in activities connected to the environment. Furthermore, there are several industry-related differences as to why SMEs engage in CSR. These differences include factors such as competitive advantage, customer expectations, and requirements to follow rules and regulations.

One key to CSR’s success has been its fuzzy definition, whereby its meaning is constantly (re)defined by practice and through the dialectical relationship between companies and their stakeholders. This thesis focuses upon the influence of MNOCs’ socio-political field upon their CSR (rather than upon specific CSR projects), from a critical realist perspective, contributing to existing research in three key ways. Firstly, I present original explanatory models that outline the practice of CSR in Colombia and Venezuela. From these models, I develop further models that categorise the types of CSR practiced in each country. I argue that Colombia follows a conventional model of private-led CSR; by contrast, the Venezuelan model pushes the boundaries of more traditional CSR definitions. Given the government’s dirigiste approach, I categorise the Venezuelan model as an example of a new form of CSR, that I call Regulated CSR (RCSR), noting the inherent contradictions of regulating to increase responsibility. Secondly, I produce original research on MNOCs’ CSR reports, examining how MNOCs’ agency is affected by global socio-political discourses. Paradoxically, whilst CSR is an important element of corporate communication, many MNOCs only disclose limited CSR-related information. Thirdly, this thesis contributes to the growing discussion of CSR’s role within the neoliberal paradigm. I argue that CSR is not and cannot be a panacea for social absences and can have negative social effects. Therefore, appropriate regulation is necessary, starting with greater corporate transparency at an international level to level-up MNOCs’ practices, and national oversight of MNOCs’ CSR budgets and practices.

Sammanfattning Mot bakgrund av det nya lagkrav på hållbarhetsredovisning som nu gäller och det ökade intresset för miljö-och samhällsfrågor så avser denna kvalitativa studie att undersöka hur svenska företag kommunicerar sitt CSR-arbete. Tio hållbarhetschefer från högt rankade företag i Sustainable Brand Index 2016 utgör informanterna som medverkat i de kvalitativa intervjuer som utgör empiriska materialet studien grundar sig på. Frågeställningarna lyder: Hur definierar framgångsrika svenska företag CSR? Hur använder framgångsrika svenska företag kommunikationsstrategier för sitt CSR-arbete? Varför arbetar framgångsrika svenska företag med CSR? Studien fann att företagen delar Grankvists definition att företagen har ett ekonomiskt, miljömässigt och socialt ansvar gentemot samhället och intressenter. Det fanns variationer i vilken typ av aktiviteter som företagen engagerade sig i, även om det rådde stor samstämmighet kring nivån av ansvar som kan utkrävas av bolag. Trots stort etiskt ansvarstagande och hårdare krav betonar informanterna kopplingen mellan hållbarhet och lönsamhet över tid. Det bekräftar de ekonomiska motiven i linje med Carrolls och Friedmans teorier. Studien vill även påvisa ett samband mellan Halmes CR-aktiviteter filantropi, integration och innovation samt Morsing och Schultz’s kommunikationsstrategier the stakeholder information strategy, the stakeholder response strategy och the stakeholder involvement strategy.         Sökord: CSR, Kommunikation, Strategi, Hållbarhet, Kommunikationsstrategi, Corporate Social Responsibility

This study aims to demonstrate how different country and industry-level variables affect the value-creating abilities of CSR initiatives. It contributes to the growing body of literature about CSR as it directly compares the moderating effects of the quality of country-level institutions with the moderating effects of the respective industry sector. The study amongst 3,670 firms in a sample period from 2006-2014 shows that CSR initiatives have a superior value-creating ability in environments with weak capital markets and country governance standards. Firms in controversial industry sectors have a superior ability to create value through CSR because they display a higher potential for reputational gains through CSR due to the nature of their business. The results of the study suggest a supremacy of country-level determinants over industry-level determinants of the CSR-firm value relationship.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Educational Leadership / Jeffrey T. Zacharakis / Leaders of organizations are becoming more aware of their company’s potential adverse impact on society and are facing added pressure from stakeholders to find ways to mitigate this impact (Lancey, Cooper, Hayward, & Neuberger, 2010). The field of adult education, through its history in human resource development and social responsibility, can directly influence an organization’s corporate social responsibility strategy and thus its impact on society (Garavan, Heraty, Rock, & Dalton, 2010). This study aims to provide insight into the relationship between socially conscious human resource development training programs and the recommendation of new corporate social responsibility ideas for the organization. Furthermore, as many organizations are increasingly using entrepreneurial approaches to enhance their corporate social responsibility strategies (Austin, Leonard, Reficco, & Wei-Skiller, 2006), this study explores the relationship between entrepreneurial and social organizational antecedents perceived by 152 company managers and the development of new corporate social responsibility ideas for the organization. This research utilizes exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression to analyze the results of an online survey. The results of the analysis indicated that a statistically significant relationship existed between the number of socially conscious human resource development training programs attended and the recommendation of new corporate social responsibility ideas. Additionally, this research indicated that a manager’s perception of the level of social proactiveness in a firm is a significant organizational antecedent that correlates with the recommendation of new corporate social responsibility ideas.

The development of communication technology has also created new structures, able to challenge the traditional power roles of the communicative process. Social media have become a fruitful arena of this change due to their users having the possibility to respond to the producers’ messages. Thus, the traditional lineal structure turns to an interactional one and consequently, the lines become blurred between the roles of the dominant and dominated as assumed by the senders/producers and the receivers respectively. Controversial issues shed light on this ‘battle for power’, such as the sustainability actions and reporting of Zara and H&M. These companies are the leaders of the fast fashion industry; one of the most ‘unsustainable’ fields. Through a critical discourse analysis of the posts that the companies launch on their Facebook-sponsored accounts as well as the comments related to sustainability that they obtain from their users, the communicative process occurring in social media can be assessed. The aim of this analysis is to provide an insight into how the communicative process between sender and receiver in social media creates public opinion and affects the development of sustainability discourse. It has been shown that users have found in social media a powerful tool to challenge the companies’ power: they can comment on the informative product in question. Also the users have taken the sustainability discourse as the required ‘object’ when questioning a product’s reliability. The latter is in some way another means with which to challenge the companies’ power.

This paper examines how economic, environmental and social CSR activities are related to tax avoidance. Subsequently, this study examines whether internationalization moderates the relationship between the different CSR activities and tax avoidance. A matched sample of 266 firm-year observations was formed; equally split between tax avoidant firms as well as tax compliant firms by employing a novel approach to identify corporate tax avoidance based on tax disputes. The logit regression results shows that the more firms engage in social CSR activities the more likely they are to avoid taxes. Moreover, the main regression also supports the positive moderation effect of internationalisation on the relationship between social CSR and tax avoidance.