Key Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives: An Empirical Evidence from Spain

Abstract

Although 43 % of Spanish enterprises consider CSR to be valuable to their organizations, only 15.5 % systematically implement Social Responsibility initiatives (Forética (2011). The evolution of social responsibility among Spanish business.). In light of this low level of implementation, the aim of this paper is to explore key CSR initiatives implemented by Spanish enterprises and their evolution over the last years. Previous literature has focused on the empirical analyses about CSR initiatives in a specific group of organizations, according to their size or their profit or nonprofit purpose. Therefore, the main contribution of this research is to advance in knowledge about the implementation of CSR initiatives in Spain conducting an exploratory analysis and focusing on three main groups of organizations: small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), companies listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange and included on the IBEX35 index, and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Taking into account the differences between the three groups, this paper seeks to show whether these organizations are dealing with the same CSR initiatives, which of them are the most and which are the least implemented and how CSR policies should be orientated to promote CSR initiatives. Our results show that most initiatives are focused on working conditions or environmental protection. Employees’ health and safety programs, plans for environmental protection and for energy efficiency, and gender equality and work-life balance, constitute the most common practices among Spanish companies (generally implemented by 60 % of companies). However, there are also initiatives undertaken less frequently (less than 15 % of companies), such as monitoring CSR in the supply chain, elaborating codes of conduct, and drafting CSR reports. Focusing on Spanish enterprises listed on the IBEX35, we were able to discover how Spanish companies have enjoyed the greatest increases in environmental performance, social performance and corporate governance performance scores since 2002, as compared with the major other economies in Europe (such as the UK, France and Germany) using the Datastream database. As far as NGOs are concerned, although most of them comply with most of the principles of the Lealtad Foundation Guide, a significant number of NGOs does not fully comply with the principles regarding the governance of the organization, plurality in financing and monitoring the use of funds. In conclusion, results from this exploratory study show that, despite the great effort to implement CSR initiatives in Spanish companies and the increase in such initiatives, there are still some challenges to face, such as the efficiency of Corporate Governance policies and the difficulties small enterprises face when implementing these initiatives.