Since the mid-1990s the issue of corporate social responsibility has become an interest of various actors in the international system and an important item on the international agenda. In spite of the absence of a common definition, the concept generally involves claims on transnational corporations to take responsibility for the promotion and protection of human and labour rights in countries where they operate or otherwise conduct business. These claims have contributed to a change in the expectations on the behaviour of companies and result from the persistent advocacy of non-governmental organizations. This study traces the development of corporate social responsibility understood as a new international norm and part of a social construction project with a normative agenda. With a point of departure in the 1970s, different stages of the norm cycle of corporate social responsibility – norm emergence, “norm cascade” and norm internalization – are traced through five selected non-governmental organizations including the Clean Clothes Campaign, the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, Global Exchange, the International Business Leaders Forum, and the International Labor Rights Fund. Although representing different categories of organizations, i.e. Activists, Business Initiatives and Multi-stakeholder Organizations, they are all seen as norm entrepreneurs involved in a process of international norm construction. The argument made is that these norm entrepreneurs through different perspectives in their ideational commitment and strategies of persuasion have been successful in making corporate social responsibility an international concern, which has led to a “cascading” of organizations and initiatives seen from the mid-1990s. At present we experience a clustering of actors around specific initiatives, a norm consolidation, which could be taken in support of a norm internalization of corporate social responsibility.

Background: During the last decades there has been an increased focus on companies shouldering a greater social responsibility. This is due to globalisation, increased concern for environmental issues and consumer activism. These issues in combination with high-profile corporate scandals have highlighted the concept of CSR, which implies a greater social, ethical and environmental responsibility for companies. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to, through a theoretical exposition, investigate and analyse the concept of CSR, with a main focus on CSR from an employee perspective and its relation to employee wellbeing. This focus will also be illuminated with empirical data. Conduction of thesis: This thesis has been carried out through a theoretical exposition and by conducting eight interviews at a publishing company. Results: Regarding CSR from an employee perspective, we categorised different factors into four groups; physical working environment, formal contracts and agreements, organisational power structure and ethical aspects. The empirical findings showed that all the factors were perceived as important for employee wellbeing but it also pointed to some factors being taken for granted.

Background: Corporations are established and organized in order to create economic values for their owners and the main aim of every business enterprise is to be profitable and satisfy the financial expectations of their shareholders. However, corporate social responsibility focuses on the ethical aspects of corporate business in order to achieve the balance between the profitability and social responsibility. Nongovernmental organizations through their activities promote the respect for human rights and environmental care within the corporate world. Purpose and Scope: To make an in-depth study about the role of nongovernmental organizations regarding corporate social responsibility in order to increase the understanding of corporate social responsibility. Methodology: We used literature research for our thesis and we analysed the secondary data related to the corporate social responsibility. Result: The main activities of nongovernmental organizations regarding corporate social responsibility are: to investigate and monitor companies’ social performance, to inform and report the cases of socially irresponsible corporate behaviour, to engage in formulation and observation of Agreements and Codes of Conduct Governing Corporate Labour and Environmental Policies and to condemn the human rights abuse and environmental damage within the corporate world.

Background: Research results show that the potential of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has increased. That means there is a growing pressure on Swedish companies to act with responsibility: general public has a positive attitude towards companies that communicate their CSR. Advertising agencies have been criticized by their way to manage the question of social responsibility. One of the characteristics of an advertising agency is their anonymity; even though their products are extremely visible, it is rarely clear who gave rise to an advertising production. If this is put in relation to CSR in general, we find ourselves in a contradictory situation when CSR in many cases is about exposure of the responsible corporation. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explain whether CSR can be applied to advertising agencies, by describing in which way their conditions limit respectively make possible to run business in terms of CSR. Research Method: The thesis has a qualitative approach, and the empirical data is in large parts based on personal interviews, where the interviewees represent Swedish advertising agencies. Result: We have identified a number of limitations and possibilities related to advertising agencies concerning CSR. Principally limits are that the advertising industry by tradition does not sanction responsibility in this matter, that professionals belittle the social effect by their own business but recognize the impact of advertising productions taken all together. Finally, efficient advertising and customer satisfaction are top priority concerns: ethics may have to step aside due to these matters. On the other hand, there are several aspects to suggest that CSR is to be applied on agencies: the surrounding world is an important matter to agency activities. Our results show that the attention given an agency in factual can be used in characteristics of CSR: the professionals have the opportunity to choose how and what to produce.

