How to build a more sustainable business?

Sammanfattning: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has a high priority in companies’ business agendas today. Extensive research has been done in the field for nearly 50 years, although it still remains a complexity. Despite this research, no generalised CSR strategy has been established for companies to follow. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the question, how is CSR being implemented in a company’s overall strategy in emerging markets? A second aim, is to explore whether or not a trigger is needed in order for a company to implement CSR into its overall strategy within emerging markets. This research is built up around a particular theoretical framework, which is composed of key factors of CSR strategy and stages of CSR implementation (see illustration p. 25). An exploratory research design with a qualitative research method was chosen with the purpose of exploring the similar patterns between companies. Four Swedish multinational companies (MNEs) were selected and data was collected from sex respondents. The results showed that companies were aware of the opportunities to have CSR integrated in their business. However the type of CSR initiative differed between the companies. Nevertheless, the results indicate that there is a correlation between to what extent the companies have integrated CSR, and the level of a company’s awareness of CSR. CSR initiatives could be either interpreted as passive CSR engagement or active CSR engagement. These different CSR initiatives could be interpreted as levels of corporate willingness towards CSR where the companies CSR engagement was either to gain reputation or to gain sustainability. This dissertation contributes to leading the research forward in the field of CSR and sustainable business, due to the fact that the consolidative model along with other theories chosen show conformed patterns to the empirical study, thus further research is suggested. Sida’s label for developing countries presented in 2004, defines emerging markets as a developing country which is identified as a country where the income BNI/capita is below $3 256-$10 065.