Abstract   Date 2010-05-28   Level: Bachelor thesis in international business 15 hp   Authors:   Moa Ekerhed  Mariana Sandvall   Birth year 1986   Birth year 1988   Supervisor:            Susanne Sandberg   Commissioned by: SIDA   Project: Minor field study Title: Corporate social responsibility – A case study of three Swedish MNC`s in the emerging Peruvian market   Purpose: The purpose with this thesis is to gain understanding of how Swedish multinational corporations work with CSR in an emerging market. We will study what kind of CSR they are implementing on the market and how their surrounding environment influences them. From a theoretical perspective we will analyze the impact of the stakeholders and how they gain legitimacy, further how this is taken into practice. Method: The research is built upon a qualitative method where the primary data was studied from conducting several interviews concerning corporate social responsibility and sustainability practices. The research was conducted with an abductive research approach. The three companies that were examined were SKF, Atlas Copco and Securitas. We also performed interviews with the Nordic Chamber of Commerce and the Swedish General Council in Peru.   Conclusions: Our conclusion is that the CSR concept is very in time and companies are nowadays raising more awareness of CSR issues and implementing more CSR and sustainability practices. The stakeholders are becoming more important than ever and in order to gain legitimacy companies have to work hand in hand with their stakeholders and surrounding environment to be able to achieve a sustainable future. CSR is vital for the sustainability and plays a significant role for the future of corporation’s existence and progress.   Keywords: Corporate social responsibility, sustainability, stakeholder, legitimacy, the Peruvian market and cooperation.

This thesis is an examination of the financial consequences of corporations engaging in socially responsible activities. It is motivated by the recognition that a socially responsible approach can fundamentally change the conduct and operation of business, which in turn may have a significant impact on financial outcomes both for individual companies as well as the wider economy. If social responsibility improves financial performance then managers, investors and society at large can have confidence that these activities increase prosperity as well as social welfare, making them unequivocally desirable. Four empirical studies were undertaken of different but related financial aspects of corporate social responsibility (CSR), specifically; the determinants of social responsibility and the effect of social responsibility on profitability, market value and stock return. In chapter two corporate social responsibility was found to be consistently and positively related to company size and certain industry characteristics, in particular companies that deal directly with the public (rather than with other companies) and companies in extractive and regulated industries were associated with a greater engagement in CSR. Although in some instances a positive link was found between return on assets and subsequent levels of corporate social responsibility the results were not consistent suggesting that higher than average profitability is not a prerequisite or consistent spur to additional social responsibility. A new methodology was also deployed, system GMM as another way of assessing the corporate social responsibility / corporate financial performance relationship; this gave broadly similar results. Chapter three assessed the relationship between social responsibility and responsibility on profitability. There was a positive significant association with return on assets but generally insignificant results when return on sales was used as the measure of financial performance. This may indicate that social responsibility is materially associated with a better utilisation of the internal assets used by a business but that this does not extend to obtaining better margins from external customers. Alternatively it may indicate that CSR has no consistent unambiguous effect on financial results or finally that it is difficult to witness an effect by using a cross sectional approach. To more directly assess if social responsibility has an impact on financial performance a time series analysis was also carried out, no significant result was found. However given the degree of inertia in corporate social responsibility the five years of data available is unlikely to be a sufficiently long to detect any effect. Chapter four contains a study of the effect of corporate social responsibility on market value. This uses value relevance methodology which is a relatively new approach and has the advantage of both directly addressing the principal concern of critics of CSR, that it impairs shareholder wealth. On average corporate social responsibility was found to be associated with higher market value and by implication a better level of profit and/or lower levels of risk. The final empirical study in chapter five examined the role of corporate social responsibility and risk as a way of parsing the result in the previous chapter and assessing whether investor cash flow or risk was the cause of enhanced market valuations. This also has the advantage of directly looking at stock returns which is a prime concern of ethical investors. Three different methodologies were used; in each case the effect noted was small and generally not significant, suggesting that social responsibility has little discernible effect on risk and hence stock return in the UK. Overall it appears that corporate social responsibility is associated with greater market value but that no consistent unambiguous significant association between corporate social responsibility and profitability could be found using a cross sectional study. The methodologies used in the various chapters are quite different and there are also obvious differences between market value and profitability, however a more consistent result should be expected. When more extensive data sets become available a longer run time series analysis should provide additional information on the effect of corporate social responsibility on financial performance and provide a useful adjunct to this study.

