Abstract
Cooperative organizations try to balance economic viability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) management through strategic policies that involve dialogue, participation, and engagement with stakeholders. To measure the impact of CSR management, the electricity sector implements monitoring processes and models, such as the sustainability reporting standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), which measure contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. This research analyses the strategic management of CSR in the 28 electric cooperatives that market electricity in Spain with the aim of determining their level of commitment to CSR and stakeholder participation in their corporate policies. The analysis is based on the descriptive-exploratory study of the whole population of electric cooperatives. The results indicate that the CSR management of most electric cooperatives is still in an emerging stage within the Value Curve. Importantly, there is a significant percentage of cooperatives that have already advanced towards the consolidating and institutionalized stages. However, most of these social-economy organizations are not developing programs that link their CSR strategies with their priority SDGs and sustainability as a commitment to their community.
Highlights
Over the past few decades, the activities carried out by all kinds of organizations have had decisive social, economic, and environmental impacts in the communities where they operate
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been managed according to different regulations, including legislation and guidelines set by international bodies, such as the European Commission, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), United Nations (UN), the International Labor Organization (ILO), the Institute of Social and Ethical Accountability (ISEA), the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
28 Spanish electric cooperatives based on the following key aspects: corporate governance, The methodological instrument used to achieve the research objectives set in the instrategic CSR management, and social and environmental initiatives
Summary
Over the past few decades, the activities carried out by all kinds of organizations have had decisive social, economic, and environmental impacts in the communities where they operate. Corporate social responsibility (CSR), as an approach developed to respond to the increasing interdependence between companies and their social context, can help organizations balance their multidirectional relationships with stakeholders. In this sense, it can be argued that globalization and technological changes are causing a real social transformation that in turn accelerates the evolution of the endogenous and exogenous systemic factors that connect companies with their context [1]. Since the late 20th century and, fundamentally, since the first decade of the 21st century, business organizations with high social impact have shown an increased
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