Institutional drivers for corporate social responsibility in the utilities sector

• Published in: Revista de gestão Vol. 28; no. 3; pp. 186 - 204
• Main Authors: Bandeira Pinheiro, Alan, da Silva Filho, José Carlos Lázaro, Moreira, Márcia Zabdiele
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Portuguese
• Published: São Paulo Emerald Publishing Limited 28.07.2021; Faculdade de Economia, Administracao e Contabilidade - FEA-USP; Emerald Group Publishing Limited; Emerald Publishing
• Subjects: Competition; corporate social performance; corporate social responsibility; Culture; Decision making; Descriptive research; GDP; Global economy; Gross Domestic Product; Industrialized nations; institutional analysis; Public utilities; Social responsibility; Society; Sustainable development; utilities sector; Variables; Brasil; United Kingdom > UK; Brazil; Corporate social responsibility; Utilities sector; Corporate social performance; Institutional analysis
• DOI: 10.1108/REGE-08-2019-0088
• ISSN: 1809-2276

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the influence of characteristics of the institutional environment on the disclosure of corporate social responsibility (CSR).Design/methodology/approachThis is a quantitative and descriptive research. The dependent variables used were environmental dimension (ED) and social dimension (SD) that together compose the corporate social performance (CSP). The independent variables that will be used are the characteristics of the institutional environments of Brazil and the UK. Thus, for this end, variables of the national business system of both countries will be used: corruption transparency, access to credit by countries, quality of the education system and labor relations. After their collection, the data were submitted to descriptive and inferential statistics and hierarchical regression.FindingsData show that UK companies make more disclosure in CSR than Brazilian companies. Through linear regression, it can be seen that the institutional environment affects disclosure in CSR. In the UK, a country with better educational, labor, political and financial indicators than Brazil, it presented better CSR practices. The findings reveal that the better an institutional environment, the more firms act in CSR. The findings of the research confirm the premise of institutional theory: different institutional fields can modify business performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe study analyzed only the disclosure practices of companies in the public sector. Thus, the results should be carefully analyzed, without generalizations for all industry sectors. Therefore, it is suggested that future research looks at other industry sectors as well as other institutional contexts, i.e. other countries.Practical implicationsMultinational companies may have different CSR practices according to the institutional environment in which they operate. For example, companies in developed countries, such as the UK, have greater stakeholder pressure. Given this, managers must adapt their environmental strategies according to the institutional environment in which they operate.Originality/valueThis research contributes to CSR studies in various institutional contexts. There is a consensus in the literature that institutional environments affect firms' CSR practices. However, few empirical studies show results between the national business system and CSR. Thus, the present study intends to fill this research gap.