This paper’s goal is twofold: it aims to assess the performance of 58 Iberian banks and explore the relationship between such performance and the banks’ Intellectual Capital (IC) efficiency during a post-crisis period. As long as the authors are aware, there is a gap in the literature in exploring the relationship between banks’ global performance and IC efficiency. First, the Data Envelopment Analysis model was adopted to measure the efficiency of Iberian banks and rank them according to their performance. Data were collected digitally, specifically by using the Bankscope database provided by Bureau van Dijk. Results show that by improving their resources management practices, banks can significantly increase their efficiency. Then, fractional regressions were used to infer the relationship between IC’s efficiency and the scores obtained in the first stage. Results suggest that Iberian banks’ global performance is mainly determined by their human capital efficiency. Finally, this study stresses the importance of IC measurement to support more efficient decision-making by bank managers.

The concept of sustainable development (SD) was introduced in the “Our Common Future” report, launched in 1987, which influenced the emergence of many studies related to the role played by organizations as actors supporting SD. SD is a consolidated concept; however, since 1987, many political, social, and natural events have occurred on our planet, which have impacted companies’ behaviors. However, the diversity of research from different fields has provoked, among the academic community, a lack of clarity surrounding “sustainability” (S), “corporate sustainability” (CS) and “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) concepts. This lack of clarity can also be identified in companies, which have referred to “sustainability” only in the environmental field. Recently, increased discussions related to corporate sustainability metrics have shed light on the ESG criteria (environmental, social, and governance), increasing misperceptions associated with the concept. Ambiguous definitions and constructs may prevent managers from identifying sustainability goals for their companies. Therefore, literature reviews as a research method are more relevant than ever. Thus, in this work, we aim to answer the following question: How should we integrate different perspectives on corporate sustainability, in order to broaden the understanding of the concept? In this study, we conducted a focused bibliographic review and revisited the papers that most influenced the construction of the concepts. The information in this paper is helpful to improve the understanding of CS; to provide specific insights into the studies that have investigated this field; to help managers and entrepreneurs who are improving CS actions in their companies; and to support academia by putting together a large amount of information about this theme in one paper.

We start from the conceptual interconnection between Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility, which, although continuously subject to controversy, both within the scope of its definition and in its performance, advocate, as the ultimate goal, human development and of the society in general, promoting the interests of the Communities on a permanent, long-term basis and without compromising the options of the future generations. In this context, we cannot fail to draw a parallel with the entities that constitute the Social Search Log in CSR and Sustainability in the Public Sector pp 113-135

RESUMENEl objetivo de este estudio consiste en identificar los diferentes tipos de resultados en las cooperativas portuguesas, comprender el tratamiento jurídico y contable de los mismos y evaluar si la normativa contable vigente permite constatar sus especificidades.De este modo, utilizando la metodología cualitativa, mediante el análisis de contenidos y un estudio de caso múltiple, se procede a una reflexión sobre el régimen jurídico y contable de los resultados de las cooperativas.La información obtenida muestra que el tratamiento jurídico y contable de los resultados no se adecuan debidamente a la realidad de las cooperativas. No son claramente identificables en la legislación vigente los diferentes tipos de resultados, que se someten al mismo tratamiento contable que los resultados de las sociedades mercantiles a pesar de las diferencias sustanciales entre ambas formas jurídicas.Así pues, defendemos la alteración de la normativa contable aplicable a las cooperativas para que se las someta a la normativa aplicable a las entidades sin ánimo de lucro, de forma a que se evidencie el objeto real de estas, principalmente su finalidad

Given the extreme importance of improving the accountability of private social solidarity institutions (IPSS), both for reasons of legal compliance and for reasons of improving legitimacy and notoriety among their stakeholders, in order to be accountable to them and in order to maintain their sustainability, this article aims to present a framework designed under a more comprehensive research project for the assessment of IPSS accountability, as well as the preliminary results of a pilot test of Portuguese IPSS. The framework was developed from a combination of methodologies that included a literature review, field work and a focus group, resulting in six dimensions with 76 indicators. For the pilot test, the data were collected by questionnaire for the years 2018, 2019 and 2020. The results of the pilot test, despite the limited number of entities, allowed the identification of some trends and indicators where entities show lower results and where they will have to focus to improve their accountability. Some possible effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were also identified. Therefore, we believe that the framework designed answers the research question: how can we promote accountability (social, financial and economic) in the social economy sector, in particular in the case of IPSS?