Useful information for stakeholder engagement: A multivariate proposal of an Industrial Corporate Social Responsibility Practices Index

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to create an industrial corporate social responsibility practices index (ICSRPI) that allows us to determine the level of sustainable business commitment in the main industries. The ICSRPI allows simplification and quantification of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices; identification of those industries which present greater deficiencies in sustainability systems to facilitate the planning of various improvement actions; and provision of pertinent information on environmental and social issues to guide stakeholders in their decision‐making processes. In this sense, empirically, the ICSRPI reveals that companies from more polluting sectors, such as oil and gas, chemical, paper or mining, are perceived as having high environmental risk and are the leaders in sustainable development. Companies from less polluting sectors, such as the media or financial services, have lower CSR scores; however, they present high values in social issues, giving higher priority to business ethics and the rights of employees.

Do the ecoinnovation and ecodesign strategies generate value added in munificent environments?

“…In addition, to avoid biased results, we included several control variables, selected according to the previous literature (i.e., Amini, Bienstock, & Narcum, ; Amorelli & García‐Sánchez, ; Chen et al, ; Ghisetti, Marzucchi, & Montresor, ; Lee et al, ; Minutolo, Kristjanpoller, & Stakeley, ; Terrón Ibáñez, Gómez‐Miranda, Rodríguez, & Rodríguez Ariza, ; Tomas Siueia & Wang, ; Tsai & Liao, ; Tsai & Wang, ): “Size” is a numerical variable that represents the size of the company through the logarithm of total assets; “Leverage” is a numerical variable that represents financial leverage through the proportion of foreign funds and equity; “WC” is a numerical variable that represents the fund maneuver or liquidity of the company; “Dividend” is a numerical variable that represents the dividends accrued per share; “ForeignSales” is a numerical variable that represents the percentage of sales in markets other than domestic; “CapitalExp” is a numerical variable that represents the investment in physical capital relativized by sales; “R&D” is a numerical variable that represents the investment in R + D + i relativized by sales; “FirmAge” is a numerical variable that represents the age of the company; “CorpGovScore” is a numerical variable that represents the good corporate governance of the company through a score; and “SocialScore” is a numerical variable that represents the sustainability of social practices through a score. On the other hand, when we return the variable “Tobin Q ,” we control for economic profitability, “ROA.” Moreover, we control for “Country,” “Industry,” “Year,” “NCSRPI,” and the level of orientation towards the stakeholders of the company's country of origin (Amor‐Esteban, Galindo‐Vicente, & García‐Sánchez, ; Amor‐Esteban, Galindo‐Vicente, & García‐Sánchez, ; Amor‐Esteban, Galindo‐Villardón, & García‐Sánchez, ; Amor‐Esteban, García‐Sánchez, & Galindo‐Vicente, ; Amor‐Esteban, García‐Sánchez, & Galindo‐Vicente, ; García‐Sánchez, Cuadrado‐Ballesteros, & Frías‐Aceituno, ).…”

What companies do not disclose about their environmental policy and what institutional pressures may do to respect

“…To characterize the “coercive pressures,” we use three variables that measure the legal system of the countries in the sample: CSR_LAW, C_FINANCIAL (Dhaliwal et al, ), and ERRI (Esty & Porter, ). Mimetic pressures are analysed based on the Industrial Corporate Social Responsibility Practices Index and the National Corporate Social Responsibility Practices Index, which provide insight into the level of business mimicry with respect to CSR at the sector and country level (Amor‐Esteban, Galindo‐Villardón, & García‐Sánchez, ).…”

Female directorship on boards and corporate sustainability policies: Their effect on sustainable development

“…We draw on the CNMV classification, which considers the following sectors: transport; cement, glass and construction materials (CGCM); commerce and other services (COMER); construction (CONST); energy and water (EW); insurance (INS); chemical industry (CHIN); real estate (RE); mass media (MASSM); basic metal industries (BMI); other processing industries (OPI); metal processing industries (MPI); and the remaining sectors with few firms and not included in any of the above categorisations (OTHR). According to previous research (Amor‐Esteban, Galindo‐Villardón, & García‐Sánchez, ; Deegan & Gordon, ; García‐Ayuso & Larrinaga, ), some sectors are more likely than others to report CSR information as their activities have a greater impact on society. Finally, we also control for firm and year fixed effects.…”