Regional Review: Latin America

Abstract

This chapter aims to provide a general view of corporate social responsibility actions in Latin America and the Caribbean – LAC, from both an academic and a pragmatic perspective. Scientific and gray literature were gathered and systematized to show the past and actual trends of the produced knowledge in the region for the region. The results display that the earlier stages of the corporate social responsibility movement is remarkably effective: in LAC, CSR issues are already institutionalized in national public policies, in organizational practices, and people attitudes and behavior (citizenship, consumer behavior, activisms, for instance), but with an important gap between big/multinational companies and SMEs, even though the last one contributes with more than 99.5% of companies and generate 60% of formal employment. Regarding environmental issues, it is frequent to see that eco-friendly strategies are not widely used due to their organizational structures and levels of financing. Nevertheless, the future agenda is still under construction, especially because it depends on the real interests and foundations of social responsibility among all actors. Some governments are getting involved in the 2030 Agenda, recognizing it as public policy, there has a significant increase in reporting, and the region is looking how to engage with climate finance mechanisms as well as improve their traditional management models into sustainable business models.

Appendices

Appendix 1 Frequent words in the Spanish texts

Word	Length	Synonym	Frequency	Similar words
Empresas	8	Companies	3389	Empresa, empresas
Social	6	Social	2332	Social, social’, sociale, sociales, socialization, socially, socials
Responsabilidad	15	Responsibility	1320	Responsabilidad, responsabilidade, responsabilidades
Prácticas	9	Practices	909	Práctica, prácticas
Desarrollo	10	Development	738	Desarrollo, desarrollos
Organizaciones	14	Organizations	640	Organizacional, organizaciones, organizaciones’
Empresarial	11	Related to companies	591	Empresarial
Sociedad	8	Society	589	Sociedad, sociedades
Ambiente	8	Environment	528	Ambiental, ambiente, ambientes
Gestión	7	Management	514	Gestión
grupos	6	Groups	509	Grupo, grupos
valor	5	Value	503	Valor, valorable, valore, valores
Consumidor	10	Customer	454	Consumidor, consumidores
Procesos	8	Processes	431	Proceso, procesos
Servicios	9	Services	415	Servicio, servicios
Estudio	7	Study	395	Estudio, estudios
Mercado	7	Market	387	Mercado, mercados
Trabajo	7	Work, labor	374	Trabajo, trabajos
Actividades	11	Activities	368	Actividad, actividades
Productos	9	Products	362	Producto, productos
Organización	12	Organization	359	Organización
Negocios	8	Business	353	Negocio, negocios
Información	11	Information	347	Información
Gobierno	8	Government	341	Gobierno, gobiernos
Impacto	7	Impact	341	Impacto, impactos
Nacional	8	National	317	Nacional, naciones
Estrategia	10	Strategy	316	Estrategia, estrategias
Resultados	10	Results	312	Resultado, resultados
Ambientales	11	Related to environment	297	Ambientales
Políticas	9	Policies	297	Política, políticas
Económico	9	Economic	289	Económico, económicos
Indicadores	11	Indicators	289	Indicador, indicadores
Comunidad	9	Community	285	Comunidad, comunidades
Corporate	9	Corporate	299	Bodies, collected, collection, corporate, corporation, corporations, corporative, incorporation, incorpore, material
Acciones	8	Actions	279	Acciones
Público	7	Public	278	Público, públicos
Interés	7	Interests	276	Interés
Cambio	6	Change	272	Cambio, cambios
Recursos	8	Resources	272	Recurso, recursos
Beneficios	10	Benefits	269	Beneficio, beneficios
Diferentes	10	Different	267	Diferente, diferentes
Empleados	9	Employee	265	Empleado, empleados
Sistema	7	System	260	Sistema, sistemas
Universidad	11	University	258	Universidad, universidade, universidades
Proveedores	11	Suppliers	256	Proveedor, proveedores
Riesgos	7	Risks	251	Riesgo, riesgos
Estado	6	State	244	Estado, estados
Corporativa	11	Corporate	241	Corporativa, corporativas
Financieros	11	Financials	241	Financiero, financieros
Concepto	8	Concept	241	Concepto, conceptos

