Book Review: CSR History and Practice: A Study on Swedish Large-Scale Entrepreneurship at the Company Level by Knut-Erland Berglund

Review

CSR History and Practice by Knut-Erland Berglund is a thoughtful, research-driven exploration of Corporate Social Responsibility through the historical practices of three major Swedish companies: Ericsson, Trelleborg, and Vattenfall. Rather than treating CSR as a modern corporate buzzword, Berglund traces its roots across decades of business activity, showing how companies engaged with employees, communities, culture, education, welfare, environmental issues, and social responsibility long before the term CSR became widely formalised.

In this book, author Berglund does not simply explain CSR as a theoretical concept, he studies how responsibility appeared in practice through company magazines, archival material, personnel policies, sponsorships, environmental initiatives, aid work, corporate defence structures, health programmes, gender equality efforts, and codes of conduct. This makes the book especially useful for readers interested in economic history, business ethics, Scandinavian corporate culture, and the evolution of sustainability thinking.

The strongest aspect of the book is its ability to demonstrate continuity. CSR is often discussed as though it emerged suddenly in the late twentieth or early twenty-first century, but author Berglund shows that many of its impulses like care for workers, cultural patronage, educational scholarships, environmental awareness, and social engagement, were already present in earlier corporate behaviour. Ericsson, Trelleborg, and Vattenfall each become case studies in how Swedish companies negotiated their responsibilities not only to shareholders, but also to employees, society, the state, and the environment.

I particularly appreciated the sections on personnel policy and environmental work, as they reveal how broad the idea of corporate responsibility can be. The book looks at employee share programmes, ceremonies, health strategies, workplace equality, environmental reporting, pollution reduction, energy-saving initiatives, recycling, and institutional responses to social expectations. These details give the study texture and prevent it from becoming purely abstract.

That said, the book is academic in tone and structure, so readers expecting a light business read may find it heavy. The prose is clear enough, but the organisation is very research-oriented, and some sections read more like a historical report. There are also places where the material could have benefited from a stronger interpretive thread to help non-specialist readers connect the many examples more fluidly.

Still, CSR History and Practice succeeds as a serious and valuable contribution to CSR history. Its greatest strength lies in showing that corporate responsibility is not merely a branding exercise or a recent sustainability trend, but part of a much longer conversation about the role of business in society. For readers interested in CSR, sustainability, business history, Swedish industry, or the ethical responsibilities of corporations, this is a focused and worthwhile read.

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