Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) concerns corporate accountability in issues related to social, economic and environmental aspects. How and what companies are working with regarding these areas are reported in a sustainability report, or as part of the annual report. According to economic theory, the corporate management’s primary role is to maximize returns to its shareholders, whereas there are increasing demands on companies to take their social responsibility. The purpose of this thesis is to from a corporate governance perspective view what motives companies have to work with sustainability, view the development of CSR and to study the link between sustainability and profitability in the quest to meet the expectation of achieving both. A qualitative method has been used to perform a case study of Swedbank, one of the four major Swedish banks. Swedbank is rooted in the Swedish savings bank history and the financial performance of the bank will affect many people, such as shareholders, customers, employees and society at large.

The results of this study leads to the conclusion that the primary reason for a company to invest in CSR is to achieve long-term survival. Investing in sustainability will lead to profitability in the long term, as the company gains a competitive edge if they are perceived as successful in their CSR activities. The concepts of sustainability and profitability are no longer in conflict with one another, but there are some challenges in achieving good results in both areas.

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, Sustainability Reporting, Profitability, Corporate Governance, Swedbank