Samenvatting

Corporate Social Responsibility is an emerging term often used in the globalizing world. The concept CSR has many definitions. The general idea is that companies involved in CSR improve their activities on economic, social and environmental level. This theory is called the Triple Bottom Line. Thus, a sustainable approach by a company is when the company takes full responsibility towards both society and environment of the area it operates in and at the same time sustaining its economic dimension on a voluntary basis. Companies can have different motivations for engaging in CSR practices. Some use it as a marketing tool and others focus purely on meeting the needs of its stakeholders. The general idea behind CSR is that the company gets involved in more responsible and accountable actions than law requires, because it takes into account the voices of all the different stakeholders.
Where in fact CSR started off as a voluntary principle coming from the business community, the globalization of the world and the upcoming economies of the BRIC countries introduced the 'new CSR'. New CSR can be seen as a necessary business tool for companies in order to survive in the market. Rapidly emerging institutions, regulations and other pressures in this field, ensure that CSR is changing from voluntary to mandatory. In other words, businesses cannot perform their activities in a vacuum anymore. Therefore, it can be concluded that CSR has changed from 'doing good' into 'doing business.'
This report examined the existing ideas behind CSR and placed them in the current market situation of the BRIC countries. The concept of CSR is successfully integrated in the developed countries, but still has a long way to go. Companies in the BRICs still face many environmental and social challenges in their daily operations. On one hand, the rapid economic growth of the BRIC lifted millions of people out of poverty, but on the other hand needs to keep in pace with the stricter regulations and the greater social and environmental control. This might be the greatest challenge of all. A company its relationship with local communities and environment is an important factor in order to be able to operate effectively. Furthermore, the status of a company in relation to these two dimensions is increasingly used to measure a company's overall performance. Tools like the UN's Global Compact, ISO 26000 and sustainability reporting NGOs help businesses to improve their relationship with society and environment and their status.
However, this report describes the lack of interest under domestic companies in the BRIC multiple times. They view the concept of CSR more as an additional, sometimes unnecessary task. Naturally, for companies with a high CSR policy working together in supply chains increases the risks of unethical businesses practices. Some scholars suggest that increased foreign investment in the BRIC will lead to the utilization of CSR practices by domestic companies as well.
After analysing the current CSR situation in the BRIC countries and the pressures coming from the different stakeholders, a country ranking system was developed in order to compare the four countries among each other based on their scores on corruption, poverty, income inequality, child labour, quality of democracy, quality of life, environmental performance and environmentally active. In this ranking system, Brazil seems to score best on most of the criteria and has the highest average, but the country does not have a clear conscience either. Literature research shows that Brazil too holds many social and environmental challenges for businesses.
In conclusion, because CSR is a concept that is not equally applicable to every country and every industry or businesses in the world, companies that want to get involved or enhance their CSR practices really need to develop a solid strategy that includes all the areas of their activities and issues they might contribute to. The main findings resulted in a number of recommendations that companies can use to get involved in responsible activities and improve their sustainable initiatives.