Appendix 2 Frequency of words in the Portuguese texts

Words	Length	Frequency	Synonym	Similar words
Social	6	334	Social	Social, sociales
Empresas	8	315	Companies	Empresa, empresas
Sustentabilidade	16	219	Sustainability	Sustentabilidad, sustentabilidade
Responsabilidade	16	186	Responsibility	Responsabilidad, responsabilidade, responsabilidades
Ambiental	9	161	Related to environment	Ambiental, ambiente
Relatórios	10	139	Reports	Relatório, relatórios
Empresarial	11	104	Related to companies	Empresarial
Desenvolvimento	15	96	Development	Desenvolvimento
Companhias	10	94	Companies	Companhia, companhias
Gestão	6	87	Management	Gestão
Estudo	6	86	Study	Estudo, estudos
Organizações	12	86	Organizations	Organizações
Pesquisa	8	85	Research	Pesquisa, pesquisas
Corporativa	11	84	Corporate	Corporativa, corporativas
Balanço	7	80	Account report	Balanço, balanços
Sociedade	9	75	Society	Sociedad, sociedade, sociedades
Sociais	7	72	Social (plural)	Sociais
Produção	8	66	Production	Produção
Socioambientais	15	57	Socioenvironmental	Socioambientais
Stakeholders	12	57	Stakeholders	Stakeholder, stakeholders
Desempenho	10	52	Performance	Desempenho, desempenhos
Global	6	58	Global	Global, globalization, international, world
Científica	10	50	Scientific	Científica, científicas
Ações	5	48	Actions	Ações
Econômico	9	47	Economics	Econômico, econômicos
Práticas	8	46	Practices	Prática, práticas
Atividades	10	45	Activities	Atividade, atividades
Trabalho	8	44	Work, labor	Trabalho, trabalhos
Indicadores	11	43	Indicators	Indicador, indicadores
Resultados	10	43	Results	Resultado, resultados
Management	10	44	Management	Achieving, direction, directly, management, manager
Negócios	8	40	Business	Negócio, negócios
Objetivo	8	40	Objective	Objetivo, objetivos
Ambientais	10	39	Related to environment (plural)	Ambientais
Reporting	9	47	Reporting	Accountancy, accounting, describe, paper, papers, report, reporting, reports, studies, study, theme
Questões	8	38	Questions	Questões
Divulgação	10	37	Publicity	Divulgação
Sustainability	14	37	Sustainability	Sustainability, sustainable, susten, sustentable
Sustentável	11	37	Sustainable	Sustentável
Universidade	12	37	University	Universidad, universidade, universidades
Marketing	9	36	Marketing	Marketing
Modelo	6	35	Model	Modelo, modelos
Environmental	13	34	Environmental	Environmental, environmentally
Organização	11	34	Organizations	Organização
Estratégias	11	32	Strategies	Estratégia, estratégias
Políticas	9	32	Policies	Política, políticas
Administração	13	30	Administration	Administração
Produtos	8	30	Products	Produto, produtos
Valor	5	30	Value	Valor, valores
Ethos	5	29	Ethos	Ethos

