The institutionalisation of CSR in the UK and Germany. Effects on corporations' legitimacy strategies (PDF)

Master's Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Business economics - Marketing, Corporate Communication, CRM, Market Research, Social Media, University of Manchester, language: English, abstract: The focus of this research is the area of CSR and corporations’ increasing attention towards legitimising their existence within civil society. Reporting on CSR becomes increasingly important, not only in international business, but also as a corporate tool
to actively legitimise existence. CSR increasingly institutionalises the form of management guidelines and frameworks as well as via NGOs.

This research focuses on German and British corporations’ construction and professionalisation of CSR strategies and how corporations perceive legitimacy. This study additionally includes insights into institutional differences of CSR and
corporations’ legitimacy strategies by comparing two different forms of capitalisms.
This dissertation met these two main research aims through an extensive literature review, focussing particularly on legitimacy. In addition, template analysis of ten German and ten British corporations as well as critical discourse analysis was carried out. This dissertation produced a number of key findings. Firstly, the recent academic body of literature confirms an increasing institutionalisation of CSR. Secondly, this research diagnoses a corporation-led process of achieving legitimacy. Thirdly, despite national differences corporations seek acceptance and anchor their own responsibility strategies within frameworks of guiding institutions, which function as a ‘legitimacy tool’. The main conclusions drawn from this research were: that current approaches to explaining corporations’ legitimacy are insufficient because they focus solely on an external perspective, not accounting for internally established CSR initiatives to legitimise, and furthermore inconsiderate of corporations’ increasing independency.
This research argues for an extended approach, which additionally considers corporations two-way approach to legitimise as well as an active management of legitimisation as an expression of new corporate governance.


Appendix 4 "CSR reports, Discourse Material and Results of TA and CDA" is not included!