Abstract
Although ideas and discussions about the social responsibility of business have a long
history, the debate over what is known under the label of CSR (corporate social responsibility)
has only escalated worldwide in the last decade. This thesis describes the rise of
CSR in Europe by exploring how and why the use of management rhetoric has acted as
important means of gaining business acceptance. Arguably, Europe is the most vibrant
region for CSR development, and the idea has been embraced by the European Union
and national governments for strategic reasons. Forward-looking companies have
started to discover CSR as an opportunity for innovation, growth, sustainability and
competitiveness. Consequently, the acceptance and adoption of CSR has also initiated
organisational change.
CSR is of particular relevance for strategic management and corporate marketing/
communications, which has been documented in the growing influence it has gained
in the management and marketing discipline. The thesis provides more understanding of
the dynamics and aspects within the process of constructing and establishing CSR in the
years 2004 to 2008. In particular, the dominance and vitality of the discourse about the
link between CSR and competitiveness is analysed. Findings show that CSR was
framed and translated into an economic opportunity in a construction process involving
multiple sectors and actors. Especially governments, consultants and researchers have
argued that corporations would not only contribute to a better society, but also become
more profitable in the long run. However, corporations and their CSR managers in particular
have actively participated in this process and are no passive adopters of CSR.
I have designed the research in a multi-layered, longitudinal fashion. All layers inform
each other and are qualitative in nature. Each of the four empirical layers provides a
comprehensive sub-study to this thesis and focuses on particular aspects of the development
in Europe, mostly the UK and Germany:
• Case studies of five multi-national companies based on management interviews
demonstrate that managers translated CSR into opportunities, and that their agency and advocacy role manifested CSR as modem management idea, thereby
initiated organisational change;
• The semiotic study of the construction of CSR in corporate non-financial reports
through the use of imagery shows that CSR was communicated as a serious
business topic and five different approaches can be distinguished;
• Participant observations at two international CSR conference series with participants
from multiple sectors traces, firstly, the construction and rhetoric manifestation
of CSR as an idea relevant to business, and, secondly, the role of expert
communities as resources utilised by CSR managers in order to advance CSR
within their respective firms;
• The conceptualisation of realistic strategic opportunities of the application of
CSR on an industry level is exemplified with a case study into the professional
football industry.
This thesis is a sceptical account of the evolution of the business case for CSR as a
socially constructed phenomena presented as thick and critical description based on a
multi-theory, multi-layer, and multi-method approach. Its main contribution lies in revealing
the business case of CSR as being constructed by an interconnected group of
actors. However, I dismiss statements that CSR is a management fashion of only temporary
nature, and provide substance to the claim that translation processes create enacted
realities and are part of organisations changing. In addition, merits of the thesis also lie
in advancing the CSR research agenda through its individual sub-studies that partially
form novel academic inquiries. Therefore, wide-ranging efforts are undertaken at the
end in order to show how findings from this thesis can be expanded through future research.