CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN THE CONDITIONS OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF ECONOMIC SYSTEMS

Abstract

The paper investigates the theoretical and practical aspects of providing the corporate social responsibility in a digital economy. The digital transformation of economic activity necessitates a business response to fundamental new challenges and threats related to cybersecurity, privacy, copyright protection, blockchain, misinformation, ethical algorithms for artificial intelligence etc. The quantity and complexity of digitalization problems determines the need for a consistent and comprehensive approach to ensuring digital responsibility in economy. Corporate digital responsibility can be defined as a responsible and ethical using of digital technologies; forecasting the social, economic and environmental consequences of decisions made in the digital economy. The analysis of social reports and web resources of Ukrainian companies indicates that their potential of digital responsibility is limited to the digital skills transfer and partial using in communications with stakeholders. At the same time, there are promising ways of manifesting social responsibility of domestic enterprises: investments in digital infrastructure and education; using digital technologies to monitor the responsibility and business ethics of suppliers and contractors; digitalization of environmental management processes; protection of digital rights and personal data of customers, employees, partners; dialogue with real and potential stakeholders through digital channels. Foreign experience shows that it is efficient to form public-private partnership platforms in the field of digital responsibility and sustainable development. It is also appropriate for the government to develop and implement a strategy for the digital transformation, programs of economic and advisory support for digital social entrepreneurship; to form standards for assessing and reporting about corporate digital responsibility; to eliminate the institutional and legislative barriers to the digital economy development; to overcome the digital divide in society; to create algorithms for personal data processing and suitable digital platforms.