There are many global incentives addressing the rising power of corporations and their social responsibility for society’s well-being. Given that no legal mechanism can enforce corporations to conduct socially responsible business, driving forces to implement Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) vary significantly in the business sector. The purpose of this study is to understand how Swedish corporations in Mexico anticipate social responsibility in relation to the Mexican national context, using CSR as a point of reference. The research is based on a comparative case study approach to assess the perception of the chosen cases: Epiroc, Essity and Scania. The theoretical framework merges research about CSR and the social power of business. A qualitative content analysis supplemented with semi-structured interviews are utilized to encompass key denominators for social engagement. The results outline how CSR predominantly is perceived as a mandatory commitment to management of corporate impacts. The results also show that the stakeholder responsiveness in CSR serves as a strategic business purpose. In addition, findings highlight how motives for engaging in CSR are tied to international standards, yet activities conducted under the flag of social concerns often serve to safeguard the corporate image. Moreover, corporate policies are contingent by international standards while practices aligning to the local Mexican perception of CSR as philanthropy, illuminating a dissonance in policy and practice among the Swedish corporations.

Filantropi inom företag har sedan länge varit ett fenomen utanför Sverige. Dock har filantropin brett ut sig inom Sverige de senaste åren och blir allt populärare av olika anledningar. Till exempel säger vissa företag att de känner en skyldighet att hjälpa de som har det sämre och de inom sin omgivning.Baserat på svar från intervjuer gjorda med sju olika respondenter från sju olika svenska företag, syftar denna uppsats till att svara på hur svenska företag arbetar med filantropi och vad som motiverar dem till att göra det.Resultatet tyder på att svenska företag arbetar med filantropi på ett centraliserat sätt och att informationen om arbetet kommuniceras mestadels internt, för att engagera och motivera personalstyrkan samt även för att ses som en attraktiv arbetsgivare. Filantropi kan även användas som en strategi för att stärka ett varumärke, samla politiska resurser och motverka negativ kritik. / Philanthropy within corporations has for a long time been a phenomenon outside of Sweden. However, philanthropy has spread throughout Sweden in recent years and is for various reasons becoming more popular. For example corporations say that they feel an obligation to help those who have it worse and also those in their environment.Based on answers gathered from interviews with seven different respondents from seven different Swedish corporations, this essay means to answer the question of how Swedish corporations work with philanthropy and what motivates them to do so.The result indicates that Swedish corporations work with philanthropy in a centralized manner and that information about this work is communicated mostly internally, to engage and motivate the staff but also to be seen as an attractive employer. Philanthropy can also be used as a strategy to strengthen a brand, gather political resources and combat negative criticism.This essay is written in Swedish.

Women are generally underrepresented in media and have historically been degraded to stereotypical roles in media content. Sweden is a country that has actively worked with equality between the genders since the 1970s. The country's progress in equality piqued the scientists interest in the extent of gender stereotypes in Swedish media content. This study examines whether there is a gender based variation in the framing of individuals in said content. The aim is to map the extent to which these gender stereotypes shape the communication in the images of 238 Swedish companies on their “about us”-pages. The images are analyzed to determine how individuals are portrayed based on their perceived gender. The study has a theoretical foundation in gender theory, representation theory, Roland Barthes mythologies and framing theory. These 4 theories form the basis for both the quantitative and the qualitative analyses in the paper. The content analysis applies mixed methods, consisting of a quantitative and qualitative component. The census method formed the basis for the quantitative part, whereas the study’s criteria limited a list of companies with an annual revenue of over 500 million SEK. The sampling method for the qualitative part is a systematic random sampling. The analytical tools that are used for the qualitative analysis includes theories about colors and non-verbal communication, along with semiotic concepts such as connotation, denotation and anchoring. Despite Sweden actively addressing gender equality issues, the study’s results indicated that Swedish company websites to some extent depict women and men differently, even though the numerical representation is equal. Some companies seem to reinforce gender stereotypes while others challenge them. Companies’ visual communication generally portrayed women as more accommodating, affirming the camera with a smile. Men, on the other hand, were generally depicted as more distant and reserved, with a more averted gaze than the women. The findings suggest that people’s perception of gender stereotypes and gender can be influenced by the websites they consume, potentially impacting how gender stereotypes are reinforced or challenged in society.