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Building National Competitiveness through CSR Index – Case Study of Croatia

In order to make the European Union the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, the EU, within its key strategic framework, the Lisbon Agenda, prescribed corporate social responsibility (hereafter CSR) as its base competitiveness model. This strategic accent is further emphasized by the new EU Communication on CSR that was issued in October 2011 which puts forward a new understanding of CSR, which no longer refers to CSR as a voluntary action beyond compliance but highlights that every corporation causes impacts which it is then responsible for. In order to assess voluntary practices of Croatian companies, the Croatian Chamber of Commerce and the Croatian Business Council for Sustainable Development started developing a benchmarking methodology, which was launched in 2008 in the form of the CSR index of Croatian public and private enterprises. The used methodology for index development was context based, although it was initiated in accordance with similar comparative methodologies such as BITC CR Index. Since 2008, the index was revised, improved and conducted on an every year basis through a voluntary questionnaire that covers six different fields. The principle goal of the project of CSR index was to accelerate development of CSR as a strategic integration tool among Croatian companies and foster a knowledge sharing process among its participants. In this paper we will describe how a project evolved from an idea to an ongoing important national project, and how all stakeholders involved in that process tried to build a benchmark of acceptable corporate behavior among all participants involved.

corporate social responsibility index ; index development ; stakeholder management

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