University of Vaasa - Vaasan yliopisto

evenly balanced between the two dimensions, but cannot be termed strategic
according to our definition.
The bottom left quadrant corresponds to those companies that have neither integrated
CSR into their business strategy (limiting it to philanthropy or social initiatives not
linked to their core business), nor implemented management systems or
organizational tools to formalize and systematize CSR management. Because of the
criteria by which the sample has been selected, none of the companies falls into this
quadrant. Since the research goal was to evaluate which are the main factors that
contribute to defining a company's approach to CSR as strategic, this lack will not
affect the results of the study.
The following section now further clarifies the positioning of the companies in the
matrix, providing some real-world examples of the different approaches. In particular
the focus will be on strategic CSR, formalized CSR and social values-driven CSR. As
noted previously, companies in the top right-hand corner have both integrated CSR
into their business strategy and implemented a formal CSR management process: for
these reasons, their approach to CSR can be termed strategic.
The following example better clarifies what is meant by strategic CSR.
Company I: Strategic CSR
Company I was motivated primarily by the desire to obtain a listing in an ethical
index, which was considered crucial for accessing sources of funding, and by the
desire to match and surpass its major competitors. To this end, it set up a structured
system of social responsibility management that allows it to identify strategic
opportunities within CSR related issues. More specifically, the planning system
comprises the following steps:
1. Identifying areas of improvement for sustainability performance
2. Comparing the identified improvement areas against the investment projects
that the company is intending to implement for business purposes.
3. Planning interventions within those improvement areas for which there are
no investments already planned, or for which the planned investments do not
have sufficient positive impact in terms of sustainability.
4. Monitoring the areas in which the company wants to maintain the level of
performance already achieved.
Through the structured process described above, the company identified a set of
priority areas, to which it decided to devote a large proportion of its investments:
• Digital Inclusion
• Impact of TLC services
• Sustainable Mobility
• Product Liability
• E-security and privacy
• Guardianship of minors
• Climate change
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