CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY MANAGEMENT STANDARDS IN ROMANIA: APPLICATION AND EVALUATION AT CORPORATE LEVEL

The application of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is becoming in the international business context a source of competitive advantages, especially taking into account the current economic crisis and the prevalence of socio-economic business models in Europe. In order to prove their CSR involvement, companies could use specific voluntary instruments, one of them being the management standards. The purpose of the present research is to analyse the way in which national or international companies acting on the Romanian business environment apply some of the most significant CSR management standards and to determine a relationship (if any) between corporate culture and CSR management standards, on one hand, and between corporate financial power and CSR management standards, on the other hand. The main results emphasize that the financial power dictates the implementation of CSR management standards and not the corporate culture. The results are consistent with the main findings in the specialized literature.