Corporate social accountability initiative’s impact on socio-economic development of Ukraine’s regions

Abstract

The article studies the state and formation peculiarities of corporate social accountability in Ukrainian business environment, in the context of its impact on the socio-economic development of the regions and the country as a whole.  The implementation strategy of a unified governmental reform policy declares the establishment of strategic and operational goals comprising the holistic system for transitioning to integrated economic, social and environmental development of Ukraine. However, the results of studying the socially accountable activity’s current state indicate the lack of a holistic integrated approach by the government aimed at regulating the support policy establishing CSL initiatives and disseminating socially accountable business practices. The domestic scenario for development of the CSL is largely the product of export of European business practices, rather than the actual request submitted by the Ukrainian society. At the same time, the authors emphasize that the mechanism of corporate social accountability is capable of generating a great number of synergistic effects. These effects play a significant part in ensuring the transition to a new sustainable way and they mean to increase the socio-economic well-being of Ukrainian society. Corporate social accountability is considered to be an important resource for the development of internal processes of socio-economic development of our country, the formation of an adequate model of an innovative economy that ensures the solution of important global problems of sustainable development. Therefore, the government can use the product of adopting CSL principles in order to achieve sustainable development goals by means of generating greater economic recoil and social benefits. It also requires the active development of new forms of public-private partnership and social dialogue in order to spread further the practice of cooperation in the field of CSL and the establishment of appropriate holistic financial, economic, organizational, institutional, informational and communicational support, which is an essential foundation for the implementation of the national CSL strategy.