Corporate social responsibility from the perspective of limited liability companies

Abstract

Companies are increasingly called to carry out Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in their operations. The purpose of this thesis was to assess whether there is an obligation beyond legislation for limited liability companies to carry out CSR. The theoretical framework was comprised of literature on the limited liability company law as well as literature on the history and evolvement of free trade, free markets and CSR as a phenomenon. The research questions for this study were: How is the concept “Corporate Social Responsibility” understood for limited liability companies in light of the limited liability company law – particularly from the perspective of providing jobs for people? Is there an obligation for limited liability companies to take on more CSR in their actual business operations than what the law requires them to? The second research question constituted the aim of this study, which was to evaluate whether there is a requirement for limited liability companies to carry out CSR beyond legislation. The empirical portion of this study consisted of a qualitative case study of the paper factory Kaipola, belonging to UPM-Kymmene PLC, a Finnish company. All materials and analysis in this study were limited to the Kaipola factory, so broad generalizations of the results should be avoided. The empirical data collected consisted of statements given by politicians, trade unions, business sector representatives and people affiliated with UPM. The data was analyzed through thematic analysis, by which themes were sought and then analyzed in order to detect patterns. The results were analyzed in light of the theoretical framework. Ideas for future research include a qualitative study on the views of CSR and possible actions of CSR actions carried out by a number of Finnish limited liability companies.