Connecting organisational stakeholders: Corporate values and business practices

Illustratie van samenwerking binnen een bedrijf

Many businesses nowadays position themselves as an organisation with a strong commitment to corporate social responsibility. Whether this responsibility involves climate protection activities, inclusive business practices, charitable initiatives, more honest communications or even anti-corruption programs: it can all fall under the heading of corporate social responsibility. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) comes in different forms at different levels. This raises the question what does it mean to work for or engage with a socially responsible company?

This project investigates how organisational statements about CSR policies and programs influence key stakeholders, such as present and future employees, customers, local communities and future generations. Under what conditions do these different stakeholders believe their interests are genuinely taken into account? The aim of this project is to identify what characterizes organisations that manage to foster stakeholders’ interest and thus facilitating employee commitment, customer support and community credibility. More broadly, it examines the ripple effect the beliefs and actions of socially responsible companies have both within and outside organisations.

Funding

This study is part of the research program Sustainable Cooperation - Roadmaps to Resilient Societies (SCOOP). The SCOOP program was funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) in the context of its 2017 Gravitation Program.

Researcher

Supervisor UU

Supervisor VU