In this thesis first, I investigate the link between firms’ environmental and social disclosures (ESD) and their profitability, as well as establish the direction of causality between the two. Second, I examine the association between ESD with firms’ market value, employee productivity and carbon eco-efficiency respectively. Finally, I examine the relations among firms’  CSR  related  board attributes, CSR strategy and their environmental and social performance (ESP). The first empirical chapter shows that firms with higher profitability tend to provide more ESD, which is consistent with the accounting- and economics- based arguments that ESD involve a real as well as an opportunity cost that more profitable firms with higher slack resources are better able to afford. The results regarding market value analysis show that overall ESD, in particular social disclosures matter to investors. Investors appear to be placing higher values on firms seen to be behaving in a socially responsible manner. Presumably, more responsible behaviour in the social arena reflected in higher disclosure helps to mitigate the information asymmetry, and hence the perceived social risk of the firm. Investors thus place higher values on such firms. The evidence on the link between  firms’  ESD  and  their  ESP measures supports this explanation. Specifically, I find that more social (environmental) disclosure in prior year reflects better social (environmental) performance as captured by higher employee productivity (more carbon eco-efficiency) in the current year. The results of the final empirical chapter show that boards having certain CSR- conducive attributes, particularly independent directors, women directors, and directors with financial expertise on the audit committee, are more likely to develop a multi-pronged CSR strategy which in turn translates into superior environmental and social performance. Furthermore, I find that firms with better ESP tend to further strengthen their board CSR orientation. In other words, the analysis suggests the presence of a positive and cyclical link between CSR orientation, firm CSR strategy, and firm environmental and social performance.

No description available.

The importance of corporate social responsibility (hereinafter referred to as CSR) is on the rise, and more and more companies are engaging in activities such as cause-related marketing, employee volunteering and/or corporate philanthropy, commonly referred to CSR programmes. More than 80 % of Fortune 500 companies deal with CSR issues in the United States. In Europe the number of companies doing this is also growing, led by companies such as The Body Shop and SAP. What are the reasons for this trend? On the one hand, consumers are becoming increasingly aware of bad business practices in times of increasing media coverage and advanced information technology. Twitter storms and Facebook campaigns have enabled consumers to exert their powers of protest and boycotting, resulting in negative economic consequences for the companies. For instance the Coca-Cola #notinmyfridge twitter campaign is said to have had an impact on the company’s global sales due to the negative publicity. On the other hand, there is evidence that CSR is not only “the moral thing to do”, but also has a positive impact on the company’s relationships with its stakeholders, such as employees, customers and consumers. CSR is reported to have a positive impact on both consumer product responses as well as its attitude towards the company, including consumers’ identification with the company. <img src="file:///page4image15696" />Still, there are still many knowledge gaps with regards to how these CSR programmes are being developed and implemented today. In addition to this, there is limited research on how the programmes are being perceived by stakeholders such as customers, consumers, employees and leaders, or indeed what the main driving forces are behind setting up such programmes. Is it a desire to be a great company or just a precaution to avoid “twitter"-storms?

Zugl.: München, Techn. Univ., Diss., 2010

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / Currently, some microfinance institutions in Bolivia are adopting Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and publish the results. CSR is applied mostly by big companies in the North and in sectors more in the eye of the public, such as oil production or textile and apparel. Bolivia has been the pioneer in the commercialization of microfinance through microfinance NGO transformations. The objectives of this investigation was to asses and compare the reasons why the selected Bolivian commercial MFI's were engaged, or not engaged, in CSR. Secondly, to determine which stakeholders are more relevant for each MFI analysed, assessing how they influenced the decision to adopt or not adopt CSR and thirdly, to compare the current social performance of the selected MFI's within the framework of corporate social responsibility. / South Africa

