In times of dilemmas – Characteristics of corporate social responsibility of large Hungarian companies. Result of a survey (2025).
Anna Mária Bartal - Klára Molnár - Vivien Vida
Abstract
The legal regulation of compliance with environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) conditions puts the operational and governance aspects of companies on a new footing both internationally and domestically. However, this process – both in the relevant literature and in the practice of companies – is permeated by the discussion of the dilemma of what will happen to corporate social responsibility (CSR) with the advent of ESG. Among the reasons underlying the CSR and/or ESG dilemma, we paid special attention to the analysis of moral values (CSR) versus measurement-driven compliance (ESG), "washing" risk, short-term costs versus long-term gains, resource allocation, and governance and organizational structure issues. Based on all this, the primary goal of the online questionnaire survey conducted by the Effekteam Association in February 2025 among 45 domestic, mainly large companies, was to assess the impact of compliance with ESG/CSDR criteria on how domestic companies relate to CSR activities. The other goal was to give an idea of the main indicators, types and forms of corporate volunteering among large Hungarian companies in this new situation. The non-representative sample was dominated by large companies that are significant employers of the domestic corporate sector and most of them had a nationwide, Hungarian reach. 80 percent of them had an annual budget spent on CSR, while 58 percent of them supported corporate volunteering with a separate financial framework. According to our results, about three-fifths of companies of large employers planned to balance the capacity between CSR and ESG/CSDR in the coming period. In this respect, the size of the budget allocated to CSR induced different capacity allocation strategies among the examined companies. The CSR activity of companies and corporate volunteering were basically dominated by value motivations (philanthropy/altruism) and supported underfunded organizations, institutions and service areas with their resources. We saw a strengthening of the ESG impact in the fact that large companies – especially in the field of CSR management and support decisions – approached responsibility with a strategic approach and a more complex set of tools, and the support of environmental and economic areas was also given greater emphasis than before.
Keywords: corporate social responsibility (CSR), environmental, social corporate governance (ESG), corporate volunteering, washing risk, resource allocation, philanthropy, altruism