Appendix 3 Frequent words in the English texts

Word	Length	Frequency	Palabras similares
Social	6	849	Social, sociale, sociales, socialism,” socializing, socially, societal
Companies	9	933	Accompanied, accompany, accompanying, companies, companies’, companion, company, fellowship, parties, party, societies, society, society’
Study	5	1009	Analyse, analysed, analyses, analysing, analyze, analyzed, analyzes, analyzing, consider, considered, considering, considers, disciplines, examination, examine, examined, examines, examining, field, fields, learn, learned, learning, reading, report, report’, reported, reporting, reports, studied, studies, study, studying, survey, surveyed, surveys, work’, worked, working, works
Event	5	745	Case’, cases, consequence, consequences, consequently, effect, effective, effectively, effectiveness, effects, event, event’, events, outcome, outcomes, result, resulted, resulting, results
Countries	9	666	Areas, areas’, countries, countries’, country, lands, nation, national, nationalism, nationally, nations, state, stated, states, stating
Development	11	673	Acquire, acquired, acquires, acquiring, arise, arises, arising, breaks, develop, developed, developers, developing, development, developments, develops, educates, education, educational, educators, evolution, evolutions, evolve, evolved, evolving, exploit, exploitable, exploitation, exploitations, exploited, formulate, formulated, formulating, formulation, getting, growing, grows, growth, modern, modernise, modernity, origin, original, originated, originates, originating, origins, prepare, preparing, produce, produced, producer, producers, producers’, produces, producing, rises, rising, underdevelopment
Reporting	9	758	Account, accountability, accountable, accountants, accounting, accounts, composition, cover, coverage, covered, covering, covers, describe, described, describes, describing, paper, papers, report, report’, reported, reporting, reports, reputation
Values	6	568	Appraisal, appreciation, assess, assessed, assesses, assessing, assessment, assessments, evaluate, evaluated, evaluates, evaluating, evaluation, evaluations, measurability, measure, measured, measurement, measures, measuring, prize, rated, rates, rating, ratings, respect, respect,” respected, respective, respectively, valuation, value, value’, valued, values, values’
Business	8	413	Business, businesses, businesses’, clientelism, engage, engaged, engagement, engaging, line’, lines, occupation, occupational, occupy, occupying, patronage
Brand	5	402	Brand, branding, brands, denounced, makes, making, marked, marking, marques, posted, posts, steel
Institutional	13	538	Bring, bringing, brings, constitute, constituted, constitutes, constitution, constitutional, constitutionality, constitutionally, constitutions, constitutive, creation, initial, initially, initiate, initiated, initiates, initiating, initiation, initiative, initiatives, initiator, innovation, innovations, innovative, innovativeness, institute, institutes, institution, institutional, institutionalism, institutionally, institutions, introduction, origin, original, originated, originates, originating, origins, plants
Practices	9	556	Applied, applies, apply, applying, commit, commitment, commitments, commits, committed, committing, execute, executive, executives, exercise, exercised, exercising, experts, feasibility, feasible, feasibly, goods, operate, operates, operating, operation, operational, operations, operative, operator, pattern, patterns, practical, practice, practices, practicing, skills, useful, usefulness, usefulness’, using, viable, virtually
Political	9	544	Civil, civilization, civilized, cultivating, cultivation, cultural, culturally, culture, culture’, cultures, govern, governability, governable, governance, governing, government, governments, governments’, political, politically, politics
Variables	9	345	Uneven, variability, variable, variables, variace, variances, varied, varies, varying
International	13	499	External, externalities, global, global’, globalization, globalization’, globalized, globalizers, globalizing, globally, incorporated, incorporates, incorporating, incorporation, inner, interior, internal, international, internationally, interns, nation, national, nationalism, nationally, nations, outside, outsiders
Information	11	330	Conversations, conversely, inform, informal, information, informational, informative, informe, informed, informes, informs, source, sources, sourcing, witnessed
Different	9	300	Conflict, conflicting, conflicts, deviation, deviations, differ, difference, differences, different, differently, differing, differs, dispute, disputed, disputes, diverge, divergence, divergent, diverging, otherwise, remainder
Research	8	296	Enquiry, exploration, explorations, explore, explored, explores, exploring, inquiry, investigate, investigating, investigation, investigations, research, researched, researchers, researches, researching, search, searched, searches
Management	10	309	Accomplish, accomplished, accomplishment, achieve, achieved, achievement, achievers, achieves, achieving, cared, careful, carefully, cares, caring, contend, contended, contenders, contends, director, directorate, directors, handle, handled, handles, handling, manage, managed, management, manager, managers, managers’, managing, oversee, realize, realized, supervise, supervision
Industry	8	249	Industrial, industrialisation, industrialized, industries, industry, manufacturer, manufacturers, manufacturing
Public	6	404	Advertised, advertisement, advertisements, advertiser, advertisers, advertises, advertising, aires, package, packaging, promote, promoted, promotes, promoting, promotion, promotions, public, publication, publications, publicised, publicity, publicly, world, world’, worlds
Community	9	315	Communal, communicate, communicated, communicating, communication, communications, communicative, communities, communities’, community, nation, national, nationalisation, nationalised, nationalising, nationalism, nationally, nations, passed, passing, transmitting
Mining	6	233	Mines, mining, mining”
