1. Mirna Leko Šimić, Helena Čarapić Faculty of Economics Osijek, Croatia
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN CROATIA: NONPROFIT ACTIVITIES FOR PROFITABLE GOALS
Mirna Leko Šimić, Helena Čarapić
Faculty of Economics Osijek, Croatia
AIMPN 2009

2. GOALS: To identify CSR in Croatia: Local vs. foreign companies
Product vs. service companies
Level of CSR according to Caroll’s pyramid
AIMPN 2009

3. CSR Company’s ethical behaviour Contribution to economic development
Improvement of the quality of life in the community
Measurement of CSR: standards (ISO, SRG, SA...) vs. freedom of company to define its CSR
AIMPN 2009

4. DEMAND AND SUPPLY OF CSR
Customers’ demand:
Visibles: products with socially responsible atributes, signals and symbols of CSR
Invisibles: reputation for quality and responsibility
Other stakeholders’ demand (employees, community, stockholders..):
Labour policies, safety, child care, support for local activities, donations..
Need for investment (capital, labour, services, materials..) → importance of determining optimal level and scope of CSR needed (McWilliams and Siegel 1991)
AIMPN 2009

5. CSR AND MARKETING
Both focus on interaction between company and society (social marketing, “green” marketing, quality of life concept..)
CSR as part of marketing strategy (Cochran 2007; McWilliams and Siegel 1991; Wu 2006)
Diversification strategy
Advertising
Influence on price
Profitability
Innovativeness
AIMPN 2009

6. CSR IN CROATIA
Rather new concept (previous role and responsibility of government)
Managers’ views (MAP 2006):
Better overall efficiency
Easier recruitment of quality work force
Motivation and loyalty of work force
Competitive strength
Problems with CSR in Croatia:
Unfocused
Inconsistency in implementation
Unclear how it contributes to competitiveness
AIMPN 2009

7. CSR IN CROATIA Influencing factors: Ownership structure
Leadership capacity
Company size
Business sector
AIMPN 2009

8. RESEARCH Content analysis (web pages)
Sample: 25 Croatian + 25 foreign companies in Croatia from the list of 500 best (Nacional 2008)
Hypothesis:
H1: foreign companies will pay more attention to CSR than local
H2: companies producing products will be more involved with CSR than service companies
H3: CSR contents in foreign companies will be placed higher in Caroll’s pyramid of CSR
AIMPN 2009

9. RESEARCH RESULTS Who are the best 500 in Croatia?
24% do not have web site
31% are large companies (over 250 employees)
52% in manufacturing; 48% in service sector
50% have explicitly defined CSR policy on the web site → socially responsible companies:
48% are large
35% are foreign owned
55% are in manufacturing
AIMPN 2009

10. RESEARCH RESULTS
H1: rejected; over 2/3 of sample companies defined as socially responsible are Croatian owned
H2: confirmed; although no significant difference
H3: rejected; 96% of sample companies declare philantropic attitudes in their CSR policies, no difference between Croatian and foreign
AIMPN 2009

11. RESEARCH RESULTS CSR contents according to Caroll’s pyramid:
Philantrophic: 96% (donations, sponsorships and activities in the environment protection)
Ethical: 50% (Ethical codex); significant difference between manufacturing and sevice companies (43% vs. 67%); some difference between foreign and local (52% vs. 48%)
Legal: 10% (quality standards, risk prevention); significant difference between Croatian and foreign companies (16% vs. 4%); all in manufacturing
Economic: 50% (HR development, technology development, CRM); signifcant difference between Croatian and foreign companies (60% vs. $0%); 80% in service sector
AIMPN 2009

12. CONCLUSIONS
Croatian companies have made significant improvement in CSR policies from last reseach
Recognition of growing need for CSR and its potential to be used as a marketing tool
Philantrophic activities mostly visible to stakeholders and most efficient in public image creation
Need for further research: research of consumer attitudes and expectations and CSR influence on their buying behaviour
AIMPN 2009

13. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!