Discourse on corporate social responsibility in the external communication of agricultural enterprises

The aim of the research is to evaluate the practices of corporate social responsibility in Lithuanian agricultural enterprises based on an analysis of their communicative messages. The methods of analysis and synthesis of academic literature on CSR and rural development, as well as the method of content analysis, were used during the research. An analysis of information published on the web pages and in the public reports of enterprises operating in Lithuania showed that corporate social responsibility in enterprises operating in the field of agriculture is revealed only episodically, and is more typical for enterprises with foreign capital and listed companies. It turned out that the understanding of social responsibility is still too narrow and confined to environmental protection, legal responsibility, as well as support for communities and non-governmental organisations. The relative absence of corporate social responsibility as explicitly communicated by agricultural enterprises may be treated as a weakness of corporate communicationBaltic Institute for Research and DevelopmentVadybos katedraVytauto Didžiojo universiteta