G. Canarutto’s scientific contributions

In Italy the social responsibility of firms has roots dating from long before the emergence of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) movement during the 1990s. Industrial districts and small firms have often engaged in sustainable forms of conducting business through the convergence of employees, management and local community interests (Confindustria, 2002). Also in academia the concept of the social role of business was pioneered during the 1950s: "Profit doesnt represent the final end of the firm, but is instrumental for satisfying the needs of shareholders and workers" (Masini, 1979). In order to understand the social and economic context in which a first phase of socially responsible initiatives emerged especially in the post-war period and to better contextualize the more systematic and widespread current CSR approach, a historical background of Italys socio-economic situation is provided. After the Second World War Italy found itself in a dramatic situation: the country had to recover from war destruction and start living within a new political context, thus passing from monarchy to democracy. At the beginning of the 1950s Italy was still an underdeveloped country, mostly agricultural. 36% of labour forces were employed in agricultural sectors; industrial sectors employed another 32%. In 2003, according to Istat1 data, 4.8% of labour forces were employed in the agricultural sector, 31.8% were employed in the industrial sector and 63.8 % in the services sectors and others. On one side this shift in employment percentage (from a higher employment in the agricultural sector to service and industrial sectors) shows that Italy, during the last sixty years, has undertaken a major economic development. On the other side, the high rate of development has affected more northern areas than southern ones. The higher percentage of Italian family income is still concentrated in the northern regions (53 %), while 26% of family income can be found in southern areas and 21 % in the central areas. Italy is a country characterised by a huge gap between North and South since the beginning of the previous century. This gap has historical roots which can be found in the southern agricultural frame where wide properties were concentrated among a small amount of owners; an underdeveloped agricultural commerce where very few products reached external markets and most products were produced for internal demand. This situation was very different from northern Italy, whose development was tied to northern European countries. Being close to these important markets gave the opportunity for rapidly growing trade and wealth accumulation. The income gap associated with wider job opportunities, caused more than four million people to emigrate from southern Italy to North Italy between 1951 and 1974. According to Istat (2003) data, the emigration flow, which had slightly diminished during the first years of the 1990s, started again between 1994 and 2000. 30% of Italian families transferred from the southern regions to the North-Eastern areas and Central Italy.