Corporate social responsibility: Polish experience and Ukrainian perspectives

Abstract

Global issues of 21 century, such as ecological concerns, depletion of natural resources, informatization, transition to the machine production and switch to the predominance of intellectual work have led to the changes in the social role of large business. Best world practice along with UN recommendations strongly support the development of socially responsible business. Global network of multinational companies allows them to predetermine political and social situation in many countries sometimes more effectively than traditional politics. Positive correlation between business performance and purchasing power of citizens accentuate the importance of investment into social development. Consequently, the corporate social responsibility (CSR) becomes one of the cornerstones of sustainable development. This paper aims to describe basic principles of CSR and its historical development, to analyze pros and cons of different approaches to CSR and discuss the perspectives of its implementation into Ukrainian economy using Polish experience. E. Garriga and D. Mele in their article «Corporate social responsibility Theories: Mapping the Territory» managed to perfectly describe almost all theories of CSR, allowing many scientists to use their results. In spite of positive social influence of CSR, its impact on economic still remains unclear. It may be connected to the relatively short follow-up for the tracking of economic changes and the difficulties for the estimation of such complex phenomenon. Transitional Ukrainian economy just have started the implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR), and sometimes it lack the deep understanding of what that means and how that works. Polish experience may become a good example for eastern neighbor`s companies and government, and help to build new relations between large business and society.