The competitive situation for businesses has experienced drastical changes as an effectof globalization and changes in consumer demands. Product related competitive advantages arerisking to quickly become presumptions for competition. The demand for increased innovationpace, along with the intense price competition, has led to buisnesses trying to find new ways todifferentiate themselves and Corporate Social Responsibility has became one way of doing so.The bad working conditions associated with the textile industry have rised a debate about thebusinesses? Corporate Social Responsibility. The future is heading towards more and morecompanies choosing to take their social responsibility, many of those experiencing this to be anadvandage in the relation with the consumers.

Företag som upprättar så kallade hållbarhetsredovisningar har blivit allt vanligare. Dock råder det inom forskningen på området en oenighet om vad hållbarhetsredovisning egentligen är. En mängd olika begrepp används om vartannat och några klara definitioner finns inte fastlagda. Syftet med denna studie är därför att göra en kartläggning av de olika begrepp som används inom den globala, akademiska hållbarhetsredovisningslitteraturen för att utreda innebörden av dessa begrepp samt för att utreda hur dessa begrepp förhåller sig till varandra. Studien genomförs med hjälp av en litteraturstudie där 12 artiklar väljs ut genom ett intensitetsurval och sedan analyseras och jämförs med varandra.

Corporate Social ResponsibilityThis thesis intends to exam the strategic use of Corporate Social Responsibility within fifthteen different companies, classified/divided into three various industries. The aim is to compare the three different industries, to look for disparities and similarities in their use of CSR. The disseration looks into both variance and resemblance in the use of Corporate Social Responsibility between the companies within the same branch of trade and between the industries.The industries of intrestThe three industries that the study has focus on is consumer, manufacturing and service related industries. Where the consumer industry is classified as companies with direct sales towards private consumers, the physical citizen. The manufacturing industry is classified as companies that manufacture products but that does´nt sell their products directly to the regular consumer.

Large corporations have come to play a central role in today?s society. By analyzing how corporations describe their work with Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, my aim is to review how they view and relate to this role. CSR means that a corporation voluntarily takes a civic responsibility beyond that which is required by law. This can be in order to promote human rights, basic workers rights and a better environment, as well as fighting corruption.In order to get at the role played by CSR, I have studied texts dealing with the subject, which have been published on the internet by the five largest Swedish corporations.

In recent decades, demands has emerged that the companies shall take a greater social responsibility for the impact that they have on their environment and that this impact shall be reported, which is known as Sustainability Reporting. The Sustainability Report is based on a number of general principles that ensure the content and the quality of the Sustainability Report. One of these principles is the principle of completeness. In the research, this principle seems to have been interpreted in terms of number of reported aspects and indicators, which can be a limited view where only the existence of the aspects and indicators is observed. By including the degree of the reporting in terms of full, partial and no reporting as well as a comparison between the real and the alleged reporting, our intention is to extend the principle of completeness and to develop a tool that we also apply through an empirical survey in a particular area.

In recent decades, demands has emerged that the companies shall take a greater social responsibility for the impact that they have on their environment and that this impact shall be reported, which is known as Sustainability Reporting. The Sustainability Report is based on a number of general principles that ensure the content and the quality of the Sustainability Report. One of these principles is the principle of completeness. In the research, this principle seems to have been interpreted in terms of number of reported aspects and indicators, which can be a limited view where only the existence of the aspects and indicators is observed. By including the degree of the reporting in terms of full, partial and no reporting as well as a comparison between the real and the alleged reporting, our intention is to extend the principle of completeness and to develop a tool that we also apply through an empirical survey in a particular area.

Aim: The aim of this essay is to study the work of an alcohol company?s (Pernod Ricard) corporate social responsibility and how this work is being communicated to the company?s stakeholders. Furthermore I aim to describe the profile of the specific company, in other words how they wish their stakeholders to experience the company. I will then compare this profile with the image of how the interviewed stakeholders actually perceive the corporate social responsibility activities. Are there any differences?Material/Method: Together with literature and document studies, a qualitative method has been used and four focus group interviews with a total of 16 stakeholders have been conducted.Main results: The main results from the focus group interviews showed that the stakeholders appreciated corporate social responsibility work that focuses on the protection of young people.

AbstractThe development of Corporate Social Responsibility has been increasing for the last decade.Not only is Corporate Social Responsibility an important thing for big rich companies, todayit includes all different kinds of companies? regardless size, profit or industry. An industrywhich affects the majority of the society is the grocery industry. People have on a daily basissome kind of relationship to the grocery industry, which means that we have high presure onthe companies to not take an over price on the goods, to have a good assortment and that thecompanies take responsibility for the society. With high pressure from different groups of thesociety it is hard for the companies to know how to please all groups at their highest level.In this essay a qualitative examination will be done of how grocery companies mange theproblems of having many stakeholders to please.

