The Rise and Fall of CSR in Italian Local Government

CSR is an essential intangible business asset increasingly understood as a critical success factor in global markets. A new connotation of corporate responsibility, combined with a modern approach to CSR interpreted in a competitive key, can bring together economic and socio-environmental performance needs by providing adequate responses to a wide range of stakeholders. This, however, requires guaranteeing sustainability from an economic point of view as well as credibility in terms of the messages conveyed with the related communication tools. The Italian public sector has attempted to incorporate the managerial approach developed in the private sector, yet after a period of great attention to this issue, a gradual decline has manifested in the instruments supporting social responsibility and the importance they play in the internal programming, reporting, and communications cycle.