Perception of social responsibility and banking activities in Puerto Rico

Abstract

espanolEl objetivo de este articulo es explorar la percepcion de los profesionales de la Economia y la Psicologia acerca de la responsabilidad social en las actividades bancarias. La informacion utilizada proviene de una encuesta realizada a tal fin, habiendose utilizado tanto las tecnicas estadisticas descriptivas e inferenciales para presentar y analizar los datos, respectivamente. Los resultados indican que la mayor parte de los participantes en ambos grupos (Psicologia y Economia) no perciben que las actividades bancarias sean esenciales para el desarrollo economico y social de Puerto Rico. La mayoria esta de acuerdo en que las instituciones financieras de caracter cooperativo superan a los bancos en lo que a la provision de fuentes de financiacion se refiere. EnglishThe purpose of this article is to explore the perceptions that economics and psychology professionals have of banking activities with respect to social responsibility. Data were collected by means of a survey, and descriptive and inferential statistics were then used to present and analyze the data. The results indicate that a majority of participants in both groups (psychology and economics) do not perceive the banks’ activities as essential to Puerto Rico’s social and economic development. Most participants agree that financial cooperative institutions are better than banks in terms of providing access to sources of finance