Corporate Social Responsibility : A Case Study

Abstract

The importance of taking responsibility for the common environmental and social welfare has become of essence in the business world of the 21st century. This thesis provides the reader with knowledge on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and shows the reader a comparative study on how CSR is reported on in three case study companies chosen for this thesis. This thesis is a descriptive study that uses the research method of content analysis to determine the commonalities and differences found on the CSR Internet pages of three chosen case study companies. The analysis is conducted according to prior set criteria; being the eight philosophies presented in the book of Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard “Let my people go surfing, the education of a reluctant businessman”. The philosophies are; product design, production, distribution, image, finance, human resource, management and the environmental philosophy. The results of this thesis show that parallels can be drawn between the CSR information shared by the three case study companies and the Patagonia philosophies, but a bigger issue is the validity and transparency of the information. How does the reader of the CSR information know what actually has been done on CSR in the company?