Abstract:

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) may be analyzed in various approaches. Stakeholder theory is one of them, focusing on corporate relationships with stakeholders. The CSR priorities are influenced by the character of the examined economic activity. Banking activity serves an important social function and its specificity causes that some stakeholder groups are more preferred than others. The objective of the paper is to analyze the activities within the frames of CSR, from the perspective of stakeholder theory, undertaken in the banking sector. In the paper a research hypothesis is stated that the companies functioning in Polish banking sector, in terms of CSR strategy, treat shareholders, customers and employees as a priority. The paper is based on the analysis of data published by 11 banks on their primary websites. The examined banks are listed on Warsaw Stock Exchange, what obliges them to inform about the activities undertaken in a relatively broad scale. The analysis of source documents allows confirming the hypothesis stated, however, it does not allow determining to what extent the CSR activities declared are fulfilled.