Influência do ambiente institucional na extensão da divulgação de informações de responsabilidade social corporativa no Brasil e Canadá

Abstract

The study evaluates the influence of the National Business System (NBS) in Brazil and Canada on the extent of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure of environmentally sensitive industries. According to the assumptions of business-systems approach, the national institutional framework such as the political system, the financial system, the education and labor system and cultural system are responsible for shaping the national business system (NBS), which in turn determines the aspects of the nature of the firm, the organization of market processes, and coordination and control systems. Therefore, the institutional framework that shapes the NBS can explain differences in the CSR disclosure practices between countries. The study is characterized as descriptive and correlational, it has a quantitative approach and uses secondary data from companies in the utilities, materials, and oil and gas operations sectors, as well as indicators of Brazil and Canada's institutional environment between 2007 and 2014. The independent variables are related to the institutional framework that shape the NBS, as well as control variables relating to firms characteristics (size and adoption of the GRI guidelines). These variables came from databases of the World Bank, the World Economic Forum (WEF), the Hofstede Centre, and from the Brazilian and Canadian Stock Exchanges, besides the existing information in firms annual and sustainability reports. The dependent variable of research is the extent of disclosure of CSR information measured using the methodology developed by Fischer and Sawczyn (2013), divided into three dimensions: environmental, social, and total. The quantitative methods of analysis are descriptive statistics, panel data analysis and hierarchical linear model (HLM). The results indicate that the extent of CSR disclosure is positively related to the political system, the labor system, and the cultural dimensions related to uncertainty avoidance and power distance. On the other hand, it relates negatively with the financial system, the education system, and the cultural dimensions of individualism and masculinity. The HLM results show that the country-level characteristics for Canada are able to explain in greater proportion the extent of CSR disclosure than those relating to Brazil. The study concludes that managers should pay attention to the influence of the national institutional framework characteristics when establishing their strategies related to CSR.