This book offers practical advice for building organizations with social responsibility and sustainability organically built in – based on two-way communication between human resources (HR) and public relations (PR) departments working together as an organizational conscience touchstone benefiting People, Planet, and Profit.

While public relations offers numerous assets for organization-stakeholder relationship building and for ethical corporate social responsibility and sustainability communication, it also faces challenges linked to negative perceptions of the profession which can lead to accusations of "greenwashing." This innovative book critically explores the growing, complex and sometimes contradictory connections among public relations, corporate social responsibility and sustainability. This book advocates a postmodern insider-activist role for public relations which can transform organizations into moral places committed to people, planet, and profit. By amplifying voices of nearly 100 for-profit and nonprofit professionals, and using hermeneutic phenomenological theme analyses of CSR/Sustainability reports and websites, this book invokes public relations, postmodern and critical theories to empower public relations professionals to transform organizations into ethical, authentic and transparent actors in the public sphere. It is essential reading for scholars, educators and enquiring professionals working in public relations, corporate communication, sustainability and corporate social responsibility.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its practical applications. In addition to the structured procedure with definitions and CSR approaches, functions within the value chain are described in comprehensive manner with reference to business practice. Business trends in special sectors such as innovation management and hospitality management are also covered. Numerous practical examples and country-specific recommendations for decisions in practical situations are also offered.

This book provides a platform for discussing the challenges that organizations face in order to implement sustainability, ethics, and effective corporate governance, all of which are important elements of “standing out” from other companies. Examining the background of the New European Consensus on development with the new guiding motto ‘Our World, Our Dignity, Our Future’, the authors explore how this new legislation on sustainability issues around the world is forcing companies to deal directly with sustainability issues. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda), adopted by the United Nations in September 2015, is the international community’s response to global challenges and trends in connection with sustainable development. With the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at its core, the 2030 Agenda is a transformative political framework designed to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development globally. It balances the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, including the key issues of governance and peaceful and inclusive societies, and recognizes the essential interlinkages between its goals and targets, i.e., that they must be implemented as a whole and not selectively. The respective chapters in this volume raise a number of questions regarding companies’ ability to implement sustainability, ethics, and effective corporate governance. Simultaneously, they explore how organizations must adapt to sustainability-related developments.

Should business strive to be socially responsible, and if so, how? This book updates and broadens the discussion of these questions by bringing together in one volume a variety of practical and theoretical perspectives on corporate social responsibility.

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2024 in the subject Environmental Sciences - Sustainability, grade: 15, Osmania University (Amjad Ali Khan College of Business administration), course: MBA, language: English, abstract: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has emerged as a pivotal strategy for businesses aiming to enhance their environmental and sustainability performance. This study explores the multifaceted impact of CSR on environmental sustainability, highlighting how CSR initiatives can drive green innovation, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and promote sustainable business practices. By analyzing data from specific Indian origin Conglomerates, the research demonstrates that CSR initiatives not only fulfill regulatory requirements but also meet stakeholder expectations, leading to improved environmental outcomes. The findings suggest that these conglomerates engaging in the above programmes are better positioned to attain Sustainability Development Goals, thereby contributing to the planet Earth. CSR has also emerged as a pivotal strategy for businesses aiming to balance economic growth with environmental stewardship and social equity. It also explores the impact of CSR initiatives on environmental sustainability, examining how these businesses can integrate sustainable practices to mitigate their ecological footprint through. The research adopted an empirical study as well as conceptual analysis through a rigorous literature review with a sample of 25 conglomerates of India. The findings of the analysis have been presented and concluded the results accordingly.

Master's Thesis from the year 2023 in the subject Business economics - Business Ethics, Corporate Ethics, grade: 1,3, Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, language: English, abstract: This Master’s Thesis conducts a literature review of 32 studies, compiling the current knowledge about the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices, on companies’ debt costs, focusing on quantitative assessments. The growing recognition of the role corporations play in addressing environmental and social challenges has been on the rise for several years. As businesses are increasingly being held accountable for their environmental and societal influence, the calling for active engagement in CSR issues is louder than ever before. Consequently, companies face a growing demand regarding CSR issues such as sustainability practices, social impact initiatives, ethical governance, and transparent disclosure of these. Apparently, the traditional sole purpose of profit-making and increasing shareholder value is evolving into a multifaceted commitment to diverse stakeholder demands. CSR awareness and reporting on it have gained a lot of momentum in the last two decades. “2020 survey identified that 80% of N100 companies worldwide (the top 100 companies by revenue in 52 countries and jurisdictions) now report on sustainability, up by 5% since the last survey in 2017, while the reporting rate has reached 90% or more for the G250 group (the world’s largest 250 companies by revenue) since 2011”. Within this context, the financial implications of CSR practices, particularly their impact on companies’ ability to finance operations and expansion plans, emerge as a critical area for investigation. A relatively unexplored aspect is the effect on companies’ debt, which marks the primary focus of examination in this thesis.

