The simplicity of the Environmental Kuznets (EKC) curve concept motivated this study of the relationships between environmental, economic and social indicators at the country, city/regional and manufacturing facility scale. The study builds on almost 20 years of research on the EKC, which has shown conflicting results for confirmation of the EKC hypothesis that the environment first degrades, then improves, with increasing economic wealth. Most EKC studies use country-scale income or GDP as the primary economic indicator of interest; this study experiments with city/regional GDP at the local scale and a country-scale "market maturity" indicator commonly used by the corporation studied. The manufacturing facility scale analysis is new territory in the EKC literature. Firm-scale studies in the past have been just that, evaluating firm environmental performance across a specific industry. This effort evaluates manufacturing facility performance within the same firm across a set of 21 countries of interest to the corporation. This study is unique in a few other ways. Including multiple scales in the same study is not common in the EKC literature. Typically, a study would focus on one or a few indicators at one specific scale. The actual environmental and social outcome variables used here are also somewhat unique. Generally speaking, the results reported here will fall into the "mixed" bucket relative to the 20 years of existing EKC literature; however, a possible research platform is established based on the possible nesting of multiple scales within the same research effort.

<p>The aim of this study is to investigate what factors are important when implementing cause-related marketing within the Swedish fashion retail market, in order to change the purchase intention of customers. Cause-related marketing (CRM) is a widely used marketing tool within the Swedish fashion industry. There has been an increasing trend of using cause-related marketing as part of corporate social responsibility strategy. Companies increasingly believe that associating their corporate identity with good causes can be an effective marketing tool. There is limited research about CRM with a bearing on the Swedish market and the fashion industry. This has given the authors an interesting field for research and analysis.</p><p>A quantitative method was used to collect primary data. A survey was conducted among customers of H&M, Lindex, Mango and Indiska. These companies were chosen after the observation of a large amount of Swedish based fashion retailers and their involvement within CRM. The results indicate that there is a link between cause-related marketing and customer purchase intentions. CRM campaigns have positive effects on customers by increasing their purchase intentions. Marketing communication, price, customer attitude and fit are important factors that affect the purchase of CRM products. A further investigation can be useful for companies and researchers in the field of marketing strategies.</p>

<p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p>

<p>Introduction: The society is becoming more aware of the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) work. CSR has also be-come a competitive tool in order to reach out to potential cus-tomers. There are also many definitions of what CSR actually means. These are things that makes it interesting to find out how multinational corporations, who has a lot of power, per-ceive and work with CSR, as well as what can be done to make corporations work more with CSR.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe what CSR as a con-cept means, whose responsibility it is, as well as why corpora-tions work with it. We also intend to find out what it takes to make CSR a more prevailing and decisive instrument for cor-porations?</p><p>Method: We conducted six unstructed interviews with multinational corporations in Sweden.</p><p>Conclusion: Today the phenomena of CSR has no unified definition, this is why we believe that a definition that is precise in describing what CSR is can be useful. We think that transparency is something important since information provided to the pub-lic, provides consumers and stakeholders with power to make information based investment, and purchase decisions. We have also concluded that we think that the most important factor in driving the CSR work forward and making it grow in size, is to make consumers reward the corporations that per-form well in their CSR activities.</p>