No / The idea of corporations exercising corporate social responsibility has spread from the West and is now firmly embedded in Asian countries and in Asian corporations. The latest trend in corporate social responsibility, evident also in Asia, is for corporations to apply corporate social responsibility to local communities and to those at the bottom of the social hierarchy. This book explores corporations’ social responsibility engagement with local communities in a range of Asian countries. It provides examples of corporate social responsibility in a wide range of industrial sectors, focuses extensively on "social enterprises" and on governments’ and corporations’ schemes to encourage them, considers how relations with employees and with local workforces fit into the pattern of corporate social responsibility, and discusses the question as to how far corporations engage with local communities as a way of developing new markets for their products.

Exploring two hotly contested issues, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the extractive industries, this report will demonstrate to a general reading audience the necessity of CSR as a business practice. The report finds that, given pressures from globalization and stakeholders, CSR is no longer an optional practice in the extractive industries but a business imperative. In general, why is CSR an important practice for businesses to adopt? In the extractive industries, what distinguishing CSR issues do they face, and how is CSR being propelled forwards in these industries? This report explores these questions and offers recommendations for policymakers and extractive companies on how to ensure CSR is implemented in a way that meets society’s great expectations. / text

<p>Den rekordartade tekniska utvecklingen som världen har utsatts för under de senaste 100 åren har lett till att vi nu får se dess negativa biverkningar, förstörelsen på vår natur. Detta har i sin tur lett till att organisationer fått upp ögonen för fördelarna som uppstår med att arbeta mot miljöförstörelsen. Nya organisationer och företag gör entré på marknaden hela tiden och alla, nya som gamla, spelar en stor roll för vår miljö. Genom att arbeta för en minskad miljöpåverkan kan en organisation inte endast skaffa sig konkurrensfördelar utan även skapa ett bättre samarbete med intressenter och sina anställda.</p><p>Denna framväxt av miljömedvetna organisationer gjorde det intressant för oss som författare att titta närmare på hur dessa organisationer använder sig av grön marknadsföring. Vi valde att applicera det på en kommun, nämligen Halmstad kommun. En kommun har, precis som ett företag, mål med sin verksamhet, och detta är oftast att skapa vinst och tillväxt. Vidare har samtliga marknadsföringsmässiga mål som skall ligga i linje med organisationens övergripande mål. Det var därför intressant för oss att se vad kommunen hade för marknadsföringsmässiga mål och om grön marknadsföring användes för att uppnå dessa. Vårt huvudproblem lyder enligt följande: ” Vad har Halmstad kommun för marknadsföringsmässiga mål och används grön marknadsföring för att nå dessa?” </p><p>Syftet med uppsatsen blir således att förklara, beskriva och undersöka vad Halmstad kommun har för marknadsföringsmässiga mål och om grön marknadsföring används för att uppnå dessa. Halmstad kommun är en ekokommun och vi vill även se om de kan dra någon nytta av det i sin marknadsföring. Metodkapitlet ger en närmare beskrivning kring hur vi rent praktiskt har gått tillväga med våra undersökningar. Vi har använt oss av en kvalitativ ansats där vi har intervjuat åtta olika respondenter.</p><p>I den teoretiska referensramen behandlar vi relevanta teorier som vi anser oss behöva för att besvara vårt problem. Vi presenterar teorier kring begreppet Corporate Social Responsibility, grön marknadsföring, varumärke och ekokommun. I empiriavsnittet redogör vi för resultatet av intervjuerna som vi gjort med personer anställda på Halmstad kommun. Vidare i analyskapitlet ställs den insamlade teorin mot vår insamlade empiri. I det avslutande kapitlet, slutsats, görs en djupare analys där vi konstaterar att Halmstad kommun i allra högsta grad använder sig medvetet eller omedvetet av grön marknadsföring för att uppnå sina marknadsföringsmässiga mål. Vi lämnar även rekommendationer på hur kommunen kan öka sin grad av grön marknadsföring.</p>