Domestic Institutions and Market Pressures as Drivers of Corporate Social Responsibility: Company Initiatives in Denmark and the UK

Abstract

In recent research, corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives by companies with a home base in different countries have been explained in terms of their relation to national institutions or business systems. This set of explanations sees CSR as fitting in with domestic institutional structures by either ‘substituting’ or ‘mirroring’ national models of capitalism. An alternative set of explanations views company CSR programmes as determined by market pressures. We examine the role of domestic institutions and market pressure as drivers of CSR through an evaluation of the content of company CSR initiatives revealed in their external reporting. We conduct case studies of two large British companies (Glaxo Smith Kline and Barclays) as well as two large Danish companies (Novo Nordisk and Danske Bank). We find that market pressures rather than domestic institutions determine the content of company CSR programmes.