Municipal social responsibility of statutory cities in the Czech Republic

Abstract

Application of the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is demanded of an ever-wider range of entities as time goes by, among which are municipalities. However, the topic of social responsibility of municipalities stands outside of the bounds of mainstream research. This article presents the results of a study, the objective of which was to identify the socially responsible practices applied by the statutory cities in the Czech Republic, in order to analyse and evaluate the scope and structure of socially responsible activities performed by them and communicated on the internet. The study shows that statutory cities in the Czech Republic perform similar activities to those performed by enterprises within the framework of application of the concept of CSR, this being in the field of economic, environmental, ethical, social and philanthropic responsibility. They perform and communicate economic responsibility activities to the greatest extent and, by contrast, ethical responsibility activities to the least extent. Examples of good practice in performance and communication of these activities on the internet are documented in the article using the example of the City of Pardubice.