Pastaraisiais metais vis daugiau kalbama apie įmonių socialinę atsakomybę ne tik JAV, Europos Sąjungoje, bet ir Lietuvoje. Ji tampa nebeišvengiama būtinybe šiuolaikiniame versle. Prasidėjus ekonominei krizei yra ieškoma naujų konkuravimo būdų, o ĮSA yra vienas iš būdų, nes ji gerina ne tik organizacijos įvaizdį, darbuotojų lojalumą, prekės ženklo žinomumą, bet ir veiklos efektyvumą bei ekonominį naudingumą. Tačiau dauguma įmonių tik imituoja socialinę atsakomybę kalbėdamos, o ne įgyvendina ilgalaikes socialinės atsakomybės strategijas. Kita vertus, ekonominė krizės laikotarpis kai kurias įmones paskatino gerokai sumažinti savo atsakingumo lygį. Todėl svarbu išsiaiškinti, ar socialiai atsakingos įmonės ir ekonominės krizės laikotarpiu įgyvendino įmonių socialinę atsakomybę ir kaip ji keitėsi šiuo laikotarpiu. Darbo objektas – įmonių socialinė atsakomybė. Darbo uždaviniai: 1. Išanalizuoti įmonių socialinės atsakomybės sampratą. 2. Nustatyti ĮSA lemiančius veiksnius. 3. Išanalizuoti ĮSA įgyvendinimo modelius. 4. Ištirti ekonominės krizės galimą poveikį įmonių socialinei atsakomybei. 5. Išanalizuoti ĮSA ekonominės krizės kontekste empirinį ištyrimo lygį Lietuvoje ir užsienio šalyse. 6. Išanalizuoti kaip ir kodėl kinta ĮSA praktika ekonominės krizės laikotarpiu. Atlikto empirino tyrimo rezultatai parodė, kad „Swedbank“ socialinė atsakomybė keitėsi ekonominės krizės laikotarpiu. Ekonominė krizė darė neigiamą įtaką „Swedbank“ socialinei atsakomybei, nes teko mažinti išlaidas... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / In recent years, more and more has been talked about corporate social responsibility (CSR) not only in the U.S., the European Union, but also in Lithuania. It is an inevitable need in today's business. When the economic crisis began, organizations started looking for new ways to compete, and CSR is one of those ways, because it improves not only the organization's image, employee’s loyalty and brand awareness, but also the efficiency and effectiveness. However, most companies only simulate the social responsibility by talking, rather than implementing long-term social responsibility strategies. On the other hand, the economic crisis prompted some companies to significantly reduce their level of responsibility. It is therefore important to determine whether a socially responsible company has implemented corporate social responsibility during the economic crisis and how it has changed during this period. The object of the research is corporate social responsibility. The tasks of the research: 1. To analyze the concept of corporate social responsibility. 2. To identify the determining factors of CSR. 3. To analyze the implementation of CSR models. 4. To analize the potential impact of the economic crisis for corporate social responsibility. 5. To analyze the level of empirical testing in Lithuania and foreign countries of the CSR in the context of economic crisis 6. To investigate how and why CSR practice has been changing during the economic crisis. Conducted empirical research... [to full text]

