The Strategic Role of the Corporate Social Responsibility and Circular Economy in the Cosmetic Industry

Simona Fortunati, Laura Martiniello and Donato Morea
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Simona Fortunati: Department of Economics, Engineering, Society and Business, University of Tuscia, Via del Paradiso, 47, 01100 Viterbo, Italy
Laura Martiniello: Faculty of Economics, Universitas Mercatorum, Piazza Mattei, 10, 00186 Rome, Italy
Donato Morea: Faculty of Economics, Universitas Mercatorum, Piazza Mattei, 10, 00186 Rome, Italy

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 12, 1-28

Abstract: In the literature, circular economy (CE) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are increasingly interconnected concepts. Turon at al. (2016) consider CE the guidelines of conduct for designing and developing good CSR strategies. In particular, the corporate management philosophy needs to be translated into mandatory CSR reports that better frames circular economy objectives by identifying and communicating actions to achieve sustainable development goals. The purpose of this paper is to explore a number of CSR reports in order to understand if cosmetic multinationals’ (MNC) nonfinancial reporting is focused on the concept of circular economy and if CSR reports ensure an adequate level of disclosure to circular strategies. Moreover, the paper highlights the advantages that arise by converging the concepts of CSR and CE. The originality of this paper lies on providing evidence on “how” MNC are implementing a circular model. This paper contributes to our understanding on the relation between CSR and CE; it assesses the state of the art of circular strategies in MNC and proposes a consolidation of the concept of CE in terms of sustainable strategic and managerial practices communicated to the market by CSR reports. Moreover, it brings MNC to a better understanding of the ways to communicate their new circular business model. The analysis reveals a good level of attention by MNC to circularity in drafting their CSR reports that in many cases are able to describe objectives and actions that embrace multiple dimensions.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility; circular economy; cosmetic industry; sustainability; reports; multinational (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

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