I
NTRODUCTIONThe goal of the paper is to show a potential way of study and interpretation of Corporate Social Responsibility (Corporate Social Responsibility in the followings it will be stated as CSR) and the CSR type of activities from the aspect of economic prosperity cycles through the Hungarian history. The activities carried out within the frame of CSR1shall vary a lot as it can be seen through the different reports. CSR activities shall involve environment pro-tection, fight for human rights, actions against child labor, excluding gender discrimination, supporting the welfare of the people, fighting for animals’ rights and several other actions.
Even among these listed actions there are items which are controlled by law, and they are handled as CSR action knowing that CSR actions are mainly beyond the legal obligations, they are done on voluntary basis. Measuring of the CSR activities can differ a lot as well. The questions within this research were focusing the actions towards the people. As it can be seen through different reports2the intensity of the CSR activities have been increasing for decades. Basing on the interviews I carried out in year 2014. with food industrial companies different activities were described that could have been performed in the past as well. Basing on the described CSR projects by the questioned food industrial companies and the tenden-cies it seemed to be logical to research these kinds of activities in the 1970’s. An interview showed high level of intensity and consciousness in term of CSR activity performed by the questioned company that worked in the past. The results received through the interview induced further questions about the CSR activities from the aspect of further historical time lines. To research such kind of activities in the past required studies and researches of histo-ry as well besides researching the activities of the economic actors towards CSR.
1 CSR is defined as the followings in Business Dictionary: “A company’s sense of responsibility towards the community and environment (both ecological and social) in which it operates. Companies express this citi-zenship (1) through their waste and pollution reduction processes, (2) by contributing educational and social programs, and (3) by earning adequate returns on the employed resources. See also corporate citizenship.”
1 Source: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/corporate-social-responsibility.html (accessed: 22.
06. 2017). Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/corporate-social-responsibility.html
#ixzz3wpLkyYgc
2 For instance Global Reporting Initiative plays a great role for the companies to report their supporting actions including sustainability towards the society.
From the economic point of view the different eras of Hungary can be discussed with dif-ferent economic prosperity cycles. Implementing the available economic prosperity cycles which last either for some years or for several centuries we shall get an understanding of the potential CSR type activities in Hungary in the history. Comparison of these activities through the centuries is difficult since the laws were different the actions beyond the legal regulations are different. For instance gender discrimination was not a main question in the previous centuries it was interpreted in different way. As a brief summery the list of prosper-ity cycles3which are implemented in economics we can see the followings: Super long cycle with duration of 150–200 years; Kondratiev4long cycles (K-waves) with duration of 40–60 years; Kuznets cycle with duration of 18-20 years; Classic prosperity cycle with duration of 8–10 years; Kitchin cycles with duration of 10–40 months. The prosperity cycles listed refer to economic political cycles. As we can see from historical aspects the cycles are not expressed with exact years but with high level of similarities in term of the economic goals and charac-ters. As a comment to this we can see similarities in the descriptions of companies’ lifecycles.
According to different authors5we can see different expressions to characterize the status (for instance baby age, adult, aristocracy, bureaucracy, death) of a market actor.
It is possible to research towards the CSR type activities in the past and the economic prosperity cycles of Hungary to see if there is a connection between the length of the eras and the goals of the CSR activities carried out by the economic actors through the cen-turies. Whereas the economic approach is in the focus of the research the eras are expressed and interpreted in economic cycles. Further questions can be raised in term of the type of the connections between the economic cycles and the type of the CSR actions if the presence of the connections can be discovered. The lengths of the cycles and short-age of information raise difficulties in the research together with the interpretation of eco-nomic actors and the expression of responsibility.
M
EASURING METHODOLOGYThe research started in year 2014 inquiring about the CSR activities carried out by the food industrial companies that worked in the South Transdanubian region of Hungary.