Abstract Title: ”A more humane and equal world” A consumers view on corporate social responsibility and the internet based apparel commerce. Author: Fanny Bergström & Isabelle Blanc Mentor: Emma Svensson Purpose: The purpose of this thesis was to examine the attitudes and experiences of consumers in relation to Internet based commerce and corporate social responsibility. The study is based on the following questions; 1. How do costumers perceive Internet based companies and their work with CSR-questions? 2. Is external communications, particularly social and environmental responsibility and transparency something that costumer’s request? And 3. Are there any differences between the different consumer groups’ opinions and attitudes on corporate social responsibility and sustainable development depending on their earlier experiences and understandings? Method/ Material: The results are based on a qualitative study built on four different focus group interviews. Each focus group consisted of five students studying at Uppsala University with either a main focus in sustainable development or any other subject. The interviews were constructed with the help of Krueger’s 1998 interview guide model and later vertically and horizontally analyzed. Main Results: The main results demonstrate that the interviewed consumers do not perceive that Internet based companies work with corporate social responsibility towards their costumers. Furthermore the results show that work with CSR is something that the participants find should be available for costumers, although other factors are of more value, for example price and product quality. The main results moreover demonstrate that there are significant differences between the two groups studied, where students with more knowledge about corporate social responsibility valued companies external communication on CSR more than students that did not have any previous knowledge. Number of Pages: 59 Course: Media and Communication studies C University: Division of Media and Communications, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University Term: Fall 2013 Keywords: Corporate social responsibility, consumption patterns, sustainable development, transparency, corporate abilities. / Sammanfattning   Denna studie syftar till att undersöka hur kunders attityder kring internetbaserad handel kopplat till corporate social responsibility (CSR) ser ut vid konsumtion av textil- och konfektionsvaror. Uppsatsen bygger på följande tre frågeställningar: Hur upplever konsumenterna de internetbaserade företagens arbete med CSR-frågor? Efterfrågas extern kommunikation gällande CSR-arbete samt transparens från konsumenterna? Finns det någon skillnad mellan olika konsumentgruppers åsikter och attityder beroende på tidigare erfarenheter och kunskapsgrad gällande CSR och hållbar utveckling?   Teorierna som använts behandlar transparens, intressenters påverkan och konsumtion. Undersökningen baseras på en kvalitativ studie som genomfördes med hjälp av fokusgruppsintervjuer. De fyra fokusgrupperna delades in i två kategorier; studenter som studerar hållbar utveckling eller miljö, respektive studenter med övrig studieinriktning.    Resultaten av undersökningen tyder på att det finns en skillnad mellan olika konsumentgruppers åsikter och attityder gällande företagens arbete med ansvarsfullt företagande. Konsumenterna värdesätter i de flesta fall företagens corporate abilities högre än dess arbete med CSR. Enligt våra resultat efterfrågar konsumenterna dessutom en högre grad transparens och ett CSR-arbete som integreras i hela företagets verksamhet. Respondenterna ser CSR som ett sätt för företagen att vinna marknadsandelar snarare än arbete för hållbar utveckling. Resultaten visar också att ju högre kunskaps- och intressegrad konsumenten uppvisar gällande CSR-frågor, desto större chans att konsumtionsmönstret förändras i och med information om företagens arbete med dessa frågor.   Nyckelord: Corporate social responsibility, konsumtionsmönster, corporate abilities, hållbar utveckling, transparens

Syftet med denna studie är att få större förståelse för hur ett företag med CSR-profil kommunicerar sina budskap och hur dessa tas emot av kund. Undersökningen ämnar söka svar på hur ett ”grönt” café externt gestaltar sin verksamhet samt om det påverkar kundernas val av café. Förhoppningen är att studien ska ge oss värdefull inblick kring hur CSR implementeras i denna typ av verksamhet. Hos det studerade caféet finner vi ett genomgående intresse att framkalla en känsla hos sina kunder genom att använda sig av värdeord som förknippas med positiva associationer. Studien visar att detta sätt att kommunicera på inte resulterar i att kunder väljer att besöka caféet för att det är “grönt”, samt att majoriteten upplever kommunikationen som otydlig.

While the mining industry provides numerous benefits to the society, it also has negative impacts on communities. This thesis will discuss various voluntary policies employed by mining companies and the developmental attempts at legislative changes to enforce mandatory regulations. The primary focus will be on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), in particular Bill C-300, which required “Corporate Accountability for the Activities of Mining, Oil or Gas Corporations in Developing Countries”. The Bill had effective key points to ensure that Canadian extractive companies followed human rights and environmental practices while operating overseas. Although the Bill was defeated, it is believed to be critical with respect to CSR. Moreover, Dodd-Frank, the 2010 United States legislation with similar provisions of CSR, will be discussed. The differences in the two will be elaborated to determine why Bill C-300 was rejected and answer whether it would have succeeded had the provisions been drafted similarly to Dodd-Frank.

While the mining industry provides numerous benefits to the society, it also has negative impacts on communities. This thesis will discuss various voluntary policies employed by mining companies and the developmental attempts at legislative changes to enforce mandatory regulations. The primary focus will be on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), in particular Bill C-300, which required “Corporate Accountability for the Activities of Mining, Oil or Gas Corporations in Developing Countries”. The Bill had effective key points to ensure that Canadian extractive companies followed human rights and environmental practices while operating overseas. Although the Bill was defeated, it is believed to be critical with respect to CSR. Moreover, Dodd-Frank, the 2010 United States legislation with similar provisions of CSR, will be discussed. The differences in the two will be elaborated to determine why Bill C-300 was rejected and answer whether it would have succeeded had the provisions been drafted similarly to Dodd-Frank.

