Societal expectations towards corporations have changed. Since the end of the 1990s more and more companies have adopted the idea of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and have become involved in fields such as the protection of the environment or the development of local communities, beyond binding legal regulations.
In her study "Corporate Social Responsibility zwischen globaler Diffusion und Lokalisierung. Britische und chinesische Ölindustrie im Vergleich", Melanie Coni-Zimmer, using the example of the oil industry, investigates the double findings that - on the one hand - the idea of CSR is increasingly disseminated globally and on the other hand it is conceived and interpreted differently in diverging national contexts.
Transnational dynamics and the formation of CSR norms play a vital role in the growing diffusion of CSR with companies. The comparison between British and Chinese oil companies furthermore reveals that the context of the home state plays an important role in the adoption and interpretation of CSR norms.
This PRIF Study is available at Nomos publishing house.