CSR: attitudes and perceptions : an exploration of the concept and a general description of the approach taken by companies listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange All Shares Index.

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility is a much bespoken concept, found in a vast amount of business literature and on the webpages of nearly every company. This thesis explores the concept of CSR, investigates the companies listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange in how their attitude, practice and perceived result from CSR efforts are, and how challenges related to CSR impacts the business of these companies on a strategic level. This is done through a literature review, an exploratory survey of secondary data, a quantitative- and a qualitative survey. The findings are a positive attitude towards CSR, acknowledging stakeholders and labeling CSR efforts as both ethical and profitable. CSR practices though, appear to be few, not well connected with external expectations, the business operations of the company or systematically to other CSR practices. The majority of those who measure and evaluate their CSR efforts still report finding positive results. In general, CSR challenges do not seem to have a large impact on these companies. Challenges related to the environment are reported as the most relevant, and CSR challenges might be turned into competitive advantages if handled in a way that increases employee satisfaction and improves the reputation of the company. It is therefore the view of the author that competitive advantages can be found in reviewing CSR approaches of the companies