The issue that is dealt with in this paper is the concept of values-led business. The idea behind the term is that businesses has a responsibility to the people and the society that make its existence possible and that social problems can not be solved unless business accepts taking on a leadership role which requires that business starts acting in the interests of the common good. This is specifically important since companies today are the main source of influence in people’s everyday life and the area is specifically interesting because of all the business scandals in recent years. (Cohen and Greenfield, 1997). The concept of values-led business arose mainly from the two companies the Body Shop and our chosen company; Ben and Jerry’s. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the concept of values-led business and find out how it is different from the procedures at a non-explicitly values-led organisation. We also aim to find out if there would be any benefits of introducing values-led business into the latter. In this paper we compare an explicitly values-led company, Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, with a non explicitly values-led company, SIA Glass on their internal and external performance on the study areas of Marketing, Sourcing, and HRM and Organisational culture. A qualitative research method has been used as method. The collection of primary data was done with the help of interviews done at our companies’ main offices in Sweden. In the case of Ben & Jerry’s, additional secondary sources have been used. Theories used serve the purpose of both a tool of analysis but also of setting the stage of values-led business. Furthermore, the theory has been divided into the four areas of study mentioned above. The first part of the conclusion states that we, throughout the thesis, have given a good overview of what the differences between values-led business and “ordinary” business really are. Also, we found that SIA Glass has the potential of becoming a values-led company as its foundation is not entirely based on financial goals but is to a large extent driven by a will to preserve something good for the local community. In order to develop a val-ues-led thinking a social mission should be formally put down in print and be held equal to the financial and quality missions. SIA Glass potentially has a lot to be gained especially in the marketing area as SIA Glass as it could create further leverage by using more creative marketing methods.

Background: Ambiguity and confusion of ideas within the area of social responsibility have led to that companies not really know how to work with these types of questions. One way for companies to deal with their social responsibility is to affiliate to an initiative that exists and through this show their standpoint. One of these is Globalt Ansvar, a Swedish governmental initiative that is based on Global Compact’s principles and the guidelines of OECD. What does it mean for the companies when showing their point of view? Is this a way to gain legitimacy? Purpose: The purpose with the thesis is to judge if organisations’ work with Corporate Social Responsibility gains more legitimacy by affiliating to Globalt Ansvar. Research method: A survey made through telephone interviews with representatives from all of the fifteen Swedish companies which today are affiliated to Globalt Ansvar. Conclusions: In order to give the affiliated companies more legitimacy, Globalt Ansvar has to be a legitimate initiative. Today Globalt Ansvar has problems with their legitimacy due to external and internal communication. The internal communication falls short while the companies have a lack of conceptual ideas. In addition the internal conversations do not create incentives sufficient enough to create a common platform. Globalt Ansvar hasn’t led to any concrete activities and the roles in the cooperation are indistinct. The external communication is lacking because of the failure in packaging the brand [Globalt Ansvar] in a successful way but also due to poor marketing.

Abstract This master thesis is a hermeneutic inspired case study of how the value base regarding the environmental and social responsibility in the Swedish coffee company Löfbergs Lila AB is affecting the company's business. A thesis inspired by hermeneutics means that it is based on two ideas, the one of interaction between entirety and partitions and the one of interpretation (Alvesson & Sköldberg 1994). This cause that the emphasis is on how the reality is interpreted and that it never can be seen as completely objective. The case study was conducted during the spring semester of 2010 at Karlstad's University and consists of both empirical and theoretical material collected during this time. The empirical material in this thesis includes, among other things, interviews with four representatives of Löfbergs Lila AB, written material from the company regarding its work related to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), some information about the coffee industry as a whole and different certifications for "ethical‟ coffee that exists on the Swedish market. The basic idea with CSR as a business strategy is that it can be financially beneficial for companies to take a social and environmental responsibility outside of the company (Vogel 2005). There are also those who believe that it is easier for small and medium sized enterprises to implement and conduct CSR-related work compared to larger companies due to their size and because the owners is more engaged in the business. The CSR-related work at Löfbergs Lila AB is largely based on the owners (Löfbergs family) values of what is considered being "the right thing to do‟, but there are also financial incentives that causes the company to active engage in CSR. / Sammanfattning Denna uppsats är en hermeneutiskt inspirerad fallstudie om hur värderingarna med avseende på miljömässigt och socialt ansvarstagande i Löfbergs Lila AB påverkar företagets affärer. Att en uppsats är inspirerad av hermeneutiken innebär att den bygger på två idéer, den om en växelverkan mellan helheten och delarna och den om tolkningar (Alvesson & Sköldberg 1994). Detta gör att tonvikten läggs på hur verkligheten tolkas och att den aldrig kan ses som helt objektiv. Fallstudien genomfördes under vårterminen 2010 på Karlstads universitet och består av empiriskt och teoretiskt material insamlat under denna tid. Empirin i uppsatsen inkluderar bland annat intervjuer med fyra representanter för Löfbergs Lila AB, skrivet material från Löfbergs Lila AB angående företagets arbete relaterat till Corporate Social Responsiblity, material angående kaffeindustrin i stort och om de olika certifieringar för ‟etiskt‟ kaffe som finns på den svenska marknaden. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) är den beteckning som används för att beskriva företags miljömässiga och sociala ansvarstagande. Grundtanken om CSR som affärsstrategi är att det kan vara lönsamt för företag att ta ett miljömässiga och socialt ansvar (Vogel 2005). Det finns också de som anser att det är lättare för mindre och medelstora företag att ägna sig åt CSR jämfört med större företag eftersom ägarna är mer aktiva i företaget och att mindre företags storlek gör det lättare att implementera CSR i dem. Löfbergs Lila AB:s CSR-arbete har till stor del sin grund i ägarnas (familjen Löfberg) värderingar om vad som är ‟rätt‟ att göra, men det finns också ekonomiska incitament som gör att företaget aktivt engagerar sig i CSR.

