CSR is not in the DNA of several companies

Corporate Social Responsibility has come to a crossroad. That is the report from the Copenhagen Business School Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility (cbsCSR) who has spent ten years conducting research within the field.

Corporate social responsibility has moved from academia and found its place in most companies. The challenge of the future is to integrate corporate social responsibility in the management and the operations of a company, says Esben Rahbek Pedersen, Director of cbsCSR.

- A lot of companies talk about CSR as being a part of their DNA, but only a few companies have managed to really incorporate CSR in their organisation, he says.

Good business and ethics

CSR is developing rapidly and has been institutionalised by systems, standards and consultancy services, which make it possible to measure, weigh and report on CSR. And a lot of time is spent discussing whether CSR really is profitable. The risk is that CSR only is implemented in areas, where it helps produce a quick profit, for instance cost savings by reducing the use of packaging or strengthening the reputation by donating money to charity, says Esben Rahbek Pedersen.

- CSR should include two elements: Support of business and ethics. If CSR only is a matter of conducting a successful business, there is a risk of making CSR less significant and turn it into "business as usual". The companies will leave "black CSR holes"- the difficult CSR areas, which may not be profitable, and perhaps only in the long run. This could for example be the area of tax and living wages vs. minimum wages, areas that remain to be addressed in the CSR policies of several companies, says Esben Rahbek Pedersen.

Not a fashion phenomenon

CBS has noticed the increasing interest in social responsibility and offers bachelor, master and MBA courses in subjects like sustainability, ethics and CSR. Since 2002, cbsCSR has multiplied the number of employees by ten. They are very active in the research field, experts in the media, and they also organise public conferences on the subject in partnership with the private sector.

- CSR is often seen as a fashion phenomenon, but everything indicates that CSR is here to stay.  CSR addresses fundamental issues in the public sector. What is the raison d'être of a company and how does it perceive fundamental responsibility? Not only in the legal sense of the word, but also broadly, which really is the challenge: To see the business opportunities of CSR without turning the blind eye to ethics, which affect all corners of the company, says Esben Rahbek Pedersen.