In search of a definition of CSR : A study of Swedish business press during 2005-2014

Sammanfattning: In recent years Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been the subject of much attention and the concept has been referred to as a global movement and mega-trend, which has resulted in a long and diverse history in the academic literature. However, little attention has been paid to the part media plays in the construction and popularization of CSR. The aim of the thesis is to draw insights on how media frames and present the concept of CSR. In order to examine this a quantitative content analysis has been performed on two leading business papers in Sweden, during the years 2005-2014. The thesis builds on a previous study by Grafström and Windell (2011) in which they analyze how CSR is defined in English business press. The findings of this thesis suggest that corporations are the main actors in framing CSR and that Swedish business press mainly stress CSR as a management idea, containing several arguments for incorporating CSR. As oppose to Grafström and Windell (2011) our study presented some differentiating results, which might be explained by different institutional environments.