AWARENESS OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ASPECTS IN LATVIA AND THE EUROPEAN UNION

Both in the European Union and in Latvia, the role of corporate social responsibility issues is increasing and becomes an important factor in the building of company's reputation. In Latvia, mostly the opinion that a company must donate a part of its profit to society, in which it operates, has prevailed so far. However, corporate social responsibility should be perceived much wider -not only as charity but also as company's values that find their expression in company's involvement in tackling environmental and social issues. In modern economy sectors, especially in service industries, human capital becomes more important than the physical capital, thus, comprehensive investors should stop cooperation with partners that fail to reduce such risks. After Latvia's recovery from the 2008 financial crisis, which stemmed from the global financial crisis of 2008-2009, the country's welfare level has still a strong impact on the consumers' choice. Consequently, Latvian households pay little interest to the overall behaviour of corporate citizens rather than are interested to obtain the largest possible total utility for every spent monetary unit, regardless of what expense it is provided for customers. In scope of the present research, the author has analysed Latvian and the EU citizens' awareness of corporate social responsibility issues. The research results revealed that in Latvia, there is still a corporate social responsibility information gap - almost two thirds of Latvian respondents are interested in what companies do to behave in a responsible way, whereas only one third of respondents say they feel informed in this area.