The Critical State Of Corporate Social Responsibility In Europe

This edited volume aims at exploring the uniqueness and complexity of European CSR approaches, perspectives, and practices through a critical lens.

This edited volume aims at exploring the uniqueness and complexity of European CSR approaches, perspectives, and practices through a critical lens.

This book explores the current state of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in 24 European nations, examining the state of the development and practice of CSR and sustainability for organizations in these countries. The common denominator for all of the book’s 25 chapters is a management perspective rather than an ethical discourse. The book therefore represents a comprehensive survey of initiatives and activities in the field of CSR and provides a wealth of complete cases and examples for different approaches to sustainable and responsible management practice. The book also reviews the relevant political and governmental guidelines and frameworks for organizations, both on a national and a European level. Europe has taken a leading role in the promotion and implementation of CSR. This book showcases how, through CSR, enterprises can significantly contribute to achieving the European Union’s treaty objectives of sustainable development and a highly competitive social market economy.

The acid test of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is simply this: does it lead to positive impacts on society and the environment or is it just rhetoric? And if it does lead to positive impacts, how can these be enhanced? This timely book tackles this cutting-edge challenge by presenting empirical findings from a range of surveys and in-depth case studies. These build on a new methodological and theoretical framework for assessing and explaining the sustainability impact of CSR. For selected sustainability issues mitigation of climate change and chemical risk, resource management in marine fisheries, promotion of gender equality and countering of bribery and within different European industries, the authors show that the rhetoric of CSR is still stronger than its reality. They do so by investigating into CSR practices which encompass the creation of a vision on CSR, its strategic and operative implementation and its organisational and cultural embedding within companies and their supply chains. The authors conclude that the reality of CSR is strong enough to allow for some rhetoric. They name intra- and extra-company success factors for, and limits of, producing sustainability impacts through CSR. Finally, they discuss its contribution to achieving public policy goals and the governance paradigms that are necessary to make CSR effective. The volume successfully combines a business and public policy perspective, based on an interdisciplinary approach. This book will be invaluable for both students and researchers interested in the effects of CSR, and will prove a useful tool for policy-makers and CSR practitioners alike.

More recent incidents and scandals such as Sweatshops by different sports equipment and electronic devices producers and finally the financial crisis which made the headlines among many others, which did not make it to the front page, have forced companies to consider CSR way more than in the past. But also other issues such as climate change and global warming, human rights situation and terrorism affect how companies conduct their strategies and operational practices today. Almost every large corporation in the western world makes some effort to communicate how it is committed to social issues that lie beyond its basic profit objectives – even in controversial industries such as the tobacco and petroleum industry. The industries claim to produce healthier food more fuel-efficient vehicles, conserve energy and other resources in their operations to make the world a better place. CSR often begins to be wishful thinking to hide the true face of a business. Doubtless what has come to be called responsibility of companies for ecological and social issues besides economic issues is now a sales and branding instrument for many companies. Hence, numerous other companies, also small and medium sized companies are currently asking themselves the questions: Shall we also invest in CSR initiatives? Why should we do that – just to do something? Is this still an instrument to gain a competitive advantage? Especially the last question implies the question, if consumers still believe in the basic idea of CSR initiatives, or with the overload of CSR initiatives, if they even show reactance and mistrust against such issues.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become an increasingly important topic in our global society. Corporate Social Responsibility Across Europe is the first volume of its kind to bring together twenty-three national perspectives on this issue. Thirty-seven European researchers worked on the book, which provides a comprehensive and structured survey of CSR developments and progress at national levels. An overview and analysis is provided for each country. Topics addressed include business and societal mindsets in the different cultural settings, national drivers for the current development of CSR, and prospects for the individual countries in the future. Furthermore it contains three comprehensive pan-European analyses. The chapters also contain practical information and references to the Internet as well as relevant literature in order to support further research and stimulate business activities in this field. The result is a rather unique collection of essays on the topic of CSR across Europe.

This collection brings together leading scholarly thinking to understand why CSR failed to prevent the global financial crisis, how corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) contributed to the financial crisis, and how we may reframe CSR or improve CSR frameworks to help prevent or mitigate any future financial and economic crises.

The sector-specific approach to Corporate Responsibility (CR) has attracted little attention so far, although the industrial sector is a key variable in any company's economic environment. Therefore, this book introduces sector-specific CR as a way to increase the success and impact of business engagement. It focuses on sector-specific initiatives with government involvement as appropriate governance mechanisms to address sustainability challenges through public-private collaboration. What is the state of sector-specific CR across Europe? How do sector-specific initiatives work and what are criteria for their good performance? What roles do governments play in such initiatives? To answer these questions, the book draws on rich empirical evidence from five industries across eight European countries as well as on the expertise of numerous CR and industry experts. In doing so, its target audience is both researchers and practitioners. Academics will find a starting point for further research in this emerging field, whereas practitioners are offered empirical and effective models for promoting sector-specific CR.