Latin America: Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility in Latin American Small and Medium Sized Enterprises: Challenging Development

Author(s):  
Maria Cecilia Coutinho de Arruda
2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanina Andrea Ferber ◽  
Vincent Charles

Spanish companies play a vital and omnipresent role in Latin American economies. The main objective of the paper is to find if there is any perceptional variation among Latin Americans in concern with the valuation of Spanish companies based on corporate social responsibility (CSR) criteria by identifying key parameters that discriminate among countries. Society judges companies beyond their profit maximization abilities (Friedman, 1970). We found that Argentina and Chile valued more negatively than Mexico and Brazil the behavior of Spanish companies with respect to human rights and the environment. We can add Peru to the negative view when we talk about the perception of respondents in corruption issues. These countries also perceive a double standard with Spanish companies behaving worse in their countries compared to Spain. A higher proportion of people in Argentina and Chile support government regulation of CSR activities which is in line with the negative view of the behavior of companies. Mexico and Brazil have a more positive view of almost all the CSR criteria included in the model. Only in the perception of how Spanish companies behave towards clients, Peru has a higher valuation than Mexico and Brazil. For all the other criteria, Peru behaves as a swing country sharing views with both groups depending on the issue. Keywords: Corporate social responsibility, discriminant analysis, Latin America, Spanish companies.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanina Kowszyk ◽  
Frank Vanclay

Purpose Improvement in the evaluation methodologies used in the public policy and development fields has increased the amount of evidence-based information available to decision makers. This helps firms evaluate the impacts of their social investments. However, it is not clear whether the business sector is interested in using these methods. This paper aims to describe the level of interest in, knowledge of and preferences relating to the impact evaluation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs by managers in Latin American companies and foundations. Design/methodology/approach A survey of 115 companies and foundations in 15 countries in Latin America was conducted in 2019. Findings The results indicated that most respondents believed that quantitative impact evaluation could address concerns about CSR program outcomes. However, monitoring and evaluation were primarily seen to be for tracking program objectives rather than for making strategic decisions about innovations to enhance the achievement of outcomes. Decision-making tended to respond to community demands. The main challenges to increasing the use of impact evaluation were the lack of skills and knowledge of management staff and the methodological complexity of evaluation designs. We conclude that there needs to be increased awareness about: the appropriate understanding of social outcomes; the benefits of evaluation; when impact evaluation is useful; how to prepare an evaluation budget; and the effective use of rigorous evidence to inform program design. Originality/value Acceptance by the business sector of quantitative measurement of the social impact of CSR programs will lead to improved outcomes from social investment programs.


Author(s):  
Pilar Pérez Cañizares

This study aims to compare how leading companies in Spain and in Spanish-speaking Latin America communicate corporate social responsibility or sustainability on their web pages. For this purpose, the pages of 68 companies were examined to establish the accessibility of such topics and to trace how their prominence and wording had evolved over time. The results show a trend toward greater uniformity in both Spain and Latin America, with corporate social responsibility/sustainability discourse gaining in prominence and “responsibility”-related terms being gradually replaced by those related to “sustainability.” Various cases hint that changes in terminology may be unrelated to any clear distinction between both terms.


Oikos ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (32) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Ma. Angélica Garza Arroyo ◽  
María Aurelia Bocanegra Noriega

