Katalin Takács-György

Examining Corporate Social Responsibility from a Stakeholder Viewpoint Based on an Empirical Research

In today’s complex and ever changing economic environment an organisation can only be successful, if it can meet the needs of its stakeholders. There is an even bigger ethical, social, legal and strategic pressure on the economic and social organisations. This also stands for not only the profi t-oriented corporations but also for budget authorities and any other public organisations. Several organisations have recognised the infl uence of the stakeholders and have tried to meet their needs. That means that they operate a CSR policy on a volunteer base, as the only way for survival. The CSR is not a separate task, nowadays the management of the stakeholders is part of the strategic management, as at times the interests of different groups must be attended. The present study deals with the infl uence of stakeholders on the CSR practice, it also introduces the differences in stakeholder relationship among corporations of different sizes as well as examining the characteristics of the different actors. Based on the results of the qualitative research it can be stated that a signifi cant difference can be found in the stakeholder relationship of the small- and medium size enterprises (SMEs) and of large corporations. The large corporations build their relationship in signifi cantly higher ratio with the nationwide stakeholder, whereas the SMEs encourage communication with the local stakeholders and neglect those nationwide stakeholders that are out of their operational scope. This can be said about the public sector as well, that is large corporations prefer the interaction with this sector at a higher ratio. However, it is a common characteristic of all Hungarian enterprises that they value the relationship with stakeholders of environmental importance more than the communication with stakeholders of social importance.

The Examination of the CSR Attitudes of the CEOs among Hungarian SMEs

It is becoming more and more important for the actors of economy, both in the corporate and public sector, to take into consideration certain social and environmental aspects to be socially respected in their business activities. Nowa-days it is a generally accepted fact that corporate decisions have their impacts not only on the immediate environment on the whole society. The CEOs of the companies have significant roles in that. The present study focuses on the CSR attitudes of the CEOs among the Hungarian SMEs based on a survey from 2014. The study introduces those factors that feature and determine the formation of the attitudes. Along the dimensions it can be stated that concerning the CSR attitude of the majority of the leaders of the Hunga-rian SMEs are beyond the traditional only profit maximization type of thinking. The CEOs in the sample do form a homogenous group. Regarding the CSR attitudes of the examined CEOs, the atti-tudes can be divided into three clear segments: the traditional, the modern and the neutral.

Macroeconomic trends by the use of structural funds

The main goal of the European Unions regional policy is to reduce structural disparities between EU member states and regions. The balanced development throughout the EU can promote real equal opportunities for all. So the policy is based on the concept of solidarity and cohesion of economic and social conditions. It achieves this by means of a variety of financing operations, principally through the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund. The policy focuses on three main objectives, convergence – solidarity, regional competitiveness and employment and European territorial cooperation. By these objectives the EU supported projects in a wide range of areas – at regional and national level – from business support to urban development. It is very important that, these themes reflect the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy to promote smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Between 2007 and 2013 for the European Unions regional policy is allocated 347 billion euro, 35.7% of the total EU budget for that period, just over 49 billion euro a year. All programmes are co-financed by the member countries the total available funding is almost 700billion euro, so the programmes and the results are and will be significant. The main programmes, eligible areas, and the beneficiaries of the national programs can be summarized, but to measure the various programs effectiveness, in the different countries, are much more complicated. The results depend on a lot of variables, for example the managerial institutional system, the structure of the national programs, the habitat of the participant and many obvious and potential, external and internal economical and social conditions. But despite of the dissimilarities, we try to collect, through some macroeconomical structural indicators, the main characteristic trends of the utilization EU sources. With various methods, we will characterize the coherence between gross domestic product, labour force statistics etc. Because the analysis of the 27 EU countries could be voluminous, it will be focused on some countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

The examination of non-profit and public institutions from the CSR viewpoint

Summary To reveal the company’s social policy publicly – in the form of certifi cates, indices or reports – occurs more and more often in the corporate practice and communication. The year 2011 has a special role among the campaign of the European Union since 1983. This year the main focus is on voluntariness, which is one of the principles of the European Union, the aim is to draw the attention of the European people to the signifi cance of voluntariness. The advantage of the companies’ voluntary programme is that through the internal communication a more effective cooperation can be ensured among the employees and nonbusiness. So more and more companies feel the need of the CSR activities, with which they can create competitive advantage for themselves. The research focuses on the nonbusiness group, and examines its relationships and cooperation with other organizations and groups. The aim of the research carried out in Hungary is to discover and unveil the aims and motivations of the above mentioned segments, and whether the opposing parties, in economic sense, are able to cooperate for one goal in the interest of the community and environment. The research raises the following questions: What kind of donations is offered from the businesses and from the civil people? Do they comply with the expectation and necessities of the nonbusiness? Is their cooperation useful? Are they able to solve their problems, to communicate effectively? The results of the research showed similarities with the literature, i.e.: the infl uencing factors of CSR are the effective communication, the realized cost and benefi ts for the donor, the empathy, the norm system of the individual and the expectation of the society. The importance of CSR appears at more and more forums (CSR market, corporate PR etc.). However, to be able to speak of appropriate CSR that is already built-in the value system of the individuals – especially from the viewpoint of society, ecological and economic sustainability – Hungary has a long way to go as there is still a great lack of empathy, internal motivation and social sensitivity, which can only be inherited through culture. Communication forms the base of offering assistance, as without it the realization of needs is not possible. The sceptics often accuse the companies that the CSR practice from their part