FNI project: Rhetoric and realities: Analysing corporate social responsibility in Europe (RARE)

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Rhetoric and Realities: Analysing Corporate Social Responsibility in Europe (RARE)

The issue of enhancing corporate social responsibility (CSR) has attracted increasing international attention, and the EU produced a green paper on CSR in 2001. Enhancing CSR undoubtedly involves a change and 'greening' of the thinking and rhetoric of corporations. However, corporate practice has to follow suit in order to make this concept a really interesting one.

This was the main question addressed by this project: Has CSR become more than nice rhetorical 'window-dressing' and really changed corporative practices? Moreover, we seeked to explain the degree of practical impact. Were there specific success factors which other corporate and governmental actors could learn from?

These questions were investigated by combining evidence from four policy fields and three important economic sectors. The policy fields were climate and chemicals policy, resource management policy, anti-bribery policy, and gender policy. The three sectors were the petroleum industry, the fisheries and fish processing industry, and the banking sector. FNI led the survey that looked into the petroleum industry.

The project was carried out in cooperation with several other European institutions, and has its own homepage here which includes several publications describing the approach taken in the project.

FNI project leader: Jørgen Wettestad

Project period: 2004-2009

Publications:

Boasson, Elin Lerum, 'On the Management Success of Regulative Failure: Standardised CSR Instruments and the Oil Industry's Climate Performance'. Corporate Governance, Vol 9, No 3, 2009, pp. 313-325.

Boasson, Elin Lerum and Jørgen Wettestad, 'Standardised CSR and Climate Performance: Why is Shell Willing, but Hydro Reluctant?' In Barth, Regine and Franziska Wolff (eds), Corporate Social Responsibility in Europe: Rhetoric and Realities. Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, 2009, pp. 133-156.

Boasson, Elin Lerum, Jørgen Wettestad and Maria Bohn, 'CSR in the European Oil Sector: A Mapping of Company Perceptions'. In Barth, Regine and Franziska Wolff (eds), Corporate Social Responsibility in Europe: Rhetoric and Realities. Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, 2009, pp. 65-79.

Skjærseth, Jon Birger and Jørgen Wettestad, 'A Framework for Assessing the Sustainability Impact of CSR'. In Barth, Regine and Franziska Wolff (eds), Corporate Social Responsibility in Europe: Rhetoric and Realities. Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, 2009, pp. 26-38.

Boasson, Elin Lerum and Jørgen Wettestad, Standardized CSR and Climate Performance: Why is Shell Willing, but Hydro Reluctant? FNI Report 4/2007. Lysaker, FNI, 2007, 26 p.

Boasson, Elin Lerum, Jørgen Wettestad and Maria Bohn, CSR in the European Oil Sector: A Mapping of Company Perceptions. FNI Report 9/2006. Lysaker, FNI, 2006, 22 p.

More publications at the RARE website

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