Government Policies for Corporate Social Responsibility in Europe: Support and Institutionalization

This paper analyses the policies of 23 European national governments designed to encourage corporate social responsibility (CSR) over the first decade of the century. Our paper identifies a trend from an initial emphasis on government policies which ‘endorse’ and ‘partner’ CSR to those which ‘facilitate’ and ‘mandate’ it. Secondly, whilst it identifies a wide range of issues to which government CSR policies are directed, it notes a tendency for these to have expanded from social affairs and employment issues, through environmental issues, to economic and trade and development issues. Thirdly, governments act as agents in their respective institutional structures to embed CSR concerns explicitly into these frameworks. We conclude that, diversity in institutional frameworks and policies notwithstanding, European government CSR initiatives are converging, particularly around the greater institutionalization of CSR policies and the broadening of their issue application. The findings inform the proposition of four government CSR strategies.