Standardizing CSR with current guidelines and standards - The case of business-to-business service enterprises in the EU and Sweden

Abstract: Title: Standardizing CSR with current guidelines and standards - The case of business-to-business service enterprises in the EU and Sweden Author: Dzanina Dzindo Background: Today, companies are engaging more and more in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Due to globalization, CSR has become a natural consequence, which companies should adapt their business to. CSR is, today, only voluntary based and no regulatory framework has been demanded for, nor wished for, by the main stakeholders involved. Business-to-business service enterprises (B2BSEs) have an additional challenge when dealing with clients, when needing to provide sustainable solutions, fitting the company and the client. Standards and guidelines have been provided by various organizations, both national and international, and businesses have embraced them in their business strategies. Though, there is always a question of how much companies have included and being able to actually go through with standards and guidelines. The European Union (EU) market for B2BSEs has grown faster than the EU economy. And, Swedish firms, in particular, have shown great potential and become a forth runner of sustainable business. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to find how CSR can become part of the everyday operations of B2BSEs and not something that requires special attention and efforts to incorporate. In addition, this study will look at what the government, on the EU level and nationally, focusing on Sweden, can adopt in order to make CSR a standard in the absence of a compulsory, regulatory framework. Method: The main method used was document analysis on documents from the United Nations (UN), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the EU, the Swedish Government, and other relevant documents concerning CSR. In addition, three interviews were conducted presenting “a Swedish perspective”, “a standardization body perspective”, and a “company perspective”. Combining these two methods gave a better conformation of information to further legitimize the study. Conclusion: Based on the information and analysis, the conclusion derived to is that there cannot be a general standardization, but companies, in this case B2BSEs, themselves need to create their own standardization, by using the elements of CSR/CSR2, CSR communication/ Corporate Social Innovation (CSI), stakeholder theory, and all the relevant standards and guidelines. It is important to tailor make a CSR approach and to incorporate it in their core business, because CSR is not supposed to be an added value, but a natural part of every business. Also, there is no need for further standards or guidelines, but now all actors need to work together to implement the existing ones, and maybe, when that is done, we can see a way toward