This dissertation has been conducted with the aim of evaluating the social and environmental Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) amongst large UK international companies against theory and best practice. CSR has grown in importance throughout recent years and increased pressure has been placed on businesses to act upon this. Although many studies have addressed aspects of CSR, there is a lack of research regarding both the environmental and social aspects combined. As a result this creates a gap in literature for further research that this dissertation will explore.
A further aim of this study is to understand and evaluate how these companies incorporate their environmental and social CSR into their business, looking at the motives behind this and how the current UK regulations have an effect on these strategies. Chapter one outlines the aims and objectives of the research study, chapter two is an introduction and review of the literature exploring the main concepts and theories of CSR. Chapter 3 includes the methodology of the research study, consisting of analysing secondary data from 10 companies’ official websites. Chapter 4 consists of the analysis and results from the research carried out. Chapter 5 presents the overall findings of the study, identifying and evaluating how most companies adopt environmental CSR strategies in response to government regulations compared to their social CSR strategies, which are voluntary and thus down to the specific business’ and their values. Overall this study concludes that the companies researched must improve their CSR if they want to be fulfilling their philanthropic responsibilities that society expects of them.
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