Going beyond the legal aspects, there is increasing evidence of importance of CSR for consumers. For example, a 2017 study conducted in the US (https://www.conecomm.com/research-blog/2017-csr-study) found that more than 60 percent of Americans hope businesses will drive social and environmental change in the absence of government regulation. The majority of consumers surveyed (87 percent) said they would purchase a product because a company supported an issue they care about. More importantly, study showed that 76 percent would refuse to buy from a company if they learn it supports an issue contrary to their own beliefs.

Washington State University just published the visual resource guide titled, Corporate Social Responsibility: Helping Others is Good Business. This in-depth resource guide was created for socially responsible companies, business sustainability groups, and communities who are looking to share information about how to build socially responsible cultures that has an impact beyond the bottom line. For more information about this guide, please follow the link.

Of course, markets of individual countries such as Serbia and United States are hard to compare, as is the social awareness of their consumers. However, Chamber of commerce and industry of Serbia has recognized the universal importance of CSR values and principles and has provided a very good Guide to responsible business practice (https://www.pks.rs/SADRZAJ/Files/Kvalitet/Vodic%20za%20odgovorno%20preduzetnistvo.pdf). Creators of this very compelling brochure provide examples how companies (big, medium, small or even micro) in Serbia and the region can implement CSR principles. The focus is on four aspects: employees, business surroundings, local community and environment.

Employees – their skills and competence as well as their wellbeing are essential for establishing a profitable and highly competitive business. One way to establish these values is in giving opportunities to employees for constant development and education and providing a healthy working environment and care for them and their families.
Business surroundings – for building a good business reputation the key is to have transparent business policies and taking good care of clients and consumers and their needs by providing them with high quality products and services.
Local community – in a market with many competing businesses, creating an advantage and becoming more competitive is to recognize and satisfy the needs of local community and thus get the title of a “good neighbor” – the situation in which all the stakeholders win.
Environment – one of the main problems of today is certainly the environmental protection and businesses of all sizes have an obligation to make themselves energy efficient and sustainable, without even mentioning the cost savings resulting from it. This was a short introduction to concept of CSR, and in some of the coming AKT blog posts we will present more specific points on where Serbia stands in terms of regulating and promoting CSR principles.
Iva Zivkovic