Consequences of Social and Environmental Corporate Responsibility Practices: Managers’ Perception in Mozambique

Eulália Madime,Tiago Cruz Gonçalves

doi:10.3390/ijfs10010004

Eulália Madime, Tiago Cruz Gonçalves

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijfs10010004

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Abstract

The objective of this paper is to analyze the relationship between the social and environmental practices of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and the economic–financial, social, and environmental performance in Mozambican companies, from the managers’ perspectives. The data were collected from a sample of 227 companies through a survey questionnaire. We used structural equation modelling to analyze how the managers correlate the different social and environmental practices with performance at the financial, social, and environmental levels. The results showed that the relationship between all major components of the social and environmental practices, and the economic–financial, social, and environmental performance is positive but insignificant with the exception of the social practices of community support, which has a weak relationship with the economic–financial performance, environmental performance, and social performance, as well as the environmental practices. The data indicate that there is a need for strengthening the appropriate economic–financial incentive policies and strategies for the agents who promote good CSR practices in the country, in order to obtain satisfactory, measurable, and comparable economic–financial, social, and environmental performance.

Highlights

The objective of this paper is to analyze the relationship between the social and environmental practices of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and the economic–financial, social, and environmental performance in Mozambican companies, from the managers’ perspectives
We find that managers only correlate, weakly, the implementation of social practices with achieving superior economic–financial and environmental performance and identify, weakly as well, the introduction of social practices with improvements in environmental performance
The main social practices perceived by managers of Mozambican companies that, according to the data, have higher averages and lower standard deviation, are: 1

Summary

Introduction

The objective of this paper is to analyze the relationship between the social and environmental practices of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and the economic–financial, social, and environmental performance in Mozambican companies, from the managers’ perspectives. With the development of the stakeholder theory, the philosophy and concept of CSR has been integrated into the systemic vision according to the ways companies relate dynamically with their stakeholders, whose actions affect the environment, and, from which, they suffer the consequences From this perspective, companies should be concerned with the interests of shareholders and investors, and with socially responsible production methods. Companies have started to integrate policies and strategies that promote social and environmental practices into their business plans (Carneiro and Rodrigues 2014) From this new approach to business management, a change has occurred in the business sector with the migration from philanthropy to CSR, which is founded on the voluntary relationship between social and environmental concerns from companies through their actions and interactions with employees, the community, suppliers and customers, shareholders and investors, public bodies, and nongovernmental organizations, among other stakeholders. In this vision of business ethics, companies adhere to CSR to increase their economic and financial performance, and their contribution to the well-being of their stakeholders and the community in which they are located, for the sake of sustainable development

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