Being Successful while Acting Responsibly: A future.talk Survey Shows How Business Success Goes Hand in Hand with Social Responsibility

• Austrians consider domestic companies to act more socially responsibly than international corporations
• The great majority of the Austrian population wishes to receive more information about product terms and conditions
• In Austria, high product quality is regarded as a central business success indicator
• Moral boycott: women are more likely than men to boycott a product due to ethical concerns, the same applies to elderly people as opposed to the younger generations
• For most Austrians there is no contradiction between profit-seeking and corporate responsibility
• future.talk 2013 continues the discussion about how business success can be combined with social responsibility

Vienna, September 5, 2013 - Austrian companies are rated significantly better in terms of social responsibility than international corporations, according to three thirds of Austrians (77%), domestic firms act in a more socially responsible manner than their international counterparts. These are some of the key results of a representative survey* carried out by the SORA Institute for Social Research and Consulting on behalf of the Telekom Austria Group, prior to the future.talk 2013. According to the respondents, the most socially responsible industries include the retail food industry (61%), beverage manufacturing companies (58%) and the telecommunications industry (42%), which are strongly interwoven into people’s everyday life.

Study about the responsibility of companies (in German) (990.6 KB)

“As a telecommunications provider we are closely connected to people’s lives. Our product and services are an integral part of Austrians’ everyday life. We are constantly investing in the further rollout of the necessary infrastructure, which represents an important starting point for state-of-the-art developments in key areas such as education, health, energy and the environment,“ said Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO Telekom Austria Group and A1, commenting on the results of the survey.
“Our corporate responsibility efforts are wide-ranging and spread across society and the environment and we have set ourselves ambitious targets in this regard, whether that’s with our initiative ‘Internet for ALL’ or with our environmental program,“ continued Hannes Ametsreiter. The company’s foremost priority is to create more opportunities for everyone by deploying new technologies, while at the same time dealing with natural resources as efficiently as possible.

There Is a Considerable Degree of Catching Up to Do in Austria …
Even if the great majority of the Austrian population (60%) gave a positive answer to the question about how socially responsibly Austrian firms act, only 9% of the respondents, however, regard domestic companies as “very” responsible. On the contrary, more than one third of the survey participants thinks that Austrian companies act only ”a little bit” in a socially responsible manner (33%) or that they don’t act responsibly “at all” (4%).

“Austrians are quite skeptical about the social commitment of domestic firms. In an international benchmark, however, a different picture emerges. According to Eurobarometer, two thirds of the Austrian population view the impact of domestic firms on society as predominantly positive, whereas only 52% of the EU-27 average shares this opinion, with Italy, Hungary and Greece showing even considerably lower percentages,“ points out Christoph Hofinger, Managing Partner and Scientific Director at SORA.

… Especially With Regard to Corporate Information Policy
Austrian respondents gave a bad rating to domestic firms with regard to their information policy. The vast majority thinks that they are not well informed and kept abreast of company’s work and product terms and conditions as well as the way firms deal with the environment and the population at large. According to survey participants, the main source of information about firms’ corporate social responsibility activities is advertising: 47% indicate TV ads; 43% ads in newspapers and magazines; and 40% ads on the Internet. The Internet is the most important source of information, especially among the younger generations. Therefore, going forward, the Internet will play an even more important role in determining how consumers rate companies and their products and services.

Success Indicators: High Product Quality and Fair Treatment of the Workforce
A company is considered successful, when, on the one hand, the quality of its products is very high (86%) and, on the other, employees are fair treated in the workplace (81%). Austrians also attach great importance to customer service (81%) and environmental protection (75%). Conventional shareholder values, such as high profits (45%) or company growth (42%), are seldom regarded as success factors by the respondents.

To Buy or Not to Buy? Ethics Affect Consumer Purchase Behavior!
A clear majority of 78% avoids buying products of certain manufacturers due to ethical concerns. The survey revealed that women (83%) are more likely than men (72%) to make ethical purchasing decisions. The same applies to elderly people as opposed to younger individuals. The conscious avoidance of products is therefore not a typical consumer behavior among younger generations but quite the reverse. Ethical consumerism is more common among people over 30s (81%) and mostly practiced by people between 46 and 59 years of age (83%). There are numerous reasons behind moral boycott – child labor is top on the list (91%). Other reasons why consumers boycott a certain product or a certain company include environmental degradation (84%) and bad working conditions (82%).

For Most Austrians There Is no Contradiction Between Profit-Seeking and Corporate ResponsibilityWho’s Responsible? Both the State and the Corporate World!
Practically the entire Austrian population (97%) holds both the State and the corporate world responsible for the social wellbeing of society. Furthermore, 83% of the survey participants call for more commitment on the part of the domestic firms towards both the population and the environment. Only a minority of 22% holds the State alone fully responsible for the social welfare.

Press conference footage are available here

*This survey was carried out by the SORA Institute for Social Research and Consulting on behalf of the Telekom Austria Group between July and August 2013. A total of 600 telephone interviews were conducted countrywide. The randomly selected sample is representative of the Austrian population over 16.

About future.talk
Telekom Austria Group’s future.talk 2013 takes place for the 13th time in a row. The aim of the event is to search for new trends and discuss current and future social developments. Guests of former future.talk events were WWW-inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, former UN General Secretary Kofi Annan and former US Vice President Al Gore.