Support	7	391	Abiding, accompanied, accompany, accompanying, affirmation, affirms, assist, assistance, assistant, assistants, assisted, assisting, backed, backing, confirm, confirmed, confirming, corroborate, corroborates, corroborating, defend, defended, document, documentation, documented, documents, documents’, encourage, encouraged, encouragement, encourages, encouraging, endorsed, friendly, friends, funding, funds, helped, helpful, helpfulness, helping, helps, holding, holdings, holds, keeps, lived, livelihoods, lives, living, patronage, patrones, protagonist, reinforce, reinforced, reinforces, reinforcing, sponsored, sponsoring, substantial, substantially, suffer, suffered, suffers, support, support’, supported, supporting, supports, sustain, sustainability, sustainable, sustained, sustaining, sustains, tolerance, tolerate, underpinning, underpinnings, underpins
Governance	10	561	Administration, administrations, administrative, administrators, author, authorities, authority, authorization, authors, control, controlled, controls, govern, governability, governable, governance, governing, government, governments, governments’, order, ordered, regime, regimes, regular, regularly, regulate, regulating, regulation, regulations, regulators, ruled, rules, rulings
Environmental	13	217	Environmental, environmentally
Extractive	10	388	Educates, education, educational, educators, express, expressed, expression, extract, extracted, extraction, extractive, origin, original, originated, originates, originating, origins, select, selected, selecting, selection, selective
Ethics	6	232	Ethic, ethical, ethically, ethics, moral, morales, morality
Model	5	281	Example, examples, framework, frameworks, model, modeling, models, pattern, patterns, posed, poses, simulate, simulated, simulates, simulation, sitting
Human	5	269	Human, humane, humanism, humanistic, world, world’, worlds
Market	6	196	Commercial, groceries, market, market’, marketers, marketing, marketplace, markets, markets’, selling
Important	9	303	Consequence, consequences, consequently, crucial, implications, import, important, importantly, importing, imports, moment, moments, significance, significant, significantly
Activities	10	274	Action, action,” actionable, actions, activation, active, actively, activities, activities’, activities,” activity, alive, dynamic, dynamically, dynamics, exciting, fight, fighting, participants, participate, participated, participates, participation, participative, sparked, trigger, triggered
Economic	8	198	Conservation, conservative, econom, economic, economically, economics, husband
Positive	8	341	Advantage, advantages, align, aligning, alignment, attitude, attitudes, confidence, confirm, confirmed, confirming, convinced, convincing, deposits, favor, favorable, favour, favourable, favoured, favouring, officer, perspective, perspectives, posed, poses, position, positioned, positioning, positions, positive, positively, posits, posted, posts, postulated, postulates, postulating, prescribed, profit, profitability, profitable, profits, putting, sided, sides, siding, situate, situated, situates, situation, situation’, situational, situations, spots,” stance, stances, status, stead, viewed, views
Disclosure	10	192	Disclosure, disclosures, reveal, revealed, revealing, reveals, revelations
Initiative	10	378	Acronym, enterprise, enterprises, first, firstly, formation, inauguration, inductive, initial, initially, initiate, initiated, initiates, initiating, initiation, initiative, initiatives, initiator, install, instigating, instigators, knowledge, opened, opening, openly, openness, origin, original, originated, originates, originating, origins, pioneer, pioneering, pioneers, start, started, starting, starts, trigger, triggered
Performance	11	288	acting, execute, executive, executives, function, functional, functioning, functions, operate, operates, operating, operation, operational, operations, operative, operator, perform, performance, ‘performance, performances, performed, performing, played, plays
Quality	7	278	Character, choice, choices, prize, quality, select, selected, selecting, selection, selective, timber
Process	7	390	Action, action,” actionable, actions, advance, advanced, advancement, advances, march, marched, marching, operate, operates, operating, operation, operational, operations, operative, operator, outgrowth, procedure, procedures, process, processes, processing, progress, progressed, progressive, progressively, refinements, rises, rising, serve, served, serves, serving, treat, treated, treating, work’, worked, working, works
Power	5	231	Abilities, ability, baron, electricity, expone, force, forced, forces, index, indexed, indexes, might, officer, power, powered, powerful, powers, right, strong, strongly
Review	6	184	Comments, critique, critiques, inspection, reader, readers, retrospective, retrospectively, review, reviewed, reviewers, reviewing, reviews, revue, revues, survey, surveyed, surveys
Theory	6	198	Hypothesis, possibilities, possibility, possible, possibly, theories, theory
Impact	6	181	Affect, affected, affecting, affective, affects, impact, impacted, impacts, shock, shocks
Several	7	327	Breaks, danger, differentiate, differentiated, differentiates, differentiating, differentiation, distinguish, distinguishing, graves, hardly, hardship, independence, independent, independently, individu, individual, individuals, individuals’, respect, respect,” respected, respective, respectively, rigorous, separate, separated, separately, separation, serious, seriously, several, severe, single, terrible, various, wicks
Products	8	201	Fertile, fruit, fruitful, fruitfulness, generate, generated, generates, generating, generation, generations, intersections, product, production, productive, productivity, products, profit, profitability, profitable, profits, riches
Provide	7	199	Allow, allowed, allowing, allows, cater, catering, leave, leaves, leaving, offer, offered, offering, offers, provide, provided, provides, providing, renders, supplier, suppliers
Considered	10	323	Believe, believed, believes, conceived, consider, considered, considering, considers, count, counted, counting, counts, debate, debated, debates, deliberate, deliberately, deliberation, regard, regarded, regarding, regards, think, thinking, viewed, views, weighs
Relationship	12	148	Relationship, relationships
Policy	6	146	Insurance, policies, policy