Salience of multiple actors involved in formal and informal governance systems encouraging corporate social responsibility in an emerging market

Abstract

This paper evaluates the influence of multiple actors in both formal and informal governance systems on corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. Drawing on institutional theory, a quantitative survey was developed and conducted of a sample of 140 firms in the electronics, food, textiles, toys and personal care sectors in Brazil. We examine how institutional pressures and firm-level agency influence the emergence of different patterns of CSR. We distinguish two clusters of companies: active companies identify business outcomes and actors that effectively exert an influence on their CSR practices, while passive companies consider institutional pressures to be of minor importance. Our contribution relates first, to institutional theory concerning the role of different actors in influencing the implementation of social and environmental practices; second, to the importance of collective coordination or its absence in shaping the specific characteristics of CSR; and third, to the agency of firms in responding to institutional pressures as being dependent on their perceptions of business outcomes. The theoretical insights drawn from this study should be applicable to similar countries, that is, to emerging but politically and economically unstable markets with marked social and economic inequalities.

Does board diversity encourage an environmental policy focused on resource use, emission reduction and innovation? The case of companies in Latin America

“…As legal systems seem insufficient to establish CSR in Latin America, there may be a need for other external CG mechanisms to pressure the boards, such as the market for corporate control, external auditing, rating organisations, stakeholder activism, and the media (Aguilera et al, 2015). Adding to previous research (Abreu et al, 2022;Fiaschi et al, 2017;Husted & de Sousa-Filho, 2019) on the institutional embeddedness of CSR in Latin America, we show that this dynamic context is highly unfavourable for overcoming the cultural zeitgeist of ownership structure and gender inequality.…”

“…A significant portion of the literature argues that CSR requires institutional contexts capable of pressuring companies to behave in a socially responsible manner (Amaeshi et al, 2016; Khandelwal et al, 2020), as such, it would be expected that CSR in developing countries were either non‐existent or philanthropic, given their weak institutional arrangements (Jamali, 2014). Nevertheless, companies from developing countries have been adopting CSR practices, which highlights the need to understand why these firms pursue and how they decide on environmental and social practices (Abreu et al, 2022; Amaeshi et al, 2016).…”

“…highlights the need to understand why these firms pursue and how they decide on environmental and social practices (Abreu et al, 2022;Amaeshi et al, 2016).…”

“…The choice of Latin America was due to features which create a distinctive context from that of liberal markets (G omez & García, 2020). Among those characteristics is an institutional environment in which pressures are weak, favouring the emergence of a spectrum of CSR (Abreu et al, 2022). There is also a low value of the stakeholder orientation index in Brazil, Chile and Mexico, which means that firms and the law are generally more concerned with shareholders than other stakeholders (Husted & de Sousa-Filho, 2019).…”

Exploring the Role of Ownership Structure in Decisions on Employee-Oriented Corporate Social Responsibility Practices

“…Zaman et al (2022) pointed out the importance of studying family-owned companies in developing countries, which vary between high-, moderate-, and lowinvolvement (Garcia-Castro & Aguilera, 2014;Samara & Berbegal-Mirabent, 2018), having a distinct influence on the decisions involving CSR. Additionally, the lack of coordination in Brazil's governance system increases agency at the company level, where the adoption of CSR practices occurs as an answer to institutional pressures and the sense that this may result in financial and image gains (Abreu et al, 2022).…”