Todays’ consumer society has forced companies to work towards a sustainable society. Consumers consider a company’s work with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as necessary and expect companies to work ethically. However, fast fashion consumers’ also demand a low price and rapid changes in trends. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to understand fast fashion consumers’ attitude towards, and the importance of, companies working with CSR. By conducting a questionnaire on Cubus’ customers in Uppsala, information has been gained in order to investigate this phenomenon. The results show that the majority of the respondents have a positive attitude towards CSR, but were not a deciding factor when shopping at Cubus. From this study, we can draw the conclusions that even though the majority of the respondents had a positive attitude towards CSR, other factors were of greater importance. This validates the phenomenon about fast fashion customers’ demand for a low price and fast changing trends.

The Link REITs is the most renowned, world-wide real estate investment trust in Hong Kong since 25 November 2005. Yet, the performance of The Link REIT is controversial under the management of The Link Management Limited (“The Link”). The excellence financial performance of The Link is well known, but the non-financial performance is uncertain. While The Link has adopted a sustainability framework for sustainability management, the three key concepts including i) CSR, ii) sustainability and iii) the building of reputational capital will be integrated into one as a prism for analysis. “Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”) is simply part of the scope under the concept of sustainability and the notion of building reputational capital is ingrained in various theories in relations to CSR and sustainability. Business that operates to comply with economic and legal responsibilities can be asserted to survive. Together with its compliance with the ethical and philanthropic responsibilities, a company could enjoy increasing competitiveness by gaining consumer confidence over a long term. The Link has been experiencing changes in its moral system prior to its personnel change upon these years. Start from the individual level, CEO of The Link disseminated his espoused ethical values to the organizational and then to the societal level. The moral system will be examined; barriers against the dissemination of ethical practice will be addressed. Upon The Link’s behavioural change in its ethical practice, a reputation audit which is also known as perception test will be used to test if there are perception gaps exists in between levels of the dissemination. Contrasting the existing state of The Link’s ethical performance with the desired state wanted by The Link’s key constituencies, this would help to address the perception gaps. Whether these perception gaps are opportunities to improve or challenges to overcome, it is important information for The Link to further develop and to gauge its sustainability management strategy. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

There is growing evidence that a vast majority of CEO’s believe that sustainability-related issues are having or will soon have a material impact on their firms. Nearly all of the academic literature on the firm level impacts of corporate social performance (CSP) has focused on looking for a universally positive or negative effect of CSP on corporate financial performance (CFP). Recent literature in the CSP domain, however, has presented two questions that have been under-researched with respect to CSP by firms: 1) What are the processes and motivations that underlie the inclusion of CSP in firm strategic decisions? and 2) Why do some firms generate different market returns from their CSP? The present research consists of two studies that focus on developing an understanding of these two questions. The first study uses a Contingency Theory approach and proposes that several organizational, market, customer, environmental and competitive characteristics of a firm predict a firm’s level of CSP. Findings based on a longitudinal, multi-industry sample of 447 firms over the period from 2000 to 2007 show that firms that have a corporate branding strategy, serve consumer markets, and have a greater degree of globalization have higher levels of CSP. Finally, this study also finds that higher levels of CSP relative to a firm’s industry result in higher levels of firm intangible value (Tobin’s q). The second study examines the following: 1) Does CSP history moderate the relationship between CSP and CFP? and 2) Is there a CSR Black Hole with respect to a firm’s history of negative behaviors? That is, does past negative social performance of the firm negate potential benefits from current period changes in positive social performance? Using the Flow Signals framework proposed by Dekinder and Kohli (2008), this study finds that a (1) history of growth in negative CSP, (2) trend toward increasing negative CSP, or (3) more inconsistent history of positive or negative CSP (reversals) decrease the returns to positive social performance. This study also finds evidence of a CSR Black Hole, but show that firms may be able to exit this by consistently managing their social performance over time. / text

The benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility (or CSR, for short) have long been debated among corporations. The debate is a legitimate one as the decision where to invest money is always a difficult one. Should the money be put towards marketing to better brand your company? Should it be invested in infrastructure to improve the efficiency of the company and better position it for the future? Or should it be invested back into the community in which the customers live? This professional report will detail and analyze a number of company initiatives that are currently going on or that have taken place in the past in the name of Corporate Social Responsibility. My intentions are to look at these CSR programs through the lens of ROI and, more specifically, profitability. / text

