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Benchmarking Corporate Social Responsibility within Spanish Companies

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Abstract

In this paper, the authors focus on the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) upon business profitability. In order to be capable of working with homogeneous data, the authors’ starting point is to use the criteria defined by PricewaterhouseCoopers’ work on the subject, and published by the Spanish journal Actualidad Económica. In this work, an index was created which assigns between one and five points to the companies depending on the importance given by them to CSR. The CSR measurement published by the Observatorio de la RSE will also be considered. In order to measure companies’ profitability, this paper will take into account their return on equity (ROE) and return on assets (ROA) of 2005 and 2006. The authors’ purpose is to demonstrate that the relationship between CSR and business profitability is neutral.

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Notes

  1. In the EU, only four governmental models of CSR appear: the partnership model, the company within the community model, the sustainability and citizenship model, and the agora model. Furthermore, the UNE EN ISO 14001 standard, about environmental management systems within companies, is widely implemented in Spain. See “Manual de la empresa responsable”, number 6. Biblioteca empresarial Cinco Días. Madrid 2005.

  2. Global Compact Plus has developed a model based on the ten principles of the UN World Pact (these are principles on human rights, labor rules, environment and governance). This model establishes several measurable indicators. The interested collectives (employees, investors, consumers and so forth) may consult the ranking of the joined companies in http://i-ratings.innovestgroup.com, by simply registering. See the Spanish journal “El País”, salmon pages, number 41, of 16.10.2005.

  3. The recommendation to apply good governance practices by Spanish companies began in 1998 with the “Informe Olivencia.” The report’s aim was to force Spanish companies to comply with the rules already in place in many Anglo-Saxon countries (Cadbury report in UK and ALI-ABA principles in USA). In 2002, the “Comisión Aldama” recommended making it compulsory for the 35 companies included into the IBEX index (“Manual de la empresa responsable”, number 1. Biblioteca empresarial. Cinco Días. Madrid 2005).

  4. See Dow Jones for Sustainability and FTSE4Good Index.

  5. See “Manual de la empresa responsable”, number 1. Biblioteca empresarial. Cinco Días. Madrid 2005

  6. Corella, Arantxa (2007), “Aeca impulsa un método para comparar las memorias de CSR”, published by Cinco Días, January, 29th.

  7. The authors will warmly acknowledge Ms María Mira Reymúndez from http://www.infomercados.com for her professionalism, patience and quickness in providing the companies’ data analyzed in this paper.

  8. Sekulits, Clarisa (2006), “Bancos con buena memoria. Actualidad Económica vuelve a evaluar la transparencia de las empresas”. Actualidad Económica, number 2528, November 30th, pages 34–41. It is a paper on companies’ transparency measurement.

  9. See: Bassen, Alexander et al (2006), “The Influence of Corporate Responsibility on the Cost of Capital. An Empirical Analysis 2006”, Schlange & Co., Universität Hamburg, Deutsche Bank. http://www.schlangeco.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Studien/CR_CostOfCapital_Schlange_Co.pdf.

  10. Sekulits, Clarisa (2006), “Bancos con buena memoria. Actualidad Económica vuelve a evaluar la transparencia de las empresas”. Actualidad Económica, number 2528, November 30th, pages 34–41.

  11. See annex entitled “Actualidad Económica estudia 124 empresas en 2005 que pasan a ser 123 en 2006 con la fusión de Telefónica y Telefónica Móviles”.

  12. See Annex.

  13. See table in the Annex.

  14. The authors will keep the information used in this paper and they hope Actualidad Económica and Observatorio RSE will publish fresh data on the subject. This will be the only way to perform a dynamical analysis of this study. Therefore, the hope is to be able to verify that the relationship remains neutral or the possibility it becomes positive or negative.

References

  • Bassen, A., Meyer, K., & Schlange, J. (2006). The influence of corporate responsibility on the cost of capital. An empirical analysis 2006. Schlange & Co., Universität Hamburg, Deutsche Bank.

  • Corella, A. (2007). Aeca impulsa un método para comparar las memorias de CSR. Published by Cinco Días, January, 29th.

  • Margolis, J. D., & Walsh, J. P. (2001). People and profits—the search between a company’s social and financial performance. Mahwah (NJ): Lawrence Erlbau.

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  • Margolis, J., Walsh, J. (2003). Social enterprise series No. 19—misery loves companies: whither social initiatives by business? Harvard Business School Working Paper Series, 1–58.

  • Perdiguero, T. G. (2007). García Reche, Andrés; Fuentes Prosper, Víctor, Cultura, políticas y prácticas de responsabilidad de las empresas del IBEX35 [Estudio 2006]. Observatorio RSE. Universitat de Valencia, en http://www.observatorio-rse.org.es/Estudio2006.pdf.

  • Sekulits, C. (2006). Bancos con buena memoria. Actualidad Económica vuelve a evaluar la transparencia de las empresas. Actualidad Económica, (2528), 34–41, November 30th.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Ramon Trias Fargas 25-27, 08005, Barcelona, Spain

    María de-los-Ángeles Gil-Estallo

  2. Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, Plaza San Diego s/n, 28801, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain

    Fernando Giner-de-la- Fuente

  3. Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Sibelius, 10-12, 1-4, 08026, Barcelona, Spain

    Carles Gríful-Miquela

Authors
  1. María de-los-Ángeles Gil-Estallo
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  2. Fernando Giner-de-la- Fuente
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  3. Carles Gríful-Miquela
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to María de-los-Ángeles Gil-Estallo.

Annex

Annex

Table 1 Spanish companies ROE–ROA 2005–2006
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Table 2 CSR—observatorio RSE
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de-los-Ángeles Gil-Estallo, M., Giner-de-la- Fuente, F. & Gríful-Miquela, C. Benchmarking Corporate Social Responsibility within Spanish Companies. Int Adv Econ Res 15, 207–225 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11294-008-9190-7

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