Corporate Social Responsibility in North Macedonia

The overall development of the society and its’ improvement toward higher economic, political and cultural stage, leads to shift in boundaries and change in the way in which the society functions. Profit is no more the main objective of the companies, but the enterprises have included the social agenda as their key corporate driver. Although the idea of Corporate Social Responsibility (CRS) is widely accepted in developed countries, it is very little practiced in developing, and especially in transitionTransition economies. Namely, the companies in these countries have gone through restructuring process, and are still struggling to survive. Furthermore, the transformation from socialist economy to a market economy has resulted in creating a form of “wild capitalism”. Republic of North Macedonia as a transition country has gone through the same processes as the other transition economies. The CSR concept was introduced for the first time in 2002, through the activities of international organizations. However, the real actions, projects, agendas, baseline studies have followed in the period after 2006. Today, the CSR concept is mainly promoted by the multinational corporations, which with large companies have invested in North Macedonia. SMEs have still very low level of knowledge about the CSR concept, its’ advantages, importance and benefits. Most of them are not even aware that some actions that they are taking are related to the CSR concept. The chapter gives broad presentation of the CSR concept in the Republic of North Macedonia. It begins with a description of the historical perspective of CSR development in North Macedonia. Then a review is given of some of the most important activities, projects related to the CSR, which were implemented by the international organizations, government and other public institutions. The chapter uses results from the previously conducted interviews, surveys, questionnaires, but it also carries out its’ own researches about the way in which the most successful companies in North Macedonia are practicing CSR in reality.