Corporate Social Responsibility in the con- text of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises: Designing CSR4UTOOL for SMEs in Finland

This thesis project focuses on creating development ideas for a corporate social responsibility tool, CSR4UTOOL. The aim of the development ideas is to make the tool more suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Finland. CSR4UTOOL is a SME-specific online tool for evaluating CSR performance that has been developed by a team from the Department of Management in the University of Turin. The thesis also examines the role of CSR in the modern business world and aims to explain what CSR means to SMEs and how it differs from the CSR of multinational corporations. The aim is also to discover if there is a demand for the CSR4UTOOL in Finland. The thesis report includes an analysis of the tool’s advantages and disadvantages as well as concrete development suggestions for making the tool more suitable for Finnish SMEs. The data for the thesis was gathered through interviews with four Finnish SMEs that tested the CSR4UTOOL and analyzed it afterwards. The theoretical background of this thesis aims to create a clear image of the role of CSR in the modern business world by discussing some of its many definitions, its history as well as its possible advantages and disadvantages to businesses that conduct it. Furthermore, the theoretical background discusses some of the most common arguments in favor of and against CSR. The theoretical background also examines the role of CSR in SMEs and how CSR is conducted in Finland today.