Does foodservice industry care about CSR? A study in Portugal and Ukraine

Oksana Sokil,Teresa Eugenio,Tânia Marques,Iveta Ubrežiová

doi:10.5219/1281

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to compare the CSR perception level of the food service industry in Portugal and Ukraine. The main goal of the study is to find the attitudes in Portugal and in Ukraine towards CSR. Additionally, two hypotheses were formulated to understand the possible relation between (1) the financial situation and (2) the duration of the company with the awareness level about the CSR concept. A quantitative approach, using questionnaires, was adopted to survey using a sample of 201 representatives of SMEs in the foodservice sector (101 Portuguese and 100 Ukrainian), in 2019. Descriptive statistics and Spearman test were used to analyze the data. The present work demonstrates a significant correlation between the financial situation of the company and the CSR awareness level of leadership. Furthermore, the research shows that activities related to the economic sphere and CSR workplace policy among food sector companies in Ukraine and Portugal are developed to a great extent. From this point of view, we can state, that the publication of the article is one of the results and supported by grant project KEGA 005SPU-4/2019 “Theory and Practice of the International Management and Entrepreneurship in Multicultural Environment”. In this study, two different countries were chosen (Portugal and Ukraine), which are different in culture, history, and economic background. The paper focused on the food service industry and contributes to the ongoing debate about the SMEs and its involvement with CSR. It also helps schools to identify plans in CSR policy and topics for future research.

Highlights

The social orientation of the world economy requires the development of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities to ensure the free entry of domestic companies into world markets (Van Marrewijk, 2003) and to increase cooperation with foreign investors, maintaining a worthy competitive position in the international arena (Secchi, 2007; Lee, 2008)
The present work demonstrates a significant correlation between the financial situation of the company and the CSR awareness level of leadership
The research shows that activities related to the economic sphere and CSR workplace policy among food sector companies in Ukraine and Portugal are developed to a great extent

Summary

Introduction

The social orientation of the world economy requires the development of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities to ensure the free entry of domestic companies into world markets (Van Marrewijk, 2003) and to increase cooperation with foreign investors, maintaining a worthy competitive position in the international arena (Secchi, 2007; Lee, 2008). The understanding of CSR importance pushes business to assume the behavior of law-abidingness and to carry out voluntary participation in the implementation of corporate contribution to the development of the community, the territory, and establishing social partnership relations with the state (Burja and Mihalache, 2010). The American perspective of the concept is mainly oriented on ethical responsibility and corporate philanthropy (besides economic and legal obligations), while the European perspective sees such responsibilities as the task of government (Kasych, 2014). Comparative researches on CSR development are needed within the neighboring countries and within the countries which are located in different geographic areas (Branco and Delgado, 2011)

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Conclusion