With Great Power Comes Great (Corporate Social) Responsibility: A Qualitative Study on What Drives CSR Initiatives in Large Swedish Historically Unsustainable Industries

Abstract: The interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) has boomed over the past decades, and is still increasing in terms of relevance for businesses. CSR is a broad concept containing many possibilities of impact, and different companies as well as industries engage in it in different ways. This study investigates how large Swedish male dominated, historically unsustainable companies choose what CSR initiatives to engage in, how they are understood, and most importantly, why. This is done by following the Gioia methodology and collecting data from semi-structured interviews with individuals from top management in charge of sustainability initiatives. The data is then analyzed using two intertwined theories; System Justification Theory and Institutional Logics. Our findings show that top management mainly follow the market logic, and choose initiatives that benefit profitability and stock price. Concurrently, the initiatives are designed and chosen with the consequences being that the status quo of the companies are preserved - namely that of a company with necessarily unsustainable core operations. We argue that these findings benefit future regulation and incentivisation of CSR, as it brings greater understanding into the prioritization and the decision making process of large Swedish male dominated companies. Further, it gives implications into how to package initiatives in order to avoid resistance, while suggesting topics for future studies on connected areas.