Model of dimensions and variables of corporate social responsibility updated through structural equations

• Published in: PloS one 2024-06, Vol.19 (6), p.e0296761
• Main Authors: Bustamante-Ubilla, Miguel A, Carvache-Franco, Mauricio, Carvache-Franco, Orly, Carvache-Franco, Wilmer
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Book publishing; Commerce; Commonality; Community relations; Corporate social responsibility; Data processing; Environmental auditing; Environmental management; Environmental performance; Factorial analysis; Goodness of fit; Humans; Interest groups; Likelihood ratio; Mathematical models; Middle management; Modelling; Models, Theoretical; Organizations; Power; Questionnaires; Social aspects; Social Responsibility; Society
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0296761

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a constantly evolving concept that reflects changes in society and the expectations of stakeholders in a process that leads companies to adapt to respond to new challenges and demands. Similarly, the theory and practice of CSR have moved from regulatory compliance to a more holistic approach that requires more sophisticated models that allow for a deeper understanding. Following the fact that companies now have access to a greater amount of information related to their social and environmental performance, as well as comparative data from other organizations, which is why it is necessary to have a management tool that allows collecting, process, and generating more accurate and meaningful metrics that more effectively reflect a company's impact on society. Consequently, the present work aims to identify a system of variables and dimensions representative of the management of organizations that allows the validation of a generic model of corporate social responsibility determined through factorial and structural modeling capable of reflecting more accurate and up-to-date dimensions and metrics of model variables and dimensions. To carry out the study, a sample of 667 middle and senior managers from medium and large companies in Guayas, Ecuador, were randomly contacted in their respective business contexts by trained interviewers. The data processing was carried out in stages. First, the exploratory factorial analysis method of the items was applied to form relevant factors. Then, the dimensions' structural modeling was formulated and ratified through the pertinent goodness-of-fit indices. The results determined a system of correlated factors whose items present estimators of commonality and high and significant factorial loads, excluding variables that did not exceed the sensitization criteria applied. Finally, a model made up of 15 factors and 66 variables ratified using the comparative adjustment indices, the chi-square likelihood ratio, and the mean square error of approximation is introduced, confirming the proposed corporate social responsibility model.