<p>Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) prevail in their business communities and constitute the base of many nations’ economies. As a reason it is vital that SMEs show their active engagement and relatedness of their CSR activities making them at the core of their business strategies, as well as maintain their role as responsible citizens in their communities.CSR activities and practices being mainly developed by large corporations impede the way they can be applied on their smaller counterparts; ultimately leading to different results. SMEs require different solutions and run in different settings, which afford them unique opportunities to become sustainable enterprises. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the level of CSR engagement in Småland, Sweden. The study was divided into two parts, social (community wise) and environmental. We aimed to understand the reasons behind engagement and non-engagement in this matter. Also, it was important to find a pattern for future development of CSR among SMEs. We relied on previous research conducted for SMEs around Europe, and compared mainly the results from Sweden to our research findings.</p><p>This study was largely done by using the quantitative survey method, where a questionnaire was designed to collect the results. Descriptive and exploratory statistics is at the core of interpreting the results. Some of the findings were confirmed by previous research while the rest were either unprecendeted or surprising, both in a positive and negative way. The CSR involvement was highly related to the size of the companies, in total more than half of the companies were involved to some extent. The main reasons for involvement in local communities were ethical as well as to satisfy own employees. The reasons for non-engagement were due to lack of resources, time and money, but also the fact that many companies simply never thought about engagement. When it comes to the environmental part, the results showed that companies act very responsibly. They are also aware and compliant to legislations and have environmental policies. Again, ethical reasons were the main driving force behind environmental concerns for the companies, but also the enhancement of the image was a chief reason. In general, companies do not seem to find economical benefits behind the engagement in CSR and less than half of the companies that engage in social responsibilities today are planning on continuing in the near future. Social involvement is voluntary and companies choose to do it mainly because of ethical reasons. On an overall basis, the engagement of SMEs in social activities is quite weak to moderate, while in environmental engagement the results are to some extent more optimistic. However, we cannot allege that a handful of Smålands SMEs see the full business benefits of engagement and as a result they cannot be said to be working towards ‘doing well by doing good’. Policy makers, municipalities and larger firms need to support the SMEs in their further engagement.</p>

<p><strong> ABSTRACT</strong></p><p><strong> </strong>Niger Delta of Nigeria is a region characterized with conflict commonly conceptualized as ‘‘petro-violence’’. This violence  between Shell and its host communities has lasted over four decades. While the activities of Shell and other oil companies destroy the ecology of the region , the oil producing communities demand improved explorative and exploitative activities of the companies, improved welfare for the people and compensation for the harm done to the ecology of the region. This work examines whether Shell can really be blamed for contributing to the conflict in the region and whether it is morally permissible for Business Corporation like Shell to engage in Corporate Social Responsibility.</p><p> </p>

<h1>Abstract</h1><p><strong>Title:</strong> Implementing CSR in Supply Chains</p><p><strong>Authors:</strong> Emmy Johansson and Stina Olén; <strong>Supervisor:</strong> Glenn Sjöstrand</p><p><strong>Date of submission:</strong> May 30, 2009</p><p> </p><p>For decades there has been a debate about the environmental and social responsibilities of companies. The work conducted by corporations to meet the increasing demands from wider society to take responsibility is all summed up in the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Pressured to take responsibility also in the supply chains of their businesses, the corporations have increasingly integrated suppliers in their CSR strategies.</p><p> </p><p>In this thesis the obstacles and possibilities with implementing CSR in supply chains are assessed, through a case study. The thesis is written on commission by a large Swedish industrial company that is working with implementing its CSR strategy in its supplier evaluations, and through using a theoretical framework based on institutional theory and CSR theory that implementing process is studied. Having understood that the process is affected by the norms, values et cetera that are inherent in the company, the aims of this thesis have been to understand and explain how the institutional embeddedness affects the implementation of the company’s CSR strategy in its supplier evaluations.</p><p> </p><p>The thesis applies qualitative research methods with emphasis on primary sources. The main empirical data was gathered through ten interviews with employees at different levels in the company, but corporate documents with relevance for the implementation were also studied.</p><p> </p><p>The results of this study indicate that the institutional embeddedness affects the implementation of the CSR strategy in supplier evaluations both positively and negatively. Firstly, it makes the reactive approach of the company, the unclear objectives and guidelines, the lack of commitment from the managers, and the lack of cooperation appear problematic for the implementation. Secondly, we conclude that the institutional embeddedness creates opportunities for an improved implementing process, as there are elements in the institutional identity that correspond with the strategy, but also that there are individual actors with much institutional resources that have potential to change the institution and create commitment towards the implementation.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> corporate social responsibility, supplier evaluations, implementing strategy, institutional theory, institutional embeddedness</p>

