Cross-Country Study of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development in Various Industries

Abstract

There is a wide spectrum of industries and company-level features that influence the application of Corporate Social Responsibility to improve the business’s sustainability. This study aims to examine the understanding of the Corporate Social Responsibility concept and the impact of its implementation on sustainability in companies. Therefore, the research proposed and tested two scenarios where five industries sectors were ranked according to the importance (scenario 1) and implementation (scenario 2) of Corporate Social Responsibility activities. The integrated Entropy-TOSIS method to obtain results was employed. The research data were obtained from interviewing employees from Serbia, Russia, and Bulgaria working in various industries. The findings of this study revealed certain differences in perception and implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility depending on the country where the concept is applied as well as among the industries with their specific needs for sustainable development goals achieving. This research can be useful for engineering managers as a roadmap for reaching sustainable business while fulfilling economic, social, and environmental norms as well as stakeholder expectations.