The challenges generated by climate change have led to a greater involvement of companies in promoting the principles of sustainable development, one of the tools used being social responsibility programs. International organizations have launched various initiatives or principles to support companies in this complex process of transition to the green economy. The authors focused their analysis on the involvement of stock exchanges in the process of promotion of corporate social responsibility. The objective of this chapter is to identify the main tools used by stock exchanges in order to model the behavior of listed companies. In particular, the activity of the Bucharest Stock Exchange was analyzed. Even if it is an emerging market, the efforts made by this stock exchange and the results obtained can be used as a benchmark by stock exchanges in the region.
TopCorporate Social Responsibility - A New Concept That Shapes The Behavior Of Companies And Other Entities
Growing in importance over the years, the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is today synonymous with successful business and must be the basis of the strategy of all companies that want to conduct successful activities nationally or globally. CSR ensures a harmonization of the economic, social and environmental objectives of the companies, which are no longer in conflict, being integrated in the business strategy. (Porter& Kramer 2002; Ciutacu et al., 2005;Hoi et al., 2013;Matei, 2013;Pici et al., 2014;Brezoi, 2018;Barić et a., 2020;Gurtu, 2020;Hysa et al., 2020;Kim and Lee, 2020).
The financial scandals in which various large corporations were involved, the ecological disasters caused by the oil companies, the continuous pollution generated by the transport and industry companies have highlighted the negative externalities that the economic activity has and the negative impact on many categories of stakeholders such as employees, shareholders, local communities (Matei, 2013;Zaman et al., 2020). Today, almost 70 years after its conception, the term remains difficult to define, because currently there is no universal consensus when it comes to a definition for Corporate Social Responsibility. The authors will take advantage of this consensual vacuum to define Corporate Social Responsibility as the voluntary self-regulation of a company's business practices to minimize the negative impact, in the present and in the future, on society and human beings and also to maximize the positive potential on the environment, local communities, employees and other categories of stakeholders.