Encouraging CSI in Italy: The Enabling Role of Government in Mandating, Motivating, and Supporting Responsible Business Practices

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns into their business operations and interactions with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis (CEC, 2001), has clearly attained a high degree of relevance for a large number of companies of all sizes. Moving from an initial, vague awareness of the necessity to actively contribute to the development of society as a whole, CSR is now increasingly associated with a new managerial model centered on the voluntary integration of economic, social and environmental responsibilities into the entire value chain and all company functions, and on the relationships with the stakeholder network. CSR is a discipline that progressively aligns shareholder and stakeholder interests, able to shift between short- to long-term objectives.

Although the evolution of CSR theory and practice is the product of different complementary forces (that is, for example, from market and consumer pressures to the activities of nonprofit organizations), the importance of governments in fostering the debate over the role and responsibilities of business in society is also of vital importance.

Increasingly public authorities, at different levels, play a key role in setting a reference framework and establishing conditions that guarantee a common ground, mediating among different perspectives. Over the last few decades, CSR has become an unprecedented global movement, progressing from a niche issue to a mainstream approach to better business management. This is good news: more and more companies are acknowledging and internalizing the importance of CSR. But CSR has now become “an eclectic field with loose boundaries, multiple memberships, and differing training/perspectives” (Carroll, 1994, p. 14). As a result, there is confusion about what it really means. How, then, can stakeholders – from investors to customers – discern which companies are truly “walking the walk” of CSR as opposed to simply “talking the talk?”