This thesis is focused on case study research of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the Taiwanese OEM/ODM corporation Lite-On. Lite-On provides a representative sample of Taiwan’s key industry - the high-tech industry with OEM/ODM manufacturers supplying to global brands. The study has two objectives. The first objective is to introduce the CSR instruments currently used in electronics industry, with a special attention paid to their usage among Taiwanese companies. How successful is the implementation of CSR in the electronics supply chain? The second objective is to study the current status of CSR in Taiwan, while considering a wider context of business ethics and management practice in the Chinese communities. What factors shape the CSR in Taiwanese-invested corporations? After examining these objectives, the key research question of this study is to find out why Taiwanese companies facing harsh competition in the supply chain engage in implementation of corporate social responsibility programs. The thesis is divided into five chapters. First, theoretical concept of CSR and new role of multinational corporations in the global supply chain are introduced. The next chapter recounts the story of Lite-On corporation and its CSR practices, thereby offering a valuable micro-perspective on CSR in Taiwan. The study continues with analysis of legal and voluntary instruments that attempt to address the CSR issues. The final section portrays current status and understanding of CSR in Taiwan’s business community and draws on CSR challenges.

Sammanfattning  ”Corporate Social Responsibility – En kvalitativ studie kring hur lönsamhet påverkas av ett företags samhällsansvar.” Datum: 31 maj, 2013 Nivå: Kandidatuppsats i företagsekonomi, 15hp Institution: Akademin för ekonomi, samhälle och teknik, EST, Mälardalens Högskola Författare: Philip dos Santos Jadidi, Winny Giang & Bljerim Sokoli. Titel: Corporate Social Responsibility – En kvalitativ studie kring hur lönsamhet påverkas av ett företags samhällsansvar. Handledare: Jimmie Röndell Nyckelord: CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), Bostad AB Mimer, Relationer, Marknadsföring. Frågeställning: På vilket sätt är CSR lönsamt för Bostad AB Mimer? Syfte: Syftet är utvärdera hur Bostad AB Mimer arbetar med CSR inom olika verksamhetsområden för att uppnå sina kärnvärden (omtanke, nytänkande och engagemang). Metod: En kvalitativ studie baserad sju genomförda intervjuer med Bostad AB Mimers anställda och andra intressenter. Intervjuerna operationaliserades med de teorier som inhämtats från bland annat Google Scholar och LUB search, för att införskaffa god empirisk data för vidare analys och slutsats. Slutsats: De slutsatser som framkommit är att Bostad AB Mimer aktivt arbetar med CSR som genomsyrar hela deras verksamhet med medarbetare som brinner för deras arbete. Företaget tar samhällsansvar genom sina verksamhetsområden som bland annat Jobbpunkt Väst, Gröna Mimer och GrannNet. Bostad AB Mimer arbetar mycket med sociala, miljö och hållbarhetsfrågor samt olika ansvarstagande för att framstå som goda samhällsmedborgare. Deras kärnvärden (ONE) ska finnas i medarbetarnas medvetande när de utför sitt arbete. De olika kärnvärden som är implementerade i Bostad AB Mimers CSR-arbeten bidrar till ökad lönsamhet på längre sikt för företaget.

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This paper will from a managerial perspective investigate the function of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) as a strategic tool for companies operating in Indonesia.Another aspect this paper will discuss is different views on CSR and what positive aswell as negative aspects CSR brings. The country was first in the world to state a lawregarding CSR performance in 2007, which makes CSR mandatory for all companiesusing natural resources in some way. This issue complicates CSR matters in Indonesiasince the law is vague regarding what is considered as a natural resource. Furthermore,this paper will display how companies using CSR relate themselves totheir stakeholders and in what way they operate in order to fulfil and satisfy differentstakeholders’ needs and demands. It will also discuss which stakeholder is consideredto be the most important and influential regarding a company’s CSR activities.Findings in this thesis show that CSR among companies is used as a strategy in orderto gain legitimacy from the society to be able to do business and operate in theseareas. Further, using CSR will create competitive advantages towards non-users anda company will increase its reputation as well as image.