Diploma Thesis from the year 2008 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 2,0, University of Linz (Institut für Internationales Management), language: English, abstract: Today, ethics gain more and more importance in our economy and the often-heard statement "Global capitalism, local values" underlines the trend to make money with the help of local values. From that aspect, capitalism does not seem to appear that ignoring and barbarous but shows us that in deed that human values and ethical standards are anchored in the acting of huge, successful multinational concerns. The role of values in that case is crucial as they affect our everyday life. Everything we do and the way we think is guided by values which we got communicated from our families, people that seem to be important for us or from institutions that accompanied us for a period of our life. Values and behaviour are some kind of indicators that form generations and decades.When talking about values and ethics, the upcoming importance of corporate socially responsible behaviour in form of CSR projects can not be disregarded. It is definitively the buzzword of the early 21st business century. Nearly every huge company has to face corporate social responsibility activities in order to behave in a way its customers and society in general want them to. So the role of external pressure should not be underestimated. A good example is McDonald's. The 40 billion US-dollar concern continuously implements CSR programs but does not behave in a socially responsible way when talking about the firm's employees and working conditions. Work at Mc Donald's is low-skilled, hard and most of the time unrelenting, as one of the company mottos suggests: "... if there is time to lean there is time to clean" (Royle, 2005, p.45). Bad working conditions like underpayment and endless night shifts make Mc Donald's to appear in another light in the minds of its employees and customers, after

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1,3, University of Applied Sciences Wildau (Wildau Institute of Technology (WIT)), course: Case Study On CSR, language: English, abstract: The Fraport AG is the owner and operator of Frankfurt's International Airport. The company is the only German Airport, which is listed in the German Mid-Cap share index (MDAX), where 50 mid-sized companies are traded. Due to the listing on the stock exchange, the company is committed to fulfill international transparency requirements like the application of international accounting standards and quarterly reporting. Additionally to the Annual Reports and the official publications, Fraport publishs "Fairplay", a so-called "Sustainability Report" to communicate their activities dealing with Corporate Social Responsibility. This document is published in german and english language, can be ordered as a printed document as well as downloaded from the company's homepage. The aim of this Fairplay-report is to provide information about the strategies they are working with and the "concrete steps they are taking to develop the company based on a sense of economic, ecological and social responsibility." To enable a holistic sustainability management, Fraport has set up a Sustainability Board in 2008, which is "positioned at the level of executive management and reports directly to the executive board." By having the committee at such a high position within the management-hierarchy, the Fraport Group likes to demonstrate the importance of CSR-issues within the company's preferences. How Fraport's CSR activities are to be seen is evaluated in this academic case study as an critical CSR Assessment.

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Business Ethics, Corporate Ethics, grade: A, , course: Master in International Communication, language: English, abstract: The author of this paper has chosen to analyse two topics: 1) corporate social responsibility, 2) crisis communication. These two topics were chosen because of the reason that crisis communication and corporate social responsibility have a positive effect on brand reputation. These two topics are analyzed and compared on two companies: Ryanair and EasyJet in the industry of low-cost airlines. The author has chosen these two companies because of three reasons. First, Ryanair and EasyJet are both are European low cost airlines, therefore this is a study of two “most-similar’ cases. Ryanair was chosen as it was the first low-fare airline in Europe, is now the second-largest low fare airline in Europe after easyJet based on revenue, but the largest when considering its value by market capitalisation. Second, there are available materials on Ryanair’s and EasyJet’s corporate social responsibility and criss communication both on their website, as well as in academic papers. Third, chosen companies for analysis are interesting in that they both are large airline companies - competitors and both have been highly visible in media. The corporate social responsibility and crisis communication may be seen in several dimensions, either environmental, social etc. In this case study research is concentrated on CSR goals and practices of both of companies. Besides, In the face of crisis communication issues associated with Ryanair as well as EasyJet the importance of right corporate social responsibility management needs to be questioned. In the further part of this paper the author will compare Ryanair and EasyJet in general by providing firm characteristics. Irish low-cost airline Ryanair Holdings PLC (Ryanair), based in Dublin, has long had an image as a maverick. Ryanair is known as the Europe’s biggest discount carrier. The Dublin-based airline, is also known for its low-fare policy and business model based on flying to cheaper, smaller airports rather than the more expensive hubs used by national carriers.