The questions were discussed both in interview and in questionnaire format. The CSR actions were discussed as projects carried out within the year of 2014. Through the inquires about the activities and the consciousness the companies described individual ad-hoc, pro-ject type and regular CSR activities. The reported actions were carried out to support the needs both internally and out of the company according to Maslow’s need pyramid. The number of the projects showed clear picture about the need levels which are the most relevant. The duration of the activities varied a lot as well. There were several unique actions there were projects which lasted for several years. In accordance with consciousness:
AZ I D Õ A L A K Z A T A I É S I D Õ T A P A S Z T A L A T A M A G Y A R S Á G T U D O M Á N Y O K B A N
3 Source: http://elmgazd.uw.hu/Makro-10.pdf
4 Source: https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kondratiev-ciklus
5 Source: Ichak ADIZES, Vállalatok életciklusai, Bp., 1992
involvement of employees into the projects, durations of the projects and co-operations, incorporation of CSR into the daily business activity were mainly asked.
The South Transdanubian region of Hungary was always famous for its agriculture and its food industry. Taking the agriculture we can see activities at different levels of the food industrial supply chain. Counted from grain growing and animal raising we can see food industrial activities too at this region even with higher level of added value activity that is not typical for each area of Hungary. The Agricultural College in Kaposvár and later the Agricultural University represented both the background of the experts’ training and the short and long-term potentials to develop higher added value products. It is vital. For instance one of the most successful swine breeder company was developed and established in this area due to genetic researches. This company was well known all over the world and achieved great economic success basing on the proper cooperation among the scientist and economic actors attracting further industrial and servicing activities to this region.
Within the interviews and the questionnaires clear picture was received about the CSR activities themselves and the consciousness of the activities too. The activities within the CSR were mainly researched through the number of the projects and the descriptions of the actions in the year 2014. The number of projects shall refer to the intensity of the actions by the companies both in the present and in the irrespectively the size, income, available financial resources of the company. For the purpose of the interpretation of the CSR activ-ities Maslow’s need pyramid was implemented. Knowing the exact economic climate of the South Transdanubian region of Hungary clear numbers and descriptions of projects were received to support the basic needs, needs for safety, need for love, esteem, self actualiza-tion both in and out of the company. As it is described these kinds of activities can be done both towards the employees of the companies and the people out of the companies.
The questionnaires and the interviews provided the proper tool to get the answers to the questions but it was different in the case the research of the past in length of centuries.
For the suitable interpretation the market actors in the market had to be identified similar-ly to the companies that responded to the questions. The form of the market actors showed differences to the present days. Besides the differences in term of the characteristics of the market actors through the different eras the expression of responsibility could also be revised.
As one of the interpretation for responsibility we can find the followings at Oxford diction-aries:6“Responsibility: a duty to deal with or take care of somebody/something, so that you may be blamed if something goes wrong.”
Through the research in the past it is interesting to see how the welfare of the people as a part of the economics was supported by the market actors in the past. In term of the respon-sibility Carrol published his pyramid too in order to explain market actors’ behavior. At the responsibility pyramid economic responsibility can be found at the basic level. Economic responsibility is the main goal why the companies are established. At a higher level of respon-sibility activities according to laws can be found. At the highest two levels we can find human-ity oriented actions. Whereas clear numbers of projects or activities were not available main activities were taken either to represent or to confirm the type of the given era of Hungary.
6 Source: .http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/learner/responsibility
R
ESULTSTaking a look at the eras one by one together with their main economic characteristics and goals towards the Hungarian people we shall see if there are any connections between the duration of the eras and the levels on CSR type actions. The eras were named by histori-ans basing on the main characters of the different time periods in term of economics, wars and other major activities.
Listing the eras of Hungary we can find the followings:7Settlement of the Magyars in Hungary (895), Age of adventuring 9thcentury; Medieval Hungarian Kingdom (State foun-dation, Árpád ages, mixed house kings, „noble nation”; early modern era (16th–18th centu-ry) (country in three parts, Transylvania Principality, expulsion of the Turkish, Habsburgs);
19thcentury (Reform era and freedom fight, ethnic groups, happy peace era); 20thcentury (Trianon, Second World War). In the following parts of the paper the major economic characteristics by eras will be presented.