A Framework for evaluating, certifying and promoting CSR in the modern business world

Details

Supervisors

Swaen, Valérie

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] en Ingénieur de gestion

Abstract

In a world that seeks to move towards sustainability and that aspires to find solutions for achieving a sustainable development, corporate social responsibility presents itself as a possible answer for such quests. This thesis deals with the current lack of an effective and efficient consumer-oriented framework for evaluating, certifying and promoting corporate social responsibility in the modern business world. The inexistence of such framework prevents consumers from rewarding socially responsible companies and from influencing the market through their consumption behaviours. To further understand the issue and to pave the way for the proposed framework itself, a literature review (on the topics of sustainability, corporate social responsibility and previous attempts to evaluate corporate social responsibility performance in companies) is presented. Based on the state of the art, a methodology (using a multiple-criteria decision analysis approach) to address the problem is explored and a concrete framework is proposed/developed. For that purpose, a Choquet integral preference model (with some specific methodological developments) is used to produce a ranking of alternatives. Such model allows to include and to study the effects of interactions between criteria, which is particularly useful in certain fields of study like the one of corporate social responsibility. The proposed framework is then subjected to a first practical application, in the form of a case-study on the Portuguese energy sector. The results of such application are in line with what was expected, appear to be robust and seem to succeed in providing relevant information that can be used by common consumers.