Effect of macroeconomic business environment on the development of corporate social responsibility in Baltic Countries and Slovakia

Abstract

Research background: Fluctuations in economic activity forced companies to change the traditional methods of organization and management and to search for new tools, knowledge, resources and competences in order to strengthen their positions. This has particularly intensified debates on corporate social responsibility (CSR) not only between business people, but also between pieces of research, industry leaders and government representatives. The ongoing global ecologic crisis quickened discussions about how the alternation of macroeconomic business environment influences the development of CSR.
 Purpose of the article: The aim of this paper is to investigate how the changes in macroeconomic business environment influence the development of socially responsible activities in Baltic Countries and Slovakia.
 Methods: A statistical analysis of secondary data was used in order to reanalyse the data for the purpose of gaining new insights. The objectives of statistical analysis in this paper were twofold: firstly, to identify the challenges in macroeconomic business environment; secondly, to explore the development of socially responsible activities in different countries. The research period covered the years 2006–2016. The choice of this period is determined by data availability.
 Findings & Value added: The authors found that economic conditions may diversely affect the development of different dimensions of CSR. Even in unfavourable macroeconomic conditions companies continue to be involved in socially responsible actions because of long-run CSR benefits. The analysis is useful at an international level because it justified the development of socially responsible businesses in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia, and has provided an opportunity to assess the tendencies of CSR development during the different period of economic cycle.

Corporate Social Responsibility Information in Annual Reports in the EU—A Czech Case Study

“…However, other studies indicate that the majority of companies do not file, or try to avoid having to file, annual reports with CSR information with the Commercial Register [28] and so miss out on the opportunity to provide a public declaration to society about their CSR commitment. Since it is well established that business ethics is regarded as a significant factor with an impact on both profitability and corporate image in the EU, and in particular in a Central European context [8][9][10], the empirical observation might suggest that this is generally underestimated by Czech companies.…”

Corporate Social Responsibility Information in Annual Reports in the EU – A Czech Case Study

“…However, other studies indicate that the majority of companies do not file, or try to avoid filing, annual reports with CSR information with the Commercial Register [28] and so miss out on the opportunity to provide a public declaration to society about their CSR commitment. Since it is well established that business ethics is regarded as a significant factor with an impact on both profitability and corporate image in the EU, and in particular in a Central European context [8][9][10], the empirical observation might suggest that this is generally underestimated by Czech companies.…”

“…One academic stream proposes that the competition reflected by the CSR e-reports might be perceived as information in the public sphere, i.e. the public good, which reflects the positive social orientation of people [6,7] and develops the much needed critical awareness among the public regarding positive and negative impacts of the business conduct [8][9][10]. Arguably, it leads neither to a rivalry nor to excludability [11] and supports the competitiveness [12,13].…”

“…[28]. Nevertheless, new studies establish that the perception of the CSR, which is obviously intimately linked to the involved business ethics, has significantly developed and the commitment to CSR and its reporting has been reinforced and even partially standardized via ISO norms, in particular in the newer EU member states [9,10,34].…”

Towards a conceptualization of a social efficiency notion in management sciences

“…Such ideas in relation to business management is the integration of economically and socially focused entrepreneurship allowing for solving multicriteria managerial problems using economic assessment indicators that meet the social needs of stakeholders and employees in harmony with existing environmental constraints and the needs of future generations (Pashkevych et al, 2018, p. 148). Approaches of CSR are discussed in more detail in some publications, such as Jankalov & Jankal (2017) and Krajnakova et al (2018).…”