Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy and Reporting: Overview of Practice in Selected European Countries

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Corporate social responsibility became an inevitable element of modern organizations as they are trying to achieve balance in their profit-oriented activities on one side, and different environmental, social and philanthropic activities on the other side. As such, the socially responsible strategy has become an important aspect of organizational strategy, trying to incorporate organizational values into overall society. The impetus for socially responsible activities are various, coming from different organizational stakeholders and their requests for transparent activities. This created also growth in quantity of reports related to corporate social responsibility, a report covering organizational social responsibility activities not covered by financial reports. Still, not only that quality and quantity of these reports vary, but also a perception of stakeholders influence and importance can differ significantly across cultures. Therefore, the goal of the article is to give a deeper insight into corporate social responsibility practice in selected European countries. The analysis is especially oriented on the practices of corporate social responsibility and reporting, and influence of different stakeholders on them. The article presents the results of empirical research done among 154 organizations from ten European countries.