ĮMONIŲ SOCIALINĖS ATSAKOMYBĖS ĮTAKA REGIONINEI PLĖTRAI

Abstract

Systemic processes of rapid technological change, enhanced capital mobility and neoliberally inspired inter-regional competition have focused attention on the need for regional-level intervention among a broad community of academics and policymakers (Coe et al., 2004). The shift to knowledge-intensive economy goes beyond the particular business and management strategies of individual firms, involving the development of new inputs and a broader infrastructure at the regional level (MacLeod, 2001). The nature of this economic transformation makes regions key economic units in the global economy. Regional competition is about both the emerging importance of regions as territorial units in global competition and the increase in co-ordinated actions within regions to improve competitive position compared to other areas. It should be noted that there is not enough attention to the differential impacts that globalization can have on regions belonging to the same country. For instance, most existing literature concentrates on those regions which were harmed by global forces, and lost jobs to emerging countries, often because they specialized in some sectors (such as European textile sector) where the low-cost competition from emerging countries was so important that it significantly hit the pre-existing strengths of regions specializing in traditional manufacturing activities (Affuso et al., 2011). In addition, globalization diminishes those factors, through which various nations, regions and places are identified from one another as separate culture entities; accounts on globalization and strategy have emphasized the need for regionalization. The regions became the basis of the economic and social life, operational strategies of company's need to fit their strategies to national, regional and local socially constructed needs and values. The relationship between firms and their regions is reciprocal not only in terms of economic exchange; firms derive some of their characteristics from and also directly influence the characteristics of specific regions or places. Some reports (Jussila et al., 2007, Uski et al., 2007, Tuominen et al., 2006) imply that globalization has emphasized the need for regional reciprocity. On the one hand, the success and survival of certain types of firms is becoming more and more dependent on the welfare of their regions. On the other hand, various companies play all the more important role in maintaining and reproducing regional competitiveness. It should be noted, that the idea of firms as participating regional actors has increased over the past decades (Van den Berg et al., 2004; Jussila et al., 2007; Tuominen et al., 2007; Uski et al., 2007; Potts, 2010; Morrison et al., 2012; Diez et al., 2008, etc.). The aim of the article: to analyze the relationship between corporate social responsibility and regional development, in coordination of local/regional responsibility and regional integration. Regional development is changing uncontrollably and prevailing theories and dominant policy institutions have very little grasp ether of what is going on, or what to do about it. A set of policy paradigms -- some times conflated and puffed up as "a new theory of regional development" -- is being widely adopted, in what is a remarkably visible but generally unanalysed example of international policy transfer. Much of what passes for regional development theory and regional development theory embodies the classic error identified by Andrew Sayer: it confuses development in a region with development of that region (Lovering, 1999). Regionalization can be interpreted in two ways. First, regionalization can be the first best solution of a firm's internationalization process. Internationalization occurs as a result of a firm's drive to grow and maximize its benefits across diverse geographic locations. Second, regionalization can be a process toward globalization. In this way, it could be argued, regionalization is an intertemporal second-best solution to a firm's internationalization process. Regionalism can be interpreted also as a learning process for the firm. To extent that firms engage in CSR strategically, this behaviour can be studied through the lens of the resource-based view of the firm. Resource-based theory takes the perspective that valuable, costly to copy organizational resources and capabilities provide the key sources of competitive advantage. Even, in the time of globalization, essential resources of certain types of firms are often to great extent regional. This is due to the fact that firms originate from and operate on a "surface" that is typically made up of a structure of regional entities. Firms themselves have a regional extent, which is the roughly bounded area over which they conduct their operations (Jussila et al., 2007). Furthermore, firms may also be inward-looking in the sense that they source a large share of their inputs from within the region or find the outlet for their products or services within the same territory. Thus, there are situations in which organizations engage in regionally responsible practices. (English) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]