Creating a digital space of socially sustainable development for food enterprises

Abstract

Under modern conditions, there are new requirements for the formation of relations with consumers, partners, employees, and society. The possibilities of integrating corporate social responsibility (CSR) tools and economic digitalization processes have been investigated and a new format for evaluating the activities of small and medium-sized businesses related to their level of maturity has been defined. This study formulates patterns of CSR development, proposes the use of a new concept of "digital space of social sustainable development" (DSSSD), and reports a methodological toolkit devised for determining the level of maturity of the digital space of social sustainable development (DSSSD) of food industry enterprises. The developed methodological support makes it possible to assess CSR by economic, social, and informatization criteria. The proposed CSR scorecard makes it possible to compare companies and rank them in the coordinate system of corporate social responsibility/digitalization. 17 key indicators have been identified, which are formed into three key groups. Confirmation of the effectiveness of the methodology is the execution of calculations for small and medium-sized businesses in the food industry. According to the results of the calculations, the maturity levels of eight enterprises of the food industry in Ukraine in the DSSSD space were determined. The analysis made it possible to determine that four enterprises are at the initial level of DSSSD (zone 1 Digital Descriptive), two enterprises are moving to zone 2 (Solutions Analytics Digital), and two enterprises are in a state of transition to zone 3 (Smart CIS) due to increasing the level of digitalization and the formation of an internal CSR system, which indicates their active development. This makes it possible to assert that the technique is effective and can be useful for enterprises around the world. The selected indicators are used at all enterprises of those countries that use the international accounting and reporting system. Improving the system in the areas of formation of corporate social responsibility and the introduction of digitalization of the enterprise makes it possible to optimize the information systems of enterprises, automate management procedures, and create new communication channels with consumers and beneficiaries. This will contribute to the development of a systemic socio-economic effect of business, care for the needs of people, the development of the social climate at an enterprise, and the emergence of new formats of interaction between business, the state, and society.