Corporate Social Responsibility Implementation Effectiveness Improvement in Lithuania: Model of Local Government Involvement

Abstract

CSR issues in developed countries are discussed for more than half of the century. These discussions encompass broad questions about the changing relationship between business, society and government, and other issues, encompasing the ways in which organizations respond to new social imperatives. Still emerging CSR theories elucidate significant public sector role in CSR. However, despite the growing attention on governments’ soft roles, the emerging problem of local government involvement in effective CSR development seems to be unexplored both in foreign and national research. Theoretically summarized roles of government in CSR development disclose critical CSR policy formation and implementation processes and identifies the importance of CSR responsibilities’ distribution at different levels of governance in relation towards effective CSR development. The new scientific research field emerge in this context, i.e. possibilities and tools for local governments, as the lowest organizational level of decentralized government, involvement in CSR development effectiveness improvement. In this research the possibility to integrate CSR values into local government’s strategic and action planning system was identified with serve of particular strategic planning methodology, i.e. balanced scorecard. The research justifies how balanced scorecard methodology in line with supplementary civic entrepreneurship help create CSR based strategic plans and program budget in local governments. Thus CSR values become accountable, provided with resources and processes, monitored and feed backed; local governments become CSR values driven and responsible for CSR values providers in local community.