Meanings and Implications of Corporate Social Responsibility and Branding in Grocer Retailers: A Comparative Study over Italy and the UK

The chapter demonstrates the extent to which companies operating in the Retailing Grocery industry use Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as driver to enhance their brand and pursue commercial value, or to purely redefine their business priorities in accordance to evolving consumers 'needs and expectations by making CSR a new concrete business model and evolving towards the concept of Corporate Shared Value (CSV). The study is addressed to analyse the matter of facts in two different European geographical areas: Italy and United Kingdom, chosen because of the peculiar approaches in companies' attitude towards CSR and CSV, ultimately. Many differences and some relevant similarities in the implementation of CSV as new strategic model between the countries have emerged, with UK showing the most formalized and standardized integration between social and economic value within its Grocer Retailer companies' business activities.