Analysis of National and EU Policies Supporting CSR and Impact

The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the place of governmental policies in encouraging and supporting Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and their effectiveness therein. By: Moon, Jeremy - Slager, Rieneke - Brunn, Christoph - Hardi, Peter - Steen Knudsen, Jette - 2012
The very thought of a relationship between CSR and government policies would, from some perspectives, seem counter-intuitive or simply wrong. From these perspectives it would appear to be a category error that a concept founded on voluntarism, vs CSR, should be shaped by the antithesis of voluntarism, vs public policy. What the report finds however is that in general terms there has been a remarkable growth of public policies for CSR in Europe. This finding is confirmed both by review of the relevant literature but also our own pan-European analysis. No longer is CSR mainly implicit in public policies but it is also increasingly explicit in government policies (Matten and Moon 2008). In other words, it is not simply that government policies structure the environment in which companies choose to behave responsibly or otherwise, but also that policies are precisely designed to encourage such behaviour. These policies tend to reflect a general trend from endorsement (e.g. rhetoric, conferences, networks, awards, labeling, public procurement); through facilitation (e.g. subsidies, tax incentives); and partnership (e.g. governmental collaboration with business organizations and, very often, also with civil society organizations); to mandate (e.g. for accounting or reporting standards). However, the trajectories between and combinations of these policy types also vary among countries (see below). Collectively they tend to reflect broader trends in new governance which stress participation, networks and learning