ALIGNING CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY WITH THE UNITED NATIONS’ SUSTAINABILITY GOALS: TRICKIER THAN IT SEEMS? A STUDY OF SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN SWEDEN

Abstract

This article explores the profound mismatch between the United Nations 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development and fundamentals for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The
common survival of human life, society, and the global order as we know it, and the need for
companies to make profit is not easy. The intractability of the problem is often underestimated in
public as well as scientific debate. This article discusses the problem and possible ways to cope with
it through ‘social entrepreneurship’ illustrated here by a study of nine firms in Sweden. The study
draws on an amalgamation of Schumpeterian theory about “creative destruction” and the concept
of “Emerging Davids vs. Greening Goliaths.”