RESUMENEl desarrollo sostenible es manejado como uno de los puntos importantes en las agendas del siglo XXI, es un concepto que las empresas deben contemplar en las actividades que realizan para cumplir con la Responsabilidad Social Empresarial. El presente trabajo pretende abordar los aspectos teóricos sobre las Memorias de Sostenibilidad así como mostrar que pueden ser consideradas como un instrumento de información de la Responsabilidad Social de las Empresas. Se hace un estudio en la base de datos de la Corporate Register del 2006 al 2011 respecto de la presentación de las Memorias de Sostenibilidad en América Latina; el reporte es de corte cualitativo de carácter descriptivo, con un análisis deductivo. Se puede percibir en el estudio que es de carácter exploratorio que las empresas de América Latina han incrementado de manera significativa la presentación de Memorias de Sostenibilidad así como un incremento en el número de empresas que las realizan, además de contemplar a la Responsabilidad Social Empresarial como parte de su misión y visión.Palabras clave: memorias de sostenibilidad, Responsabilidad Social Empresarial, América Latina. Memories of Sustainability in Latin America: instrument of information of the Social Responsibility of the CompaniesABSTRACTThe sustainable development is managed to be one of the important aspects in the planners of 21th century, it is a concept that companies have to contemplate in the activities they realize to achieve corporate social responsibility. this work pretends to raise the teoric aspects about sustainability report, and to show that they can be considered as an information instrument of social responsibility of the companies. a study has to be done in the data base of corporate register from 2006 to 2011 about the presentation of the sustainability report in Latin America; the report is qualitative and descriptive kind, with deductive analysis. in the study it can be perceived that is explorative that companies in Latin America have increased in a significative way the presentation of sustainability report, just as an increase in the number of companies that realize them, besides contemplating corporate social responsibility as part of their mission and vision.Keywords: sustainability report, Corporate Social Responsibility, Latin America.


2019 ◽  
pp. 1276-1298 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Satsumi López-Morales ◽  
Isabel Ortega-Ridaura

The aim of this chapter is to describe how the MNCs can contribute to alleviate poverty and improve the well-being of the workers and communities, focused in two issues: job creation and CSR practices. For this purpose, the authors analyzed the case of the Mexican MNC FEMSA in Latin America. The results show that FEMSA plays an important role in job creation, with around 250,000 direct jobs in 2015 being created with Mexico and Brazil the most benefitiated with around the 84% of the jobs. In the case of CSR, 40 programs were identified under three main headings: “our people”, “our community” and “our planet”. Most of the programs are focused in “our community” (25) and the major receiver is Mexico with the 31 programs, the results of these programs show some benefits in the level of life and well-being of the people that has used these.


Author(s):  
Arturo Haro-de-Rosario ◽  
María del Mar Gálvez-Rodríguez ◽  
María del Carmen Caba-Pérez

The oil and gas sector exerts a major influence on the global economy. However, its negative impact on the environment and society has provoked increasing concerns about its activities and consumption of natural resources. Therefore, and in view of the fact that Latin America has the world's largest conventional oil reserves, the aim of this paper is to analyse the voluntary disclosure of information on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of oil and gas companies operating in Latin America, and to study the factors that may influence the provision of this information. The results obtained show that although companies in this sector are becoming more aware of the impact of their activity, greater efforts need to be made with respect to CSR. We find that the largest, most profitable oil and gas companies tend to publish the most complete CSR reports.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 403-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Amini ◽  
Silvia Dal Bianco

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on firm performance in six Latin American economies. Firm performance includes five distinct dimensions, namely, firm turnover, labour productivity, innovativeness, product differentiation and technological transfer. The countries under scrutiny are Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico. Design/methodology/approach Propensity score matching techniques are used to identify the causal effect of CSR on firm performance. To this end, World Bank Enterprise Survey (2006 wave) is used. This data set collects relevant firm-level data. Findings CSR has a positive impact on the outcome variables analysed, suggesting that corporate goals are compatible with conscious business operations. The results also vary across countries. Research limitations/implications The pattern that emerges from the analysis seems to suggest that the positive effects of CSR depend on countries’ stage of industrialisation. In particular, the least developed the economy, the wider the scope of CSR. Nonetheless, the relationship between conscious business operations, firm performance and countries’ level of development is not directly tested in the present work. Practical implications The main practical implication of the study is that Latin American firms should adopt CSR. This is because corporate responsible practices either improve firm performance or they are not shown to have a detrimental effect. Social implications The major policy implication is that emerging countries’ governments as well as international organisation should provide meaningful incentives towards CSR adoption. Originality/value The paper provides three major original contributions. First, it brings new descriptive evidence on CSR practices in Latin America. Second, it uses a broader and novel definition of firm performance, which is aimed at capturing developing countries’ business dynamics as well as at overcoming data limitations. Finally, it reassesses and extends the empirical evidence on the impact of CSR on firm performance.


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