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A Multivariate Proposal for a National Corporate Social Responsibility Practices Index (NCSRPI) for International Settings

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Abstract

This paper proposes a National Corporate Social Responsibility Practices Index (NCSRPI) that determines the level of penetration of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in 29 different countries, considering each nation as a set of institutional factors. The NCSRPI is built through a statistical aggregation process of 22 CSR practices categorized into the social and environmental dimensions that are individually observed for each company. The composite indicator summarizes and synthesizes the entire business reality at the country level, providing pertinent information to evaluate factors related to CSR performance and a vision of national commitment to company sustainability. The results provided by the NCSRPI show that companies around the world adopt similar patterns of behaviour in relation to their CSR practices, but with different levels of evolution. Thus, European countries present themselves as the leaders in issues of social responsibility, the countries of America give preference to ethical issues, and countries belonging to the Asian continent, specifically to Southeast Asia, are shown to be the most laggardly in this regard. In conclusion, the institutional environment in each country establishes for firms a series of opportunities and barriers in their decision to adopt or improve their CSR practices.

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Notes

  1. We use the terms “sustainable business behaviour”, “company sustainability” and “CSR practices” interchangeably throughout the paper.

  2. The EIRIS database has a higher number of CSR dimensions, but most of these are specific to one or two sectors (sometimes specific countries) which are not available for the others. In addition, several items are the same measures with different levels of response. Thus, the 28 items are those common to all companies and to all countries. These items are those more frequently used in empirical papers (i.e., Martínez-Ferrero and García-Sánchez 2016; Amor-Esteban et al. 2017; Esteban et al. 2017; García-Sánchez and García-Meca 2017; Cuadrado-Ballesteros et al. 2017).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Statistics, University of Salamanca, Campus Miguel de Unamuno, c/ Alfonso X El Sabio s/n, 37007, Salamanca, Spain

    Víctor Amor-Esteban & Mª-Purificación Galindo-Villardón

  2. Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economics, University of Salamanca, Campus Miguel de Unamuno, 37007, Salamanca, Spain

    Isabel-María García-Sánchez

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  1. Víctor Amor-Esteban
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  2. Mª-Purificación Galindo-Villardón
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  3. Isabel-María García-Sánchez
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Correspondence to Víctor Amor-Esteban.

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Amor-Esteban, V., Galindo-Villardón, MP. & García-Sánchez, IM. A Multivariate Proposal for a National Corporate Social Responsibility Practices Index (NCSRPI) for International Settings. Soc Indic Res 143, 525–560 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-018-1997-x

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