Files
Abstract
This work summarises the essential findings of the empirical analysis of responsibility within
the Scandinavian-based pulp and paper industry that was studied by quantitative and
qualitative methods, employing the acceptability of operations as an indicator. The data were
gathered at four mills of the case company, Stora Enso Oyj, located in four countries, China,
Finland, Germany and Portugal, by interviewing the internal and external stakeholders.
The interview material gave a number of definitions of the acceptability of operations
and allowed a few dominant regional characteristics to be extracted. The main elements of
acceptability for the Chinese were loyalty, distribution of welfare and cultural diversity, while
the Finnish stakeholders emphasised profitability, sustainability and communication, the
Germans socioeconomics, the solid waste problem and global forest operations and the
Portuguese case showed the importance of technical competitiveness, quality of the products
and land use.
The results showed that the acceptability elements covered issues beyond the
traditional dimensions of corporate social responsibility. This demonstrated that the
traditional concepts of corporate social responsibility, or corporate responsibility, are not
adequate when dealing with the operations of a global company.