Fokus i denna uppsats ligger i att jämföra fyra organisationers hållbarhetsredovisningar och se i vilken utsträckning de uppfyller GRI:s riktlinjer för ekonomisk påverkan. De fyra organisationer som granskas är Sveriges storbanker, Handelsbanken, Nordea, SEB och Swedbank. Eftersom att de agerar inom den finansiella sektorn har en avgränsning gjorts till det ekonomiska ansvaret eftersom det är det mest relevanta och intressanta att titta närmare på. Problemformuleringen i denna uppsats lyder: På vilket sätt, i sina hållbarhetsredovisningar, tillämpar Sveriges fyra storbanker GRI:s riktlinjer för ekonomisk påverkan? Syftet är att se hur bankerna har presenterat sin ekonomiska påverkan enligt GRI:s riktlinjer och jämföra dessa med varandra. För att få fram information om detta har respektive banks hållbarhetsredovisning för år 2010 granskats och tolkats.

Studien undersöker potentiella fördelar för företag att arbeta med och redovisa om CSR, Corporate Social Responsibility, i termer av minskade avkastningskrav från investerare. Med utgångspunkt i teorier om informationsasymmetri och stakeholderteori testar vi om svenska börsnoterade företag som arbetar med och redovisar om CSR är förknippade med lägre risk och således också lägre avkastningskrav från investerare. Våra resultat visar att en separat publicerad CSR-redovisning eller hur företagen betygssätts för sitt CSR-arbete inte har någon påverkan på investerares avkastningskrav. Dock finner vi att avkastningskrav på företag som redovisar om och/eller vars arbete med CSR-frågor värderas högt blir lägre ju fler sidor de publicerar om CSR i en separat rapport..

Begreppen ha?llbarhet och CSR, corporate social responsibility, ses ba?da som ett sa?tt fo?r ett fo?retag att ta socialt ansvar fo?r samha?llet och samtidigt minimera risker fo?r ova?ntade ha?ndelser. Bankernas roll i att bidra till en ha?llbar utveckling a?r betydande pa? grund av sin fo?rmedlande roll i ekonomin. Bankerna har en stor inverkan pa? den ekonomiska utvecklingen i va?rlden.

Den statsvetenskapliga forskningen har påvisat ett ansvarsskifte från offentliga aktörer till privata. I samhällen där gränsen mellan offentligt och privat luckrats upp har frågor som tidigare riktades enbart mot offentlig sektor numera även adresserats gentemot privat sektor. Sedan 2000-talets början har frågan om vem som bör bära ansvaret för de mänskliga rättigheterna blivit viktigt på den internationella dagordningen. År 2000 lanserade FN ett initiativ om Global Compact som baseras på ?corporate social responsibility? med mjuk reglering.Denna uppsats belyser frågan kring detta ansvarsskifte utifrån de teorier som utvecklats om corporate social responsibility och mjuk reglering.

We are currently more aware than ever about the impact of food on our health, but in the same time this trend put more pressure on the food retailers to do as much as possible to help their customers manage their weight and be healthy in general. This study aims to examine the corporate social responsibility for consumer health in food retailing, in which ways the companies promote healthy eating; in what extent they do it and also the motives for companies for corporate responsibility. The empirical study is limited to the market leading companies in Sweden, Coop and ICA, because the performance of the leading companies puts them in the strongest position to profit from shifting consumer trends, grow revenues and penetrate new markets and also enable them to make a strong case for the effectiveness of voluntary action, obviating the need for government intervention. A qualitative method was used in this study to get an accurate understanding how the food retailers take social responsibility for consumers health. The study is based on interviews with experts in the food retailers Coop and ICA, and the companies reporting in this area, annual reports, corporate responsibility reports and websites.

Background: Corporate Responsibility is not a new concept however in recent times more companies are starting to use different kinds of responsibility disclosures. These disclosures are voluntary and corporations may use them in the way they find suits them best. There is a lot of research in this field and there is no single explanation for what Corporate Responsibility is and how corporations should relate to it.Purpose: The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between the controlling owners of corporations and CSR disclosure.Method: We use a content analysis and a survey study to examine the relationship between corporate controlling owners and the CSR disclosure.Conclusions: Our results show that controlling owners have little effect on the different dimensions of CSR disclosure. We have however found some differences between the different owner categories where some categories are found to use CSR disclosure to a greater extent..

Lately it has become more common to question the companies? actions in how they affect their surroundings. Today, the expression ?Corporate Social Responsibility? often is mentioned in this connection. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), is a concept whereby companies voluntarily integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operation.In Sweden there is a big difference between different businesses when it comes to their Corporate Social Responsibility.