There are many views in the concept of corporate reputation and the massive research in the area tends to result in many new definitions. Research has shown that a good corporate reputation has a positive relation to Sustainable Competitive Advantage, financial performance and attraction to competent employees. The many views in the concept make it especially interesting to examine the view on corporate reputation in a perspective of big Swedish corporations. Another interesting area to examine is whether the companies manage their reputation or not. The empirical findings of this essay are based on qualitative interviews to get a deeper understanding in the area of reputation. In the analysis the empirical findings were linked to the theoretical framework chosen for the study and earlier research in the area. Through this study it has been shown that companies are defining reputation as a part of the brand. They also explain reputation as the stakeholders aggregated view of a company. The companies manage their reputation, but as an integrated component in the work of brand and communication. The companies had difficulties in separating the concept of reputation andthe concept of brand.

Vi ämnar undersöka hur informationen om CSR i årsredovisningar har förändrats sedan 1995. Syftet är att se hur informationen har utvecklats över tid, vilka nyanser som har funnits samt vilka intressenters informationskrav som har tillgodosetts. Studien omfattar en innehållsanalys av årsredovisningar. Analysen har gjorts efter en checklista som bygger på indikatorer och principer från GRI. Årsredovisningar från fem svenska företag har granskats i ett tre års intervall mellan 1995 och 2007. Mängden CSR-information i årsredovisningar har ökat stadigt sedan 1995. Fram till 2001 redovisades i princip ingen information kring mänskliga rättigheter, företagets inverkan på samhället eller ekonomiska konsekvenser av CSR. Anställda, kunder och icke-statliga organisationer är de intressenter som främst fått sitt informationsbehov tillfredsställt medan leverantörer i princip inte hittat någon relevant information innan 2007.

Tendensen att försöka hitta de affärsmässiga argumenten (business case) för CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility eller företagens sociala ansvarstagande) började framträda på 1990-talet. Vetenskapsmännen insåg då att en enda forskningsdisciplin inte kan förklara hur företagens arbetssätt med CSR-frågor kan förbättra deras ”bottom line” och således bidra till en hållbar utveckling av samhället. Både teoretiker och praktiker har vänt sin uppmärksamhet mot framgångsrika företag (bästa praxis).  I korthet innebär ett business case inom CSR ett besvarande av frågan ”Vilka fördelar har företagen och samhället av CSR?”. Samtidigt påstår både teoretiker och praktiker att det nästan är omöjligt att ge ett ”universal CSR-business case”. Objektet för vår studie är ett medelstort företag, Karlstads Energi AB:s fjärrvärmeverksamhet. Det finns flera anledningar till varför vi har valt just Karlstads Energi. Fjärrvärmebranschen anses som en hållbar bransch bland annat med kapacitet att bidra till uppfyllelsen av Sveriges klimatmål enligt det internationella Kyotoavtalet. Samtidigt präglas fjärrvärmebranschen av företagens dominerande ställning gentemot kunderna, dvs de privata kunderna anses utsatta i förhållandet till fjärrvärmeföretagen på grund av att de inte har en möjlighet att välja fjärrvärmeleverantör. Därför sätts företagets agerande i fokus utifrån ett CSR-perspektiv. Denna studie strävar efter att bidra till en förklaring av de faktorer som leder till ett framgångsrikt hållbart arbete på CSR-området.