CSR and Beyond. A Nordic Perspective (Book Review)

Abstract

This book sets out on a welcome endeavor - namely to provide a Nordic Perspective on CSR. As such it seems logical to ask what the Nordic countries are doing to CSR and what CSR is doing to the Nordic countries? The Nordic countries are often ranked at the top of international lists of ethics, transparency, and accountability, and performance indicators like the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and Global 100 indicate that the Nordic countries are more highly represented than their relative small size justifies (Midttun et al. 2006; Morsing et al. 2007; Gjølberg 2009; Strand 2013). Also, Matten and Moon have in their seminal paper (2008) – with input from Atle Midttun who is specifically acknowledged - proposed that European countries seem to adhere to an “implicit approach to CSR” vis á vis “an explicit approach to CSR” attributed to Anglo-Saxon countries. While we appreciate that European countries historically share much in terms of political, social, and economic development, we also believe that there is something else that defines a specific Northern European - or Nordic - Perspective in terms of CSR. Like many other scholars, we are curious to understand better what this is and what an “implicit approach to CSR” implies within a Nordic Perspective. Therefore we believe this book is likely to find a highly interested audience, expecting to be informed about empirical realities and analytical reasoning behind the Nordic CSR experience.