Corporate social responsibility has become a popular topic used throughout society. However, the topic of the employee perspective in CSR is rarely studied and even less studied is the impact CSR has on the IT industry. An industry currently facing a challenge where the demand for labor is higher than the supply due to its rapid growth. With characteristics of high, intense work that easily results in burn-out, the importance of CSR in this industry is crucial for survival. Additionally, through the use of CSR IT companies have the opportunity to stand out from their competitors and gain competitive advantages, such as attracting high-quality employees in the labor market. Therefore, the thesis will research to what extent IT companies in Sweden use the employee perspective in CSR in their operations, and the influence competition has on this decision to implement CSR. This resulted in the following research question:  How does corporate social responsibility initiatives towards employees affect the IT companies’ position and competitive advantages on the labor market?  To answer this research question, a qualitative study was conducted with employees from various medium to large-sized IT companies in Sweden. They were interviewed regarding their view of the company’s CSR for employees as well as their competitors, and how it affected them. The goal of the study was to understand if there is a correlation between competition in the labor market and the IT companies’ CSR for employees and its impact on the employees. To achieve this, stakeholder theory was used to analyze and draw comparisons to the results from the study. The main findings show that a correlation is present and that employees wish for further developed CSR practices for employees which are uniquely adapted to the company. It was also shown that CSR for employees could lead to competitive advantages in the labor market depending on the company’s execution of CSR for employees. Where competitive advantages can be financial gain while competitive disadvantages can be employee attrition. The results of the thesis are presented through a conceptual model that shows how employees’ perception of the IT company’s CSR is linked to the company’s position in the labor market. The implications of this thesis are many as it supports and extends previous research in the area of CSR and stakeholder theory. Furthermore, it can assist companies and managers to further develop their strategies with well-implemented and communicated CSR activities for employees. Additionally, the study opens the possibility for further research into specific areas in the IT industry and their relation to the employee perspective in CSR, as well as investigate what the size of the company has on its CSR practices for employees.

The research on natives’ attitudes regarding immigration has increased during the past decades. The overall findings question the common theory of labor market competition and that native attitudes are affected by personal economic considerations. In the same time an increased concern in the political debate has become immigration. In many countries, there is a growth and progress of political parties with a far-right orientation that disapproves and attempts to prevent immigration. We examine data on attitudes towards immigration from eight rounds of the European social survey (ESS) which covers the years between 2002-2016. We study if the attitudes in Europe towards immigration from poor non-member countries of the European Union have changed during the 21th century and examine if the massive acceleration of refugee applications during the refugee crisis in 2015 has had an impact on the attitudes towards immigration. We estimate different models to examine how different factors are associated with individuals' attitudes towards immigration. Furthermore, we test if the labor market competition model holds for the seventh round of ESS due to limitation in data. We find that natives’ attitudes have not become worse in Europe, and that the refugee crisis in 2015 has not made the attitudes worse. We find that the factors that are associated with individual attitudes towards immigration are to a large degree connected with cultural values and beliefs, and that individuals with more years of schooling are more likely to favor immigration regardless of where the immigrants come from. These findings are consistent with the growing body of empirical findings that considers that cultural values and believes are the main drivers of attitudes towards immigration, and that actual effects of immigration on income and employment are quite small. These findings put the labor market competition premise in forming immigration attitudes into question.

The EU is faced with problems related to the unrestricted access to national welfare states of mobile EU workers. These problems are mainly framed by the growing opposition to the free movement of workers. The strongest contributing factor to these negative attitudes has commonly said to be actor-based, i.e. the media or political elites. However, more recent research has been shifting the focus to institutions as explanatory factor. I raise the question of to what extent individuals’ attitudes towards the free movement of workers are associated with their exposure to different welfare state institutional contexts. More specifically I explore the role of “earnings-relatedness” in specific social insurances for the attitudes of potential benefit claimants. Analyzing 12 EU/EFTA countries who are net receivers of mobile EU workers I find that in welfare state contexts with a high degree of earnings-relatedness the opposition to free movement is significantly lower than otherwise among the unemployed. Furthermore, I discover that these observations seem to vary depending on what part of the social insurance system one is analyzing.