Abstract
Social sustainability is slowly becoming a more important aspect of a company’s management, particularly in the case of multinational companies with an international network of subsidiaries placed in diverse cultural and social environments. The concept of social sustainability is strongly connected with a considerable number of stakeholders, compared to the environmental and economic aspects of sustainability. The nature of activities under the social pillar of corporate responsibility connects social sustainability with family business, which aims at the principles of social solidarity, equality and ethics. This article uniquely analyzes selected aspects of social sustainability on a sample of 201 Slovak subsidiaries of foreign multinationals and finds differences between family and nonfamily ones. Surprisingly, the conducted research proved that the examined family businesses cannot be considered as bearers of social sustainability in Slovakia, since, in many aspects, the nonfamily businesses implemented the monitored aspects in larger measures, and there were only two factors that turned out to be significant, according to the type of business ownership. Equal opportunities in the workplace were the only variable, due to which significant differences were seen, according to the factor of a family business and the factor of employees’ gender simultaneously, which makes it a crucial variable. The conducted study fills the gap in explanation of interconnections between social sustainability, family business and equal gender opportunities, which makes it unique not just in Slovak conditions.
Highlights
The issue of sustainability is of crucial importance for all market operators
The aim of this study is to identify significant differences in applying social aspects of entrepreneurship by subsidiaries of multinational enterprises operating in Slovakia, which are diverse due to family background of their entrepreneurship and predominant gender of executives and employees
Social sustainability cannot be identified with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) completely, since it forms the essence only of the social pillar of CSR
Summary
The issue of sustainability is of crucial importance for all market operators. Businesses focused primarily on the economic sustainability of their activities and the return on shareholders’ investment. As a result of the global ecological crisis and the growing environmental problems, the attention of both public and business practice has turned more towards environmental sustainability. It has become crucial for multinationals conducting business in different countries, and the impacts of their business can often be monitored on a global scale. The economic and environmental aspects of corporate responsibility are overshadowing the social aspects, even though these relate to more stakeholders’ groups than the other two. Social factors are linked to issues of social security, solidarity and equality, which all connect them with the core of the family business
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