Multinationals' social response. Empirical application to the automobile and chemical industries.

摘要

In today's setting of globalization and complexity, one of the major problems that firms face is that of competitiveness. To survive and be successful in that environment companies are obliged to think in wider strategic terms, developing active and enterprising strategies that include social, political and ecological elements, besides the economic ones. Although numerous research works analysing the impact of international companies have been carried out, much less effort has been dedicated to analysing the management of the social response of those companies. This scant research is mainly due to the difficulty which the empirical analysis of corporate social implication harbours. To contribute to advances in this field, this study proposes an integrative model that groups together the activities that constitute a formal process of social response. Since the institutionalization of social response is clearly influenced by organizational, industrial and environmental factors, this study also identifies the factors which determine the adoption of a social response in the context of international businesses. This way, we will increase the depth of the analysis of the relationships between international companies and society. The results obtained allow us to reach important conclusions about both the instrument proposed for measuring the corporate social response, and the factors determining its correct application in the context of international companies.