This research responds to calls for the establishment of an overriding rationale, or raison d'être, for public relations practice. Several scholars are suggesting that the construct of legitimacy provides an overarching rationale that would link public relations practice across organisations, industries and countries (Boyd, 2000; Massey, 2001; Metzler, 1995, 2001; van Ruler & Vercic, 2005; Vercic, van Ruler, Butschi, & Flodin, 2001). However, existing public relations studies using legitimacy have focused on the communicative aspects, with little emphasis on long term and societal level effects for organisations. In seeking to accommodate these challenges, the central research question of this thesis is: Does legitimacy provide a rationale for public relations practice, and if so, in what ways? This study draws on institutional theory, with its central imperative of legitimacy, to address this question. Institutional theory considers the relationship between organisations and environments from a social constructionist perspective. Institutions created through the social construction of reality are based on shared, rational myths of legitimacy which drive organisational and social action, and with which organisations need to demonstrate compliance through their organisational ceremonies or practices. These two central contributors to legitimacy -- rational myths and ceremonies -- provide the framework guiding the study. The study was conducted around issues about the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of the four major Australian banks. In order to consider relationships between public relations practice and legitimacy as an institutional concept, Giddens' theory of structuration is used as a theoretical apparatus to straddle the rational myths of legitimacy at the level of institution, with public relations practice related to ceremonies at the level of action. 'Structuring moments' identified in media coverage provide sites of microanalysis of the intense social construction of rational myths of legitimacy that include organisations and publics. Through these theoretical devices, a number of guiding research questions shape the study: RQ i): What is learned about the social construction of rational myths about legitimacy by studying media coverage about CSR in Australian banking? RQ ii): What is learned about legitimacy by studying public relations practices in relation to media coverage about CSR in Australia banking? A longitudinal, qualitative, case study approach was taken to explore the research questions in this study. As legitimacy was viewed as a process of ongoing social construction, a temporal bracketing strategy (Langley, 1999) was used to examine the relationships between the level of institution and of action over the six year period of the study. Media coverage, annual and social impact reports, and interviews were used as sources of data to examine the institutionalisation of corporate social responsibility in the Australian banking industry. The findings of the study show that there is a dynamic relationship between public relations and legitimacy at both theoretical and practical levels. Through the duality of structure lens, theoretically public relations can be conceived as agency and legitimacy as structure. The influence of these two dynamically interrelated levels of agency and structure is both constituted by human agency and is the medium of the institutions (Sewell, 1992). Public relations practices, therefore, can be seen as human agency that both shapes and is shaped by legitimacy. If legitimacy represents a dominant concept of organisational success, it is also a rationale for public relations practice as an act of human agency that seeks to create alignment between organisations and publics in their environment. As such, public relations practices are not just activities. Rather, public relations practices constitute a central resource that organisations can access to exert power to create and manage their legitimacy within the broader environment. Public relations practices, therefore, are resources because they are embedded within the deep structures of society that influence organisational practice, but also are actions that allow the organisation to shape those structural arrangements. This process takes place within webs of communication and relationships between organisations and publics that form institutionalised legitimacy. This study also found that public relations practice is a balance between the demands of time and space. The traditional focus of public relations studies has been on incidents of compressed time and space, such as crises and campaigns. This study suggests that expanded periods of time and space are also integral to how and why public relations make a contribution as, over time, there were shifts to the institutional arrangements that guide public relations practices. This suggests that there is a compression of time and space as organisations and publics communicate in their relationship and an expansion of time and space to shift frames of social structures and legitimacy. It is through this juxtaposition of time and space, and across dual levels of structure, that legitimacy provides a rationale for public relations practices. The conclusions of this research make a major contribution to public relations theory by building a model for considering how legitimacy provides a raison d'être for public relations practices. As such, the model developed in this research provides a theoretical framework of how public relations practices contribute to organisational legitimacy at a societal level. The study also provides deeper insights to the role of public relations practices in managing organisational legitimacy at the level of action. In doing so, it addresses theoretical and methodological issues of the conflation of publics and environment. A number of opportunities for further research are presented by this study in understanding drivers of public relations practices and the role of inspection forums in processes of legitimacy. For practice, there are implications of taking a longer term perspective to considering the role of public relations practices, its impact on organisational success and, therefore, how it is evaluated.