The EU Puzzling CSR Regime and the Confused Perception by Ambassadors of Luxury Fashion Businesses: A Case Study from Pařížská

Abstract

Despite a decades-long discussion about corporate social responsibility ("CSR"), there is little known about the evolution and meaning of the EU law on CSR and its perception by various stakeholders. The two objectives of this paper are: (i) assessing the evolution to the current EU law on CSR and (ii) making a case study about the perception of CSR by businesses from the luxury fashion industry supposed to be the leading CSR force, namely their ambassadors -CEOs and employees facing the clientele in Pařížská street in Prague. In order to address these two objectives, holistic and interdisciplinary research of economic, legislative and academic sources as well as a case study, entailing interviews and mystery shopping was performed. The exploration of the yielded data employed Meta-Analysis, content analysis, teleological interpretation, etc. The critical and comparative review of the evolution of the EU law on CSR shows piecemeal trends and a lack of permanent consent. This leads to the fragmentation and ambiguity, which is matched by the findings of the case study. The perception of the EU law on CSR is done differently by various CEOs of luxury fashion businesses, and there is an inconsistency between their attitudes and those of their employees facing the clientele. Such inconsistency undermines the effectiveness and efficiency of the CSR regime and needs to be corrected. 1 Implications for Central European audience: Although the sustainability projected in CSR is critical, the EU law has undergone a complex and fragmented evolution leading to a partially mandatory framework. The understanding and application of such a framework about CSR and its reporting is a challenge. A Central European case study of luxury fashion industry businesses shows piecemeal trends and a lack of consent, and this even among CEOs and frontline employees of the same business. The implication of such an inconsistency is a decrease in the effectiveness and efficiency of the CSR regime, a devaluation of the CSR awareness and the need for corrections.

CSR Statements in International and Czech Luxury Fashion Industry at the Onset and during the COVID-19 Pandemic—Slowing Down the Fast Fashion Business?

“…Nevertheless, the extension of the sample would mean the loss of its homogeneity and would inevitably lead to the departure from this particular focus while preferring the comparison. Therefore, this limitation perhaps is inherently inevitable for this type of study, and this in particular due to the concept of luxury fashion uniqueness [14,29,38,66]. In contrast, the longitude and behavioral features could and should be rather smoothly included and addressed as appropriate in future studies.…”

“…The selection of the luxury fashion businesses included was done based on the obvious quartet factor-a strong brand (reputation within the public), strong trademark (well-known trademark), strong product presentation (défilé de mode-fashion show), and strong product channeling (shops in the proximity of the local "5th Avenue") [72]. Consequently, and fully in compliance with the concept of luxury fashion uniqueness [14,29,38,66], only 20 fashion businesses satisfied these criteria and were included in the case study. Further, they were split into two groups-international luxury fashion businesses with foreign owners and/or headquarters and the principal operation abroad and local Czech luxury fashion businesses with local owners and/or headquarters and principal operations in the Czech Republic.…”

“…Indeed, sustainability in the narrow sense (with rather systematic and visionary features and designed for soft law and self-regulation) and corporate responsibility (with rather normative and moral features, designed for national law regulation) have converged into the modern Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to be assumed by businesses [11][12][13]. Since the concept of sustainability and CSR are critical at the global, regional, and even national levels, they were incorporated in EU strategic priorities for 2010-2020, that is, in the Europe 2020: A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth (Europe 2020) [14], in particular in the Green Paper: Promoting a European Framework for CSR [15]. Indeed, the EU repeatedly expressed its commitment to the UN Agenda, its determination to reach all 17 SDGs by 2030, and its desire to even engage businesses, investors, and consumers (see e.g., the updated Directive 2013/34/EU) [4].…”

The Significance of CSR During COVID-19 Pandemic in the Luxury Fashion Industry - A Front-Line Case Study

“…Modern management focuses on the entrepreneurship and innovations and it is well established that education and economic growth are related (Kocourek and Nedomlelová, 2018) as well as that innovations linked to marketing are indispensable for business success in the 21 st century (Drucker, 2015). The drive for a competitive advantage with a competitive target and the determination in "capturing the core and broadening without diluting" (Moon et al, 2014) should match up with the three pillars sustainability, its 17 SDGs and all 6 CSR categories (Balcerzak and MacGregor Pelikánová, 2020;MacGregor Pelikánová and MacGregor, 2020). The luxury fashion industry, with its commitment to the exclusive scarcity and fancy inventions, should be fully compatible with that and lead to the satisfaction of all stakeholders -from customers (Olšanová et al, 2018) to investors.…”

“…The luxury fashion industry is put under the microscope due to its inherent features and particularities, including the proclaimed availability of resources, as the platform par excellence to demonstrate the dramatic potential of CSR to, through shared values (Chandler, 2017;Ujwary-Gil, 2017), achieve or lead to fantastic financial and even non-financial results (MacGregor Pelikánová and MacGregor, 2020). In addition, it represents an interesting mixed products field, combining (hopefully) luxury goods with luxury services, which can be pretty challenging in the central European setting (Žižka, 2012).…”