The Landscape is changing-Icelandic state owned enterprises and corporate social responsibility (CSR): Assessing Landsvirkjun´s CSR strategy

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is increasingly required of companies. However, CSR at state owned enterprises(SOEs)has not received much attention in the CSR literature. This thesis has the objective to add to knowledge on CSR of Icelandic SOEs. The objective led to three research questions: Q1. How do internal and external factors, affect the implementation and communication of CSR at state owned enterprises in Iceland? Q2. Is the implementation and communication of CSR more complex at Icelandic state owned enterprises than at Icelandic privately held companies? Lastly, the third question applies to a case study that was conducted: Q3. What affects Landsvirkjun´s (LV)[state owned energy company] CSR implementation and communication, and how mature is the company´s CSR strategy? To answer these questions a qualitative research approach was applied. Interviews were carried out with five CSR experts, four current employees at LV, and one former employee. Secondary data was also reviewed, and a short survey was presented. Q1 finds that potential factors influencing CSR at SOEs can be categorised into internal and external factors. The internal factors, which are more universal, are: Company size, existence of a CSR strategy, management support, level of independency (interdependent with management support), company awareness, budget, and use of CSR guidelines. The external factors, which are more contextual, are: Sector, laws and regulations, level of independency (interdependent with laws and regulations), stakeholders, parliament resolutions, state policies, state interest, political interference, and state-cutbacks. No clear answer was found to Q2, since some factors can make CSR more complicated for SOEs, while others can assist them with CSR engagement. Q3 was answered by applying three CSR frameworks to Landsvirkjun´s CSR strategy. LV´s overall CSR is found to be on a high level, and the factors identified as influential for SOEs affect LV´s CSR as well. Finally, since the literature review of the research revealed that reporting on CSR according to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) can improve organisation´s CSR, Icelandic SOEs are recommended to implement this procedure in their CSR work.