ROTTERDAM, The Netherlands, July 23 /PRNewswire/ -- While the world is clamouring for measures to combat climate change, the
corporate community is actually taking a growing number of initiatives to
tackle the problem. Likewise, climate change, which took 8th place on the
"social agenda" of major European companies in 2002, has now jumped to 4th
place. In fact, the corporate community expects the issue of climate change
to top its agenda within the next five years. This has become clear from a
survey held among the 200 largest European companies this spring. The
research focused on the issue of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Asked about their policies regarding a wide variety of social issues
- including corruption prevention; climate change; fair trade and fair
procurement; labour rights and poverty - companies are saying that they still
see corruption prevention as their top priority, as has traditionally been
the case. Runner-up is transparency of business practice. Number three on the
list of corporate social concerns is health and safety. This is closely
followed by climate change and labour rights. Lower down the agenda are
issues such as income equality and fair wages; fair trade and fair
procurement; ecological diversity; and education. And businesses are now
giving the lowest priority to the general issue of poverty reduction.
Especially enterprises that have been able to connect social issues with
their own financial performance are very active in the sphere of CSR. In
turns out that a growing number of European companies are taking their civic
responsibility very seriously. The more socially engaged companies are more
inclined to hold their managers to account for delivering on social issues.
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The researchers say, "In the past, a company's attention for CSR very
much depended on the enthusiasm shown by a single executive or CEO. But at
present, a growing number of European companies are willing and able to act
as good corporate citizens in a structural fashion. Increasingly, businesses
regard CSR as an opportunity and not so much as a threat. That is a very
encouraging development."
Previously, pressure on companies to improve their CSR performance was
coming from advocacy groups and NGOs. But these days, companies are feeling
almost as much heat from their own shareholders and consumers. On top of
that, CSR is becoming evermore important to companies in recruiting and
retaining good-quality employees; as well as in distinguishing themselves
from the competition in the marketplace.
The research shows that major European companies are using a very broad
range of tools to improve their civic performance. Almost all large companies
have drawn up their own code of conduct, while more than half of them have
their staff follow training in CSR. Businesses are increasingly teaming up
with external parties to become more socially active. An impressive example:
a third of big companies engage in stakeholder dialogue about climate change.
The leading European companies expect climate change to move the top of
the corporate agenda in the near future. In their view, poverty reduction,
education and income equality must now take a back seat to the problem of
climate change.
The research was conducted by Prof. Dr. Muel Kaptein, Prof. Dr. Rob van
Tulder, Linda Kooning and Laurens van Vliet of the Department of
Business-Society Management at RSM Erasmus University. Muel Kaptein and Linda
Kooning also work for KPMG.
About RSM Erasmus University: RSM Erasmus University is an
internationally top-ranked business school renowned for its ground-breaking
research in sustainable business practice and for the development of leaders
in global business. Offering an array of bachelor, master, doctoral, MBA and
executive education programmes, RSM is consistently ranked amongst the top 10
business schools in Europe. The Department of Business-Society Management,
which is part of RSM Erasmus University, focuses on the relationship between
business and (global) society.
RSM Erasmus University
For more information on RSM Erasmus University or on this release, please contact Marianne Schouten, Media & Public Relations Manager for RSM Erasmus University, on +31-10-408-2877 or by email at mschouten@rsm.nl.
