RESEARCH OF APPROACHES TO THE ASSESSMENT OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF MEDIUM-SIZED BUSINESSES
With the increasing role assigned to the social mission of business in the formation of a positive image in front of the public, the problem of evaluating the activities in the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) by organizations focused on successful development is becoming increasingly relevant. The article discusses the various approaches currently used in practice (including standards, sustainability indices, self-assessment models) that allow evaluating the activities of organizations in the field of CSR. Such a variety of evaluation methods is due to the fact that each of them has a number of limitations in its application, which should be considered. As a result of systemati-zation of the approaches to CSR assessment considered in the framework of the study, their comparative analysis was carried out in key areas of CSR. A significant result of the presented scientific work is the determination of the most appropriate method for assessing the activities of medium-sized businesses in all areas of CSR (environmental, social, economic, stakeholders, neighborli-ness).
Keywords: business, management, competitiveness, stakeholders, corporate social responsibility, socially responsible practices, sustainable development, sustainability index, self-assessment model, socially responsible investment.
Highlights:
♦ the key areas of CSR for which the organization`s performance is evaluated are identified;
♦ the most frequently used approaches in modern world practice (including standards, sustainabil-ity indices, self-assessment models) are studied and the possibility of their application for assessing the CSR of medium-sized businesses in all key areas of CSR is analyzed;
♦ based on the results of the analysis, the most appropriate approach for assessing the activities of medium-sized businesses in all areas of CSR (environmental, social, economic, stakeholders, neighborliness) was determined.
Elena P. Troshina, Candidate of Economics, Associate Professor of the Department of Applied Management.; Tatyana A. Chizhova, Graduate student. - Samara State University of Economics.