CSR strategies and their legal scenario: instruments, limits and opportunities for Multinational Companies

Abstract

This thesis deals with the corporate social responsibility: from a view on the limits and opportunities in this sense to a recognition of the main instruments that a firm can use and finally to see a comparison among two Italian fashion brands in their sustainability. The aim of the first chapter is to give the landscape faced by a MNE: the discussion will be about the main instruments adopted by Governments and guidelines and charts by International organizations. In the same section other topics will be the ownership of the enterprise, comparing the shareholder and the stakeholder theory on this and the power exerted by the consumers on CSR-related issues. The second chapter will go deeper on the devices that an enterprise can use to develop its strategy on the sustainability: after an explication on the triple bottom line the core of the section will focus on codes of conduct, certifications and social reporting. The last chapter will use the previous topics to analyse Benetton Group and Brunello Cucinelli from the side of their CSR, the choice of these two companies was made since even if they are in two opposite segment of the market they have a strong focus on social themes for their institutional communication.