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Attitudes toward Corporate Responsibilities in Western Europe and in Central and East Europe

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Abstract

  • This study investigated the attitudes toward social, economic, and environmental corporate responsibilities of 3064 current managers and business students in 8 European countries.

  • Participants in Western European countries had significantly different perspectives on the importance of these corporate responsibilities (CR) than those in Central and East European countries. Within each country, environmental CR is perceived as most important in both CEE and Western European countries. Across countries, Western European respondents accord more importance to social CR and less importance to economic CR. CEE countries are not homogenous, e.g., CR attitudes in the Czech Republic are closer to that of Western Europeans, possibly triggered by the accession to EU.

  • Work experience (managers vs. business students) influences social and environmental orientations more than the economic orientation for only some countries. Generational differences were found as well: Business students attribute more importance to environmental CR and less importance to social CR than managers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Management Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Olivier Furrer

  2. Faculty of Business Administration, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada

    Carolyn P. Egri

  3. Price College of Business, University of Oklahoma, Norman, USA

    David A. Ralston

  4. Institute of International Business, Georgia State University, Atlanta, USA

    Wade M. Danis

  5. IAE Aix-en-Provence, Université Paul Cézanne Aix-Marseille III, Aix-en-Provence, France

    Emmanuelle Reynaud

  6. Barney School of Business, University of Hartford, West Hartford, USA

    Irina Naoumova

  7. ALTIS, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy

    Mario Molteni

  8. Centre for International Business and Economic Research (CIBER), Vilnius, Lithuania

    Arunas Starkus

  9. Facultat d’Economia, Universitat de València, València, Spain

    Fidel León Darder

  10. Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

    Marina Dabic

  11. Skim, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Amandine Furrer-Perrinjaquet

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  1. Olivier Furrer
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  11. Amandine Furrer-Perrinjaquet
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Correspondence to Olivier Furrer.

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Furrer, O., Egri, C., Ralston, D. et al. Attitudes toward Corporate Responsibilities in Western Europe and in Central and East Europe. Manag Int Rev 50, 379–398 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11575-010-0034-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11575-010-0034-3

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