Įmonių socialinė atsakomybė ekonominės krizės sąlygomis Lietuvoje

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility becomes part of successful business strategy as well as a concern of a company on its path towards the realisation of its social and economic aims. The aim of the work is to perform an analysis of socially responsible companies in Lithuania and assess changes in corporate social responsibility and its impact on corporate operation indicators in the context of economic crisis in Lithuania. The concept of CSR in Lithuania is more related to the concept of humanism or responsible business. The data used for the empirical research were obtained from a targeted survey of companies operating in Lithuania. The results of the research revealed that the economic crisis has a negative impact on socially responsible companies in Lithuania, since more than half (63%) of companies noted that they intend to decrease their expenses on corporate social responsibility in the context of the economic crisis. The majority of companies stated that by reducing social responsibility expenses, they consider its impact on the image of a company in society (93%) and the way it influences companies’ financial results. The obtained results indicated that Lithuanian companies regard corporate social responsibility as part of a company’s strategy allowing increasing financial resources, and improving its image and competitive advantage. The majority of socially responsible companies (63%) did not agree with the statement that CSR is a possibility for a company to survive under the conditions of the economic crisis. All socially responsible companies agreed that social responsibility provides internal and external advantages for the organisation.