Corporate Social Responsibility as an assumption of a company's competitive advantage

Praksa društveno odgovornog ponašanja poduzeća (DOP) postaje sve značajnija sastavnica poslovanja poduzeća. Ona se pojavila ponajprije u najvećim multinacionalnim kompanijama razvijenih zemalja, koje su često bile pod udarima javnosti zbog svojeg načina ponašanja prema zaštiti okoliša ili zaposlenicima, jer su prvenstveno bile orijentirane na ostvarivanje profita i nisu vodile previše računa o potrebama društva te su zbog takvog ponašanja bile pod stalnim kritikama. Danas praksa društveno odgovornog ponašanja poduzeća postaje sve značajnija sastavnica poslovanja svakog poduzeća jer poduzeća nastoje zadovoljiti sve snažnije i složenije etičke, pravne, ekološke i trgovačke standarde. Praksa društveno odgovornog poslovanja je izuzetno važna u okvirima Europske unije, koja sustavno ulaže velike napore kako bi se takva praksa prihvatila u svim članicama. Društveno odgovorno ponašanje predstavlja poslovnu filozofiju kojom poduzeća ugrađuju brigu o društvu i okolišu u svoje poslovanje, kao i u sve odnose koji se tijekom tog procesa uspostavljaju sa svim dionicima, a važno je istaknuti da to poduzeća rade na dobrovoljnoj osnovi. U ovom radu prikazana je praksa društveno odgovornog ponašanja poduzeća DHL Hrvatska tako što su prikazani odnosi s kupcima, odnosi s investitorima, briga za zaposlenike, kao i prikaz donacija i sponzorstava koje poduzeće DHL daje svake godine. Sukladno tome, u radu je istaknuta povezanost i važnost korporativnog upravljanja s društvenom odgovornošću poduzeća. U radu je prikazana praksa društveno odgovornog poslovanja na primjeru poduzeća DHL temeljem istraživanja koje je provedeno analizom strateških dokumenata i internih akata. Glavni cilj rada bilo je istraživanje utjecaja društveno odgovornog ponašanja na konkurentnost i poslovanje odabranog poduzeća.Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) model is becoming an increasingly important business component. CSR primarily appeared in the largest multinational companies, which were often criticized by the public because of their environmental or employee practices, as they were primarily profit-oriented and didn’t take care of the needs of society, and were therefore constantly criticized for such behaviour. Today, CSR is becoming an increasingly important component of business because doing business has become more and more complex in ethical, legal, environmental, and commercial areas. CSR practices are extremely important in the European Union, which systematically makes great efforts to adopt those practices in all countries. CSR is a business philosophy in which companies incorporate social and environmental concerns into their business, as well as in all relationships that are established with stakeholders during these processes, and it is important to emphasize that companies do so on a voluntary basis. This paper presented CSR practices in DHL Croatia. CSR practices are presented in such a way that encompasses customer relationships, investor relations, employee care, as well as donations and sponsorships. Accordingly, the paper presented the connection and importance of corporate governance with CSR. The paper presents the practice of corporate social responsibility on the example of DHL, based on the research conducted by the analysis of strategic documents and internal acts. The main objective of the paper was to investigate the impact of socially responsible behaviour on the competitiveness and business performance of the selected company