social responsibility of romanian companies: contribution to a “good society” or expected business strategy?

Starting with J. K. Galbraith who conceptualized what ”good society” means and how it can be achieved, a long series of both theoretical and practical concerns has emerged. One way of implementing it is companies’ social responsibility. Companies are parts of the society, involved in social, cultural and educational field, contributing to economic and social development by creating jobs, producing goods, providing incomes and resources for public communities, innovations and general progress. Moreover, the companies’ social responsible actions cannot exclude the concern for major problems of the society, e.g. unemployment and social exclusion, equal chances or environmental issues. The social responsible companies involve themselves more and more in sponsorship and humanitarian mecenatum. At the same time, on the theoretical side, last decades testified of an effervescence of the researches on practices related to the concept of corporate social responsibility. Whilst so far corporate social responsibility is mainly promoted by a number of large companies, it is relevant in all types of companies and in all sectors of activity, from SMEs to multinational companies. A number of companies with good social and environmental records indicate that these activities can induce better performance and more profit. The paper investigates various issues concerning Romanian companies’ CSR projects, attempting to reveal to what extent these actions really contribute to a “good society” or they are just business strategies to attract customers and make more profit. In its first part we introduce the subjects and briefly review the literature and main concepts, while in the second part we present main facts and figures related to CSR in Romania, along with the main types of companies’ involvement in social and humanitarian area. We analyse the differences between behaviour of large companies versus small and medium sized companies, and also the most adequate forms of intervention ( financially and legally) to ensure maximum efficacy and visibility of CSR actions. Finally we conclude on the importance of CSR within society but also on the risk that it could be converted in a business strategy or marketing tool, without any social impact.