Corporate social responsibility is a widely discussed concept in today’s business, with different perceptions as well as explanations regarding the meaning and impact of the concept. Organizations are becoming more aware of the concept as well as their responsibilities to the society, which in turn results in organizations devoting more resources into CSR related activities. Nowadays, it is significant to establish a proper CSR performance while also having a solid financial foundation in order to reach a long-term sustainable success. The purpose of this study is to describe how CSR is connected to firm performance, in terms of market share and market growth. While a growing number of studies have been made regarding investigating CSR and its various dimensions, it is still unclear what the underlying factors that tie the relationship together are. This purpose was tested on a company in southern Sweden; this company Emballator Lagan Plast (ELP) produces plastic packaging solutions for a number of industries. Alongside the literature research, a case study with semi-structured interviews was conducted at ELP in order to collect data needed to answer the purpose and research questions. One of the essential findings of the study revealed from the literature, which was also proven in the case study, was that CSR is a fundamental element in an organization and it should be implemented throughout the entire organization to gain maximum effect. Moreover, the findings indicate that CSR has a positive impact on ELP’s performance. Even though the relationship is not direct, it still exists through mediating roles, and it has played an important role in the company’s growth and success. Keywords:Corporate social responsibility, firm performance, stakeholders.

In my dissertation, I experimentally examine whether and how the reporting model a firm uses to guide its corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures can influence managers’ capital allocation decisions. Chapter 1 provides an overview of my research question, why this research question is important, what I predict I will find, and the main results of my experiment. In Chapter 2, I briefly review the CSR literature generally and in accounting specifically, touching particularly on what has catalyzed the recent growth in CSR disclosure, how it influences behavior, and the emerging role of CSR reporting models as well as differences among these models. Two key features that differ among available reporting models are the intended users of the disclosures (e.g., capital providers or all stakeholders) and the disclosure location (e.g., MD&A or Sustainability Report). In Chapter 3, I draw upon research in social psychology on the social contingency model to hypothesize that differences in the intended users and the disclosure location jointly influence the extent to which managers’ capital allocations are weighted toward financial versus social benefits. I also hypothesize that this influence is mediated by how accountable managers feel for financial and social performance. Chapter 4 outlines the experimental design and method I use to test my hypotheses. The results of my experiment and related statistical analyses are reported in Chapters 5 and 6, in which I find support for my predictions across two different participant populations I use as proxies for managers. Specifically, I find that participants allocate capital to social benefits across all conditions, but that their overall allocations are largely driven by financial considerations. That is, they weight financial benefits more heavily than social benefits. However, when the reporting model disconnects CSR disclosure from a more traditional financial reporting setting (i.e., when the CSR disclosures are made to all stakeholders in a Sustainability Report), participants’ weight on financial benefits is reduced. In addition, I find that these results are driven by changes in perceived accountability for both financial and social performance. I also find evidence that the influence of the CSR disclosure location is contingent on whether the disclosure audience’s preferences are perceived to uniformly favor financial benefits. Chapter 7 concludes and reiterates the important implications of my dissertation. Namely, the results of my study help inform standard setters, regulators, stakeholders, and managers about the consequences of alternative CSR reporting models and highlight the potential effects of CSR disclosure standards on stakeholder welfare.

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Corporate Citizenship, Corporate Social Responsibility, socialt ansvarstagande, hållbarhet

With the rise of Internet and a changing social environment corporations legitimacy has been questioned (see Palazzo and Scherer, 2006). Frauds and scandals, both financial and environmental has put pressure on corporations to communicate their business operations and increase transperancy. Food retail inSweden have had several crises, the most recent the so called horesemeat scandal. This study starts in a literature review and describes some theories in CSR and legitimacy. The aim of the study is to investigate how consistent corporate communication is in regard to legitimacy. A framework adapted from Castello and Lozano(2011) was used to perform a content analysis. CEO statements and sustainability policies has been studied from three Swedish food retailers, Axfood, Coop and ICA. The study argues that there is a high degree of inconsistency in corporate communication when these two documents are analysed. This might indicate that sustainable development has not entered the board rooms in effect. It also indicates that while CEO’s are communicating pragmatic and institutional legitiamacy, the sustainability policies are moving into moral legitimacy.

No description available.