Differences in corporate social responsibility implementation between Slovak and Czech companies

Abstract

In recent years, corporate social responsibility has emerged as a pivotal factor for corporations in cultivating a favorable public perception. Despite this, many companies remain uncertain about the integration and rationale behind incorporating it into their core business strategies. This study aims to discern dissimilarities in implementing corporate social responsibility initiatives between Slovak and Czech companies, addressing the triple bottom line framework. This approach is a metric for evaluating a company’s achievement across three dimensions: social, environmental, and economic. The study is predicated on a questionnaire survey conducted among a sample of 180 Slovak and 180 Czech companies operating as subsidiaries of multinational corporations as typical implementers of corporate social responsibility activities in emerging economies. Following the triple bottom line framework, three distinct sets of variables were formulated to account for social, environmental, and economic activities using the Mann-Whitney U Test to ascertain statistically significant disparities between Slovak and Czech companies. The findings indicate that the surveyed companies from monitored countries exhibited no notable distinctions in environmental endeavors. However, discrepancies were discerned in economic activities, specifically relating to post-sales or post-warranty customer services, which was significant with a small effect size (0.19). In social activities, significant differences were observed concerning adherence to the principle of equal opportunities in the workplace. Based on these outcomes, it is recommended that future investigations delve more extensively into the monitored parameters within the Visegrad countries. AcknowledgmentThe paper was prepared within the project “Etika v podnikaní na Slovensku” no. 01/2022/GA FEM SPU supported by Grant Agency – Faculty of Economics and Management – Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra and internal grand of AMBIS college.