Inovação, sustentabilidade ambiental e social e desempenho: relação e efeitos em empresas brasileiras e europeias

Abstract

The perception that the structure of organizational arrangements and strategies, by firms necessarily assume that conceive and interpret the economic environment in which figure as builders and modifying agents. Adaptation, however, is not the core of the discussions around this debate, but rather the process or the conversion phase of the adaptive voluntarism into competitive advantages resulting in rise of performance. The theoretical framework settled by the Resource Based View (RBV), according to Barney (1991), puts the expertise and organizational idiosyncrasy as a distinguishing variable between companies.In this sense, it can be assumed that the management of resources and strategy linked to it can leverage firms returns due to the differentiation.Innovation can be referred as one of those potential key strategic factors. Through theory RBV, Hart (1995) states that the incorporation of environmental and social responsibilities of companies is also likely to enhance the competitive advantages, in other words, sustainability, in theory, grants organizations the achievement of distinction in the market. Through the exposed reflection, this study aimed to investigate the possible effects of the strategic profiles focused on innovation and environmental and social sustainability in the profitability of firms belonging to distinct economic contexts, in this case, the Brazilian and European. The selection of companies that composed the evaluated group included public companies listed in sustainability indexes of Bovespa (Corporate Sustainability Index – ISE; Carbon Efficient Index – ICO2) and NYSE Euronext (Low Carbon® 100). It was selected 78 companies, which were investigated in longitudinal section of four years (2010-2013). The Research is descriptive, with data extracted from document databases (Financial Statements, Notes, Annual, Sustainability and Management Reports) with its qualitative (content analysis) and quantitative approaches (Correspondence Analysis – ANACOR; Mean Differences and Trend Test – Kruskal-Wallis, Jonckheere-Terpstra, Mann-Whitney Test; Multiple Linear Regression). The demonstrated results support the following positions: (i) innovation is superior, in terms of disclosure and investments, measured by intangibles of innovation, patents, R&D and TII (GU; LI, 2003), in the developed economic context; (ii) despite the publication of sustainability reports, in accordance to guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), be relatively higher in the group of Brazilian firms, the disclosure is higher in European group; (iii) one can not observe the strategic combination of innovation and sustainability in relevant levels; (iv) in specific periods, superior and continuing advantages were observed in relation to innovation and environmental and social Sustainability, with absence of significant differences; (v) strategic engagement interfere, in different ways, in the performance of companies; (vi) innovation and sustainability, when evaluated using the intangibles of innovation and patents, and environmental and social disclosure, respectively influence the profitability positively. This research concludes that innovation and sustainability can promote somehow profitability, but its impact depends on how companies disclose information about these strategies. It is argued here that it is imperative for management to evaluate the trade-off inherent in the informational cost, pondering the economic and market advantages, of short and long term, that can be absorbed or neglected by firms as a result of the strategic association of innovation with environmental and social sustainability. These results confirm the assumptions of RBV, since specific resources can be converted in favor of corporate performance, whether belonging to different economic scenarios, with varying levels of commitment to innovation and sustainability strategies.