<p>There is a growing awareness that multinational companies have opportunities to influence political conditions. Ethical activities made by multinational companies and “Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR) can therefore function as a positive input in society. The primary purpose of this master thesis is to investigate CSR´s contribution to strengthen human rights, and thereby to democratization. The research questions are listed below:</p><p>1. How can the CSR-phenomenon be analyzed in relation to constructivism, legitimacy and democratization through external pressure and civil society?</p><p>2. What initiatives have been undertaken by nonstate- and intergovernmental actors for companies´ implementation of human rights?</p><p>3. How can CSR-principles be organized in future?</p><p>4. How can the CSR-phenomenon be exemplified and related to current human rights-issues in the case of Russia?</p><p>The theoretical approach represents a somewhat untraditional view on democratization and its origins. Multinational companies are traditionally not analyzed as strengtheners of human rights. The theoretical framework of this thesis is developed from theories of constructivism, legitimacy and democratization through external pressure and civil society and aims to be a tool in analyzing CSR´s contribution to democratization.</p><p>The study builds on primary as well as secondary sources, and the method is of a qualitative character. The explorative and descriptive nature of the study can shape a ground for further research, perspectives, and debates on CSR and democratization. The case of Russia gives a concrete exemplification of CSR. An analytical instrument is developed to summarize and illustrate how CSR can be studied.</p><p>The results of the study give an analytical approach to CSR´s contribution to strengthen the situation for human rights in states. The analytical framework was useful to make an analytical description of important aspects regarding the phenomenon. There are limitations in showing correlations in real empirical effects. As a consequence, the study shows its strength in the theoretical debate. On the other hand, the empirical results show that CSR could contribute to development and improvements in human rights-related issues in general and in Russia.</p>

Issues in production processes in the fashion industry are highly topical as recentscandals covered by the media show. However, these scandals rather involved multinationalcompanies than small and medium-sized enterprises. This study investigates, how small andmedium-sized fashion enterprises source their material ethically and implement a CSRstrategy by introducing of a code of conduct. Motives and challenges for implementing codeswill be discussed as well as possible solutions.Data was collected by conducting four semi-structured interviews with three fashion retailersand a multi-stakeholder organisation in the textile industry. In addition, documents includingsustainability reports were analysed. Results show that the motives for introducing codes ofconduct are closely linked to the company’s definition of CSR. External pressure contributedto the introduction, however, the main motivation was based on internal decisions of thecompanies. Main challenges of implementing a code of conduct included handling thecomplexity of the fashion supply chain, effective monitoring of compliance as well as culturaldifferences between suppliers and buying brands. Meeting these challenges included theinvolvement of workers, and additional measures as the introduction of complaintsmechanisms.

Studien ämnar undersöka hur intressentdialogen initieras och vad som sker mellan ett vinstdrivande företag och ideella organisationer, även kallade NGOs. Företag har idag en stor påverkan på samhället, där NGOs är en av företagens viktigaste intressenter. NGOs kan utöva påverkan på företag genom dialoger och företagen kan med framgång ta hjälp av NGOs i arbetet med ansvar- och hållbarhetsfrågor, även benämnt som CSR. Med utgångspunkt i teorin om intressenter och Triple Bottom Line visar studien, via tre olika intressentdialoger, hur dialogen initieras, vad syftet är samt vilka frågor som diskuteras. Vidare identifieras vilka frågor det råder konsensus och i vilka det kan uppstå konflikter. Genom en intervjustudie med representanter från sex organisationer, framkommer det att det råder till stor del konsensus. Det har sin förklaring i syftet med dialogen, den transparens som föreligger och en ökad medvetenhet hos företagen. De frågor där det uppkommer konflikter har bland annat berört finansiella kunskaper hos NGOs, riktning av donerade pengar och praktiskt arbete med projekt.