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.

?CSR and political consumption ? a study of Nike?s and Puma?s CSR-reports?The purpose of this dissertation is to examine if political consumption has influenced multinational corporations to improve their Corporate Social Responsibility reports and policies more, than a company who has not been a target for political consumption.This dissertation is a content analysis of Nike?s and Puma?s first (Nike 2001, Puma 2001) and latest (Nike 2007/09, Puma 2007/08) CSR- reports. Archie Carroll?s model of Corporate Social Responsibility is used as theoretical framework in this study. The model is used to focus on four areas within CSR; economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic.

Due to the increase of the emission of greenhouse gas and climate changes more and more customers demand environmentally sustainable products. The increased demand of sustainable products from cradle to grave is something that has affected the food sector. Many retailers within the food sector feel that they are less or more forced to be environmentally friendly. Nowadays many retailers have chosen to show customers and stakeholders that they want to ?do good? by publishing annual sustainability reports. The Swedish food market has been one of many markets investing in being environmentally friendly.

To act responsible in relation to environmental, economic and social issues is a trend that is spreading among businesses and their investors. In order to assess business risks, ethical interested investors are calling for open, honest, clear CSR information that can be followed up in corporate sustainability reports. The ability to communicate about risks and to meet investors requests already in the business analytic process can save resources and increase the company?s profitability.The idea that companies should take responsibility for their impact on society from economic, environmental and social perspective is called Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR. In addition to CSR, there is another three-letter abbreviation in this context, PRI ? Principles for Responsible Investment ? which are principles, signed by ethically interested investors.

Denna uppsats behandlar fenomenet och begreppet Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Begreppet används synonymt med företags samhällsansvar och innebär att företag frivilligt vill medverka till ett bättre samhälle. Utgångspunkten är Carroll och Buchholtz mångciterade modell The Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility, som förklarar CSR utifrån fyra ansvar: ekonomiskt-, legalt-, etiskt- och filantropiskt. Fokus ligger på CSR som en del i ett företags marknadsföringsstrategi, med betoning på det ekonomiska-, etiska- och filantropiska ansvaret. Problemformuleringen lyder: Hur ser chefers uppfattningar om Corporate Social Responsibility, som en del i marknadsföringsstrategin, i ett brittiskt respektive svenskt fastighetsbolag ut? Syftet är att ta reda på svaret på problemformuleringen samt att se om det finns likheter och skillnader i de båda studerade företagens chefers uppfattningar om CSR.

During the last years, the moral and ethics in companies has been a growing subject in media. Large multinational companies are to a bigger extent using workforce in developing countries and the working conditions at the workplaces in those countries, are more or less controlled. Even if a company carefully controls its own business, it can be using subcontractors that for instance use child labour or forced labour, or in some other way makes human rights abuses. When the world gets more globalized and the market where the companies act gets bigger, there will be new issues for companies to handle. The companies have to satisfy not only the interests of the costumers and the shareholders, but also the environment around it, containing many different stakeholders.

How effective is consumer power? Can consumers regulate corporate behavior?And if so is the case, could the mechanisms where consumers regulate corporatebehavior have any democratic value to contribute with? These are the questionsthat this master's thesis comprehends with. The purpose of this writing is toconstruct a theory of consumer power that is compatible with democratic theory,this in order to contribute to the ongoing discussion within the discipline ofpolitical science about the third democratic transformation. A discussion that hasbeen actualized due to the democratic deficit created by the growing corporatepower and the shift of power from state to private enterprises. Besides showingfor a parallel between the democratic mechanisms that exists in the relationbetween citizens and state on the one hand, and the consumers and corporationson the other hand, this paper argues that consumers do have a great potential inregulating corporate behavior towards a higher social responsibility andawareness.

Sustainability work is something that is emphasized more and more. Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, is discussed and the question of how much responsibility companies should really take is frequently in the news. Companies tend to ask themselves how much responsibility they should take. CSR is a common concept of companies environmental and social work and a concept we tend to see here and there in our modern society. CSR includes companies? social responsibilities, both in terms of carbon footprint, working conditions, social responsibility and more.

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.

Assessing the outcome of corporate responsibility is often argued to be complicated due to long-term effects and qualitative aspects. Epstein (2008, p.261) establishes that: ?Though many think that sustainability is too difficult to measure, companies have found that unless the impacts are measured, they are commonly ignored in the resource allocation process?. Corporate responsibility is often referred to as a business case, i.e., that social and environmental concern add value to the business (Heikkurinen, 2010; Porter & van der Linde, 1995). Hence, for corporate responsibility to be a business case a strategy, corporate structure and systems, programmes and actions linked to performance measures need to be in place to assess the outcome; environmental, social as well as financial.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a topic that is becoming increasingly important in today's society. CSR is a concept whereby companies voluntarily integrate social and environmental concerns both in their business but also in interaction with their stakeholders. The society of today sets high expectations for how companies take their social responsibilities, especially in industries where the risks to individuals and the environment are high. In this study, we tried to answer the following questions; what kind of responsibility do companies in the plastics and chemicals industry claim to take and why might this be due? What differences exist between the investigated companies in the industry and what may these differences be rooted in? The purpose of this study was to obtain an understanding of the interest in working on sustainability in the plastics and chemicals industry.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur relationen mellan beslutsprocesser rörande CSR och den strategiska inriktningen skapas och genomföres i olika typer av företag.Vi har genom studien kunnat visa att CSR arbete kan komma aktieägare och företag till gagn, vid en lyckad intern integration. Uppsatsens slutsats betonar vikten av integration samt att företagen snarare bör utgå från sin egen verksamhet och sina intressenter än från externa påtryckningar för att använda CSR strategiskt..

Datum: 2009-06-02Nivå: Magisteruppsats i ekonomistyrning, 15 hpFörfattare: Peter Forsberg och Per ErikssonHandledare: Esbjörn SegelodTitel: Corporate Social Responsibility och hållbarhetsredovisning i tre svenska företagProblem: Vilket CSR-arbete har Atlas Copco, Vattenfall och ICA idag och hur redovisas resultatet? Har de skett några förändringar i vad bolagen redovisar idag i sina hållbarhetsredovisningar jämfört med 2005?Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur Atlas Copco, ICA och Vattenfall arbetar med CSR idag och hur deras hållbarhetsredovisningar presenteras 2008 jämfört med 2005.Metod: För att genomföra undersökningen har vi valt att intervju de tre företagen, granska deras hållbarhetsredovisningar från 2005 respektive 2008 och studerat litteratur.  Resultat: Resultat vi kom fram till är att arbetet är organiserat på olika sätt men gemensamt för bolagen är att många har CSR-frågor som en del i sitt arbete och att det rapporteras in och sammanställas. Alla tre bolagen har förbättrat sin presentation av hållbarhetsredovisningarna, exempelvis har strukturen blivit tydligare i de nyare rapporterna. Jämfört med 2005 har två av tre bolag utökat sin rapportering av prestandaindikatorer trots att dessa totalt har minskat sedan övergången från Guidelines 2002 till nya G3.

Datum: 2013-01-18Nivå: Kandidatuppsats i företagsekonomi 15 HPInstitution: Akademi för hållbar-, samhälls- och teknikutveckling, HSTFörfattare: Niklas Jörgensen Julia Safarova Robin SahaTitel: Corporate Social Responsibility - En studie om hur Mälarenergi kan utveckla sitt sociala ansvarstagandeHandledare: Birgitta SchwartzNyckelord: CSR, Corporate Social Responsibility, Legitimitet, särkoppling, Carrolls CSR pyramid, CR innovation, CR filantropi, CR integration, kommunikation, intressenterFrågeställning: Hur kan Mälarenergi utveckla sitt CSR arbete?Syfte: Syftet med denna kandidatuppsats är att undersöka Mälarenergis arbete inom CSR, samt ta fram förslag på hur Mälarenergi kan utveckla sitt CSR-arbete utifrån deras nuvarande arbete.Metod: Uppsatsen är en kvalitativ studie som tillämpat forskningsansatsen abduktion för att studera Mälarenergis CSR arbete. Studien innehåller två personintervjuer med Miljöchefen på Mälarenergi, vilket är vår primärkälla.Slutsats: Företag bör följa samhällets normer om ett ökat CSR ansvar. Filantropiska insatser som går i linje med ett företags kärnverksamhet eller varumärke skapar trovärdighet. Ett företag som samhället är beroende av bör inte satsa på allt för riskfyllda innovationer.

Swedish Development Cooperation emphasizes the need for collaboration among actors on a national level. In that context, the purpose of the thesis is to investigate how Public Private Partnership (PPP) on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) may influence the changing role of the state. The thesis is informed by Critical Discourse Analysis. In order to investigate the social constructions of reality, the thesis is a critical study of language related to ?Globalt Ansvar: Swedish Partnership for Global Responsibility? to identify through what discourses Collaboration on Corporate Social Responsibility is produced; and the implications in relation to Public Private Partnership.