Adoption of the UN Global Compact in Spanish banking: a case study

Abstract

The aim of this work is to analyse the process involving adoption of a corporate social responsibility initiative-the United Nations Global Compact-in a Spanish financial institution. Semi-structured interviews were conducted for such purpose with managers, workers and customers from this organisation. From the analysis carried out, it can be ascertained that only professionals from the specific field of corporate social responsibility in the organisation being analysed have suitable knowledge about the initiative adopted, while the other professionals are practically unaware of it-even among professionals such as accountants who should clearly have suitable knowledge about the subject in order to draft sustainability reports. As a result, the research also provides evidence about the ceremonial adoption of the United Nations Global Compact, highlighting the internal friction existing within an organisation that until very recently stood out in the Spanish banking sector for the amount of externally obtained awards in recognition of its sustainability practices.

Organizations' engagement with sustainable development goals: Fromcherry‐pickingto SDG‐washing?

“…Bluewashing describes a smokescreen of practices used for purposes of public relations (Berliner & Prakash, 2015; Rasche, 2009). Very few empirical studies have analyzed such activities (Garayar et al, 2016; Macellari et al, 2021), and most research has focused on non‐empirical reflection on the business case for SDGs. For example, Bebbington and Unerman (2018) pointed out that SDGs could be used “to camouflage business‐as‐usual by disguising it using SDG‐related sustainability rhetoric” (p. 10).…”

“…Like the SDGs, these initiatives had their own momentum. For example, the UNGC attracted very optimistic attention in both the practitioner and scholarly literature (e.g., Kell, 2005; Williams, 2004), but it was also associated with the phenomenon of bluewashing (e.g., Berliner & Prakash, 2015; Garayar et al, 2016).…”

How Does Board Gender Diversity Influence the Likelihood of Becoming a UN Global Compact Signatory? The Mediating Effect of the CSR Committee

“…In spite of these reported positive outcomes of the UN GC, it is not completely free of criticism. For example, some NGOs express concerns that firms will draw upon the legitimacy of the UN without making significant progress in unfair business practices [4], namely "blue washing" [9,38] or "ceremonial adoption" [49], in the language of institutional theory. Berliner and Prakash [50] indicated that members of the UN GC showed worse performance on issues of environment and human rights which entail high costs.…”

United Nations Global Compact: Where are we going?

“…Hemphill (2005) defined UNGC as the world’s largest network-based voluntary corporate citizenship initiative as, by adhering, companies can show their commitment to meet the responsibilities requested by stakeholders (Néron and Norman, 2008). The improvement of firms’ image is one of the main benefits attributed to the UNGC (Arevalo and Aravind, 2017; Cetindamar, 2007; Garayar et al , 2016). It enables participants to exploit the recognised standing of the UN logo (Hughes and Wilkinson, 2001; Fritsch, 2008) and thus increase their reputation (Selvik, 2013).…”