eThesis - Kauppakorkeakoulun sähköiset gradut

Objective of the Study:

The objective of the study to is to examine how customers think about Corporate Responsibility in student dining, and what kind of expectations they have from the service provider. Furthermore, with this study I aim to identify the main factors, which can have an influence to the image of the company. The goal of the research is to find new ways for differentiation to keep and improve the competitive advantage in student dining from the entrepreneurial point of view.

Theory and Methodology:

Entrepreneurship as a science is young, but new theories have been published during past decades. In this study the entrepreneurship is reviewed especially from sustainable perspective, and sustainability is meant in this study as synonymous with Corporate Responsibility. As to Corporate Responsibility, the former research did not provide clear results to the question if it can improve competitive advantage. Therefore I decided to have interviews with semi-selected and open questions to different stakeholder groups to build a context from the different points of views. The most important source of the environment and background data was a book "Vastuullinen liiketoiminta" written by Joutsenvirta et al. (2011). The reports published by The Ministry of Employment and the Economy and Corporate Responsibility Network FIBS gave important information of the recent development of CR trends in the Finnish market. Theoretical review was focusing to entrepreneurship, stakeholder value approach and measuring of the processes to find out the potential benefits.

Findings and Conclusions:

The findings of the study mostly conform the previous findings on the subject, but also introduce new challenges. Although the respect for CR is highly noted both in the company's strategies and operations as well as stakeholders' expectations, the value will come true only if the basic service meets with these expectations. As the conclusion this study shows, that as far as the stakeholders are satisfied with the services of the company and rely on the brand and communication of the company, CR has a competitive benefit. In case the services get no satisfaction, CR will not compensate this deficiency. Entrepreneurial SME's with strong culture values and close relationship to the stakeholders, can, however, succeed better than average the corporative competitors.