The Assessment of the integration of public and corporate social responsibility in Lithuania

Abstract

The traditions of CSR are formed and developed in Lithuania using the experience of the EU and various international organisations. Various factors interact with each other and influence opportunities of CSR promotion and development. Former economic crisis has had a serious injury to the development of CSR. Many companies in the country in 2008-2010 reduced staff salaries and unemployment significantly increased. It is therefore very important that the CSR principles would be implemented also in difficult business conditions, not just declared. The recovery of the national economy created favourable conditions for the development of a new CSR impulse. Various companies and institutions should make better use of arising opportunities for CSR development. Job creation opportunities depend on the level of entrepreneurship. Successful socially responsible development of own business makes it easier to create attractive jobs. However, the statistical analysis of the data shows that the entrepreneurship of the population of the country (especially women) is rather low. This shows that in Lithuania the reserves of entrepreneurship is not used in sector of small business. As we can see from the publication material, there are many factors in Lithuania that both encourage and stop CSR. It can be said that CSR and its options depend on these factors and interactions. Objective knowledge about their impact on the development of CSR is lacking. Therefore, CSR development opportunities and the assessment of the factors